The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Short description
The Pevensie siblings are pulled back into Narnia a year after their first visit, only to find that more than a thousand years have passed there. The kingdom they once ruled has fallen: the Telmarines have conquered it, the old stories of talking animals and mythical creatures have faded into folklore, and the ruthless King Miraz holds the throne. The four children are summoned by Prince Caspian, Miraz's nephew and the rightful heir, who has fled for his life because his uncle wants him dead so his own newborn son can inherit. With the prince and a band of surviving Narnians, the Pevensies set out to challenge Miraz and restore Narnia's old order, aided by figures including the dwarf Trumpkin and, eventually, Aslan.
Andrew Adamson directs, as he did the previous chapter, working from a screenplay he wrote with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. It is the fifth film he directed and the second in the series, following The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley and Anna Popplewell return as the siblings, with Ben Barnes as Caspian and Peter Dinklage as Trumpkin among a credited cast of 51.
Released in May 2008, the film had a budget of 225 million dollars and took about 420 million dollars worldwide, a return that fell short of its cost relative to the first instalment. It holds a 6.5 rating on IMDb from around 239,000 votes and a 6.6 on TMDB from roughly 7,000 votes, broadly in line with the critics' rating of 6.4 from 188 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- The Barrandov Studios in Prague, where the main sets for 'Prince Caspian' were built, has in recent years become a popular location for filming Hollywood movies such as 'Casino Royale' and 'The Bourne Identity'.
- Cornell John, who played the centaur Glenstorm, had to master spring stilts, which were later transformed into horse legs using computer graphics.
- Richard Taylor from the New Zealand Weta Workshop designed nearly 600 pieces of weaponry for the defenders of Narnia and the Telmarine warriors. This number includes 200 halberds and spears, 200 rapiers, 100 swords, 250 shields, and 55 crossbows. Taylor also designed soft shields and special harnesses for use in key battle scenes involving horses.
- Throughout the filming of 'Prince Caspian,' 1,100 lunches were prepared daily for the actors and crew. The total number of lunches prepared during filming was 200,000.
- Director Andrew Adamson searched for over a year for the right actor for the role of Prince Caspian, and he found 26-year-old British actor Ben Barnes just 3 weeks before filming began.
- Actor Warwick Davis spent three and a half hours each day applying makeup to transform into the black dwarf Nikabrik.
- The total number of wardrobe items sewn for the lead actors: 1042.
- The London Underground station from which the Pevensie children begin their journey in 'Prince Caspian' is not actually in London. Ford built realistic sets of the London Underground at the Henderson Studios, in northern New Zealand.
- In the book, Caspian is 13 years old, in the film he is 17, and the actor who played Caspian was 26 years old.
- Makeup artist Howard Berger worked with a team of 50 makeup artists and conducted 4,600 individual makeup sessions during filming.
- The number of continents that director Andrew Adamson visited when choosing locations for filming is 5. The main filming locations are New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Poland.
- The film is based on C.S. Lewis's novel "Prince Caspian" (Prince Caspian: The return to Narnia, 1951).
- 70 people worked on the costumes. The actors and crew of “Prince Caspian” came from 15 different countries, including the Czech Republic, New Zealand, the USA, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Mexico, Italy, and France.
- Warwick Davis is the only actor to have played in two versions of 'The Chronicles of Narnia' adaptations. In 'Prince Caspian' he plays the black dwarf Nikabrik, and in the 1989 BBC television adaptation of 'Prince Caspian,' he played the valiant mouse Reepicheep. In the new film 'The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,' Reepicheep is entirely created using computer graphics.
- The total number of wardrobe items, including helmets, masks, footwear, and gloves, made for King Miraz, his lords, and the warriors of the Telmarine army – 3722.
- The production designer for 'Prince Caspian', Roger Ford, has been working in film for over forty years, but the sets for King Miraz’s castle, built at the Barrandov Studios, are the largest he has ever constructed. The castle sets covered 1858 square meters, and its appearance was partially based on images of the French castle of Pierrefonds, located near Paris. 200 carpenters, plasterers, and painters spent 15 weeks building this castle. In the final version of the scenes with the castle, computer graphics specialists tripled the size of the image. The wooden bridge where one of the final battle scenes of 'Prince Caspian' unfolds was built on the Soča River, in the resort town of Bovec, Slovenia. 20 engineers and builders participated in the construction of the bridge, working on it for an entire month. Roger Ford, when designing the bridge, was based on drawings of the bridge that Julius Caesar built across the Rhine during the war with the Germans. To realize Ford's plan, engineers temporarily changed the course of the Soča River.
- The number of metal rings used to create one chainmail for a Telmarine warrior – 2184. A total of 850,000 such rings were used.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
