For those of you who have seen the Disney and Walden Media movie “Prince Caspian” or for anyone interested in the process of making a feature-length fantasy movie this book is perfect. All 213 pages of this full-sized book are filled with high quality photographs and visuals of the movie and what went into making it.

I especially enjoyed the artistic stills from the movie itself showing the four actors who played the Pevensie children from the first movie, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” reprising their roles as eldest Peter, motherly Susan, sweet Lucy and wild Edmond. The actors are a bit older and taller and each have their own section where they are interviewed about the process of being young actors starring in this movie.

In addition, all the new characters and actors have sections and pictures including Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian and Warwick Davis (some of you might recognize him from his long list of other movies dating all the way back to “Willow” and “Star Wars”) as the dwarf Nikabrik. Again, I can't emphasize enough how beautiful the photography is in this book.

Each page is high quality and glossy and most of the pictures would make amazing posters in and of themselves.

The book also has fantastic descriptions and explanations of each step of the process of making a movie like this including everything from the music to the locations to the special effects. I especially enjoyed seeing and reading about how the filmmakers built an entire castle for one scene.

The details and forethought that goes into making a movie like this is mind-boggling and I know having read this book have definitely increased my enjoyment of watching the magic of the movie itself.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in either the process of movie-making or the movie “Prince Caspian”. A wonderful, beautiful book.

EXCERPT:
The Cast

Family Reunion


Making a full-scale motion picture like Prince Caspian is a journey unto itself -- not only a physical one that took hundreds of filmmakers thousands of miles across two hemispheres, but also a spiritual and emotional voyage for the film's family members.

With mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, and husbands and wives away from home for close to a full year, the film company's 600-plus members bonded closely, sharing in both work and play, to create not only a friendly on-set environment over the lengthy seven-month shoot, but hopefully something greater than the sum of its parts -- something all can hail proudly when the lights go down, the projector flickers, the film unspools, and their collective movie magic enchants audiences the world over.

As production began over a year ago on that mid-February morning in Auckland , there stood Andrew, the lanky director, alongside his Pevensie clan like a proud father with his children, home for the holidays. Even though it had been barely two years since the completion of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, his film family had, indeed, matured, both physically and emotionally. Their patriarch grinned with pride at the progress.

There they were, anticipating their forthcoming experience and joyously reliving the last one -- Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, in the guises of actors William Moseley (now a dashing 20-year-old), Anna Popplewell (a newly minted Oxford freshman), Skandar Keynes (with vocal octaves much deeper at age 15), and Georgie Henley (approaching teenhood, a good six inches taller than we last saw her).

"They've all grown up really well," Andrew beams about his young English cast. "It was nice to see them go back to a really normal life. They were excited about doing this again, and treated it like another adventure. There's change in very positive ways about growing up, but I'd like to say the movie hadn't changed who they are, which I'm really happy about. A lot of that's attributed to their parents. They've all got great parents."

"We're a really tight unit . . . a formidable four, you could say," quips Will, the eldest of the quartet. Adds Anna, "The dynamic among the four of us has pretty much remained constant, which is great. I know we'll all still be friends after the movie finishes."

"Do I feel like the leader of the group?" the handsome, fair-haired Moseley wonders when asked about the professional and personal dynamics of the four Pevensie actors. He responds proudly and without hesitation: "I definitely do!"

"Like I said before, I'm the oldest in my family," he continues, "Anna is the oldest in hers, so she is also kind of the leader. Skandar is the youngest, but wants to be the elder as well. Georgie is the youngest as well. We form a very tight unit. The parallels to our characters are simple -- we're all playing ourselves, drawing on our own lives, to show how similar we are to these characters."

Perry Moore's wonderfully evocative book took us behind the scenes of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, where we first met these four relative unknowns, memorably though Perry's vivid and poetic portraits in each actor's chapter. Let's take a further peek at the lives of the four Pevensies, now older and (one hopes) wiser, as they venture from their own private worlds in England back to a magical landscape that has changed drastically since the first movie -- much like the actors themselves!



Author
Ernie Malik was the unit publicist for both Narnia films and has worked in motion picture marketing for over two decades. Visit www.narnia.com for more information.