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Prince Caspian Press Junket

It’s not every day that you get to meet an Academy Award-winning director and the stars of a summer tent pole movie. Today, I had the privilege–along with a slew of other media–to interview (albeit very briefly) Andrew Adamson, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell and Ben Barnes of the film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. The night before, I brought a friend along to watch an advanced screening of the movie in Time Square, and I’ll be honest I liked it. I liked it a lot. I had missed the first film while it was in theaters because it looked like a Lord of the Rings ripoff, but in my spare time I managed to catch The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe on bootleg while I was in the People’s Republic of China. I am pleased to say that Prince Caspian is a far better film in terms of direction, acting and grandeur. At times, the film has to please the 8-year-old target demographic, but it packed a surprising amount of heartfelt action with also a surprisingly small out of blood and outright gore that so many film resort to now for effect.

At its core, it’s a standard three-act story with standard plot-twists. The key, however, is the excellent execution. The film knows it caters to a younger demographic and never veers into outright cheese but more a tacit acknowledgment. I’m most impressed with Andrew Adamson. His only previous live action film was The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, but you would never know from watch Prince Caspian. He previously directed the Shrek films and won an Oscar for the first film’s incarnation. Before the ogre-movies, he was a visual effects supervisor, and his directing style really shows the amount of care in realism he tries to bring to the numerous CG characters. He knows when to show and reveal information, and most importantly, he has the right sense of timing when it comes to how long moments should linger and how tension should build.

Moving on, I visited Adamson at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel at Columbus Circle today, and spoke to him briefly for CNET TV.  I asked him the standard fare of technology and cinema-related questions, and he surprised me when he said that he thought there was a lack of integration between the production department and the interactive gaming departments in these multimillion dollar films.  While they share computer models and whatnot, the gaming department would sometimes get to scenes before he would.

Anna Popplewell, who played Susan Pevensie in the film, mentioned how much fun it was to make all the sound effects for the videogame coming out for the film.  William Moseley (Peter Pevensie) loves Grand Theft Auto IV.  And finally Ben Barnes, who plays the title character of Prince Caspian, says he only gets a big head when he sees the giant looming billboards featuring his mug around town.  All in all, they were a down to earth cast and clearly tired after an exhausting three day press junket.

Check back later for my CNET TV package and possibly the full interviews.  No guarantees.  In the meantime, enjoy the trailer.

© 2008 wilson g. tang. all rights reserved.