Andrew Adamson on 'The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian'

Now New Zealand director Andrew Adamson has wrapped 'The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian', his second CS Lewis adaptation, he's ready for something 'small and free', he tells Wally Hammond

The Disney publicity machine has been traversing the world for its global summer release of the second Narnia instalment – ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ – and Adam Adamson has been globetrotting right along with it. ‘We’ve been everywhere – from New York, to London, to Japan and beyond and back again’, the 42-year-old director tells me. ‘It sounds very exotic, doesn’t it? But you get a few nice meals, and that’s about it.’

He’s touched down in London to discuss the sequel to ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ – the $800 million-grossing first instalment of CS Lewis’s enchanting series of children’s stories – for the umpteenth time. But, laudably, he shows no loss of enthusiasm for discussing the project.

Adamson is candid about the problems inherent in adapting the darker second instalment. ‘Tonally, there’s a difference from the first, which was all about spring and rebirth. The second is more of an oppressed, older world.

‘The book of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” was very cinematic in its structure, with five acts, which can be converted to three acts pretty easily. Whereas "Prince Caspian" is a very meandering kind of book.’

Both books feature all four Pevensie children – oldest and boldest Peter (William Moseley), responsible Susan (Anna Popplewell), younger brother Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and cute little Lucy (Georgie Henley) – so once it became clear that ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ was a success, it made sense to make the sequel quickly afterwards.

‘Obviously, we wanted to make “Prince Caspian” before the kids all got too old,’ the director points out. ‘Likewise, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, the next one in the series, involves the two younger children. So there’s a need to make those three films within a certain period of time. You don’t want a 21-year-old running around in a pair of shorts.’

One of the things that appealed about the first film was its old-fashioned charm. With its optimism, bold colours, battles and St George crosses, it has something of Olivier’s ‘Henry V’ about it, retold as a children’s myth. Adamson laughs: ‘Well, right, I did want that film to have a very traditional feel to it. CS Lewis’s books were obviously written over 50 years ago and set in World War II. That’s one of the first things I said when I first sat down in a meeting with Walden Media (the film’s co-producer, a production company with educational aims). Because I expected that they might want me to contemporise. But I said, no, I wanted to stay very true to the books.’

Many have criticised the involvement of the film’s co-producer, Walden, for its alleged ambition to evangelise a Christian message in the films, but Adamson downplays their function as Christian allegory.

‘I’ve thought about it a lot’, he says. ‘There are obviously spiritual implications. And CS Lewis wrote them from the point of view of his own Christian beliefs. But he wrote them not intending to be allegorical, and hated it when anybody referred to them as allegory. And that’s one of the reasons I don’t.

‘For me, they are first and foremost a part of my own childhood. Secondly, I think of them as classic literature. And that gives me a responsibility to respect the books as ones that have lasted over several generations. CS Lewis was a mythologist and each story has some of these human truths that come through. The other aspect is, I think these stories are very empowering for children. That first book was so captivating, in the idea that you could step through the wardrobe and you could become a king or queen. That’s such an empowering thought for a kid that’s always been told what to do. And that’s one of the reasons that idea has held on and has been present in a lot of fantasies that have been written since then.’

The more sombre mood of ‘Prince Caspian’ is hard to describe. The Pevensie children, having spent 15 years ruling Narnia find it hard to adjust to their life as disempowered wartime children. Yet, hungry as they are to return to their beloved Narnia, once there, they find a shattered idyll.

Adamson agrees: ‘They’re only a year older, but they’ re different in many ways: they’ve had power, they’ve been bloodied, as it were. So the tone of the film reflects that. When I re-read the book I tried to capture the heart of it. For me, it was a lot about that nostalgia about not being able to go back to your youth. And having to accept that and move on.’

This will be Adamson’s last Narnia film as director – although he will stay on in a producer role. ‘But never say never. I’ve always said that if “The Magician’s Nephew” does come around I may be tempted. But at the same time there are other things I want to accomplish other than just “Shrek” and “Narnia”. Mainly I want to do something quite small and free. Basically, I just want to do something that doesn’t have the weight of the Titanic behind it.’

‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ opens on June 26.

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