001.jpg
023.jpg
001.jpg
001.jpg
001.jpg
002.jpg

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

• Director: Andrew Adamson
• Writers: Andrew Adamson, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely & C.S. Lewis (novel)
• Release Date: 16 May 2008 (USA)
• MPAA Rating: PG for epic battle action and violence.
• Parents Guide: View content advisory for parents
• Genre: Action | Adventure | Family | Fantasy
• Runtime: 150 min

The four Pevensie children return to Narnia, only to discover that hundreds of years have passed since they ruled there, and the evil King Miraz has taken charge. With the help of a heroic mouse called Reepicheep, and the exiled heir to the throne, Prince Caspian, they set out to overthrow the King, once again with Aslan’s help.

From the Gallery

Cast Highlights

• Georgie Henley … Lucy Pevensie
• Skandar Keynes … Edmund Pevensie
• William Moseley … Peter Pevensie
• Anna Popplewell … Susan Pevensie
• Peter Dinklage … Trumpkin
• Warwick Davis … Nikabrik
• Eddie Izzard … Reepicheep (voice)
• Liam Neeson … Aslan (voice)
• Tilda Swinton … The White Witch

Watch The Trailer

Trivia

  • Actor Warwick Davis (Nikabrik) appeared in the older BBC versions of this tale and its companions. He portrayed Reepicheep in Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Glimfeather in The Silver Chair.
  • During filming, Georgie Henley (Lucy) lost two baby teeth. A bridge had to be created to fill in the gaps.
  • According to Skandar Keynes, for one shot where he had to slide off a roof he had a $500,000 camera strapped to his legs, as they couldn’t get any stunt men the same size as Skandar to shoot the shot.
  • The code name for this film was “Toastie”. This is a reference to the toasted sandwiches which were a favorite snack of the cast and crew during filming of this film and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
  • Nikabrik in this film is a descendant of Ginaarbrik from the previous film, and wears the family ring. This detail is not in the C.S. Lewis writings; it is a retcon by the filmmakers. They named Ginaarbrik (who had simply been “the Dwarf” in the book) and gave him the familial connection, after noting the similarities between the two dwarrow from different time periods.
  • During the storming of Miraz’s castle, Reepicheep’s mice find the royal cat asleep. They tie him up in the same way that Aslan was tied in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The mice gnawed through Aslan’s ropes in that story, and Aslan granted their species the power of speech in honor of their devotion on that day.
  • The closing credits are twelve minutes long.
  • 8 months were spent scouting locations, including Ireland, China and Argentina. Although parts of the film were made in New Zealand like its predecessor, the majority of shooting took place in Czech, Slovenia and Poland because of the larger sets available. The stone prop was flown from New Zealand to Barrandov Studios in Prague, Czech. In a remote Slovenian location, everyone had to be checked for ticks on a regular basis, since infestations in the cast and crew’s hair were common. Because of tax credits, post-production was based in the UK. to qualify the movie as a British film.
  • Miraz’s courtyard is the largest set that production designer Roger Ford had made at that point in his career.
  • The film contains over 1500 special effects shots, more than its predecessor’s 800 effects shots.
  • When he was cast, Ben Barnes was set to tour as Dakin with the Royal National Theatre’s production of “The History Boys”. Barnes left England without telling the Theatre. They considered suing him for breach of contract but then decided against it. To get into character, Barnes wore hair extensions and shaved twice a day. He patterned Caspian’s “Spanish” accent on Mandy Patinkin’s Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride.
  • Peter Dinklage’s prosthetics took 3 hours to apply. On his first day of filming, he also had to contend with being bitten by sand flies and falling into a river. Producer Mark Johnson joked that they were lucky that Dinklage returned after his first day.
  • Over 100 actors auditioned for the voice of Reepicheep before Eddie Izzard was cast. He based his performance on Errol Flynn.
  • The role of Aslan, the most famous Narnian character, is considerably smaller in the film than it is in the book. Nearly 95% of the movie goes by without him.
  • C.S. Lewis’ stepson and heir Douglas Gresham was co-producer on this film and its predecessor.
  • The model-making department made approximately 2500 replica pieces of treasure.
  • The Baruna Bridge location was the strikingly beautiful Soca river in the Slovenian mountains. After 9 months of negotiating red tape, the production were allowed to temporarily divert the flow of the river whilst they built the bridge. The authorities had already been considering this themselves due a landslide the previous year, which had harmed the flow. Once it had been completed the river was rerouted back to its original flow. 100 trees had been specially planted to tie in with the description of the location in the book.
  • Anna Popplewell had to absent herself from several days filming to complete her school exams.
  • When the film pulled in less than expected at the box-office, Disney declined co-production on the rest of the series. Which is why the next film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is co-produced by Walden Media and a new creative partner, 20th Century Fox.
  • Anna Popplewell was disappointed that Susan didn’t get to use her bow much in the first film. Which is why she uses it so often in this one.
  • Work on the script began before The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was released, with a projected release date of 2007. However, the producers’ many concerns regarding the novel Prince Caspian (2nd Narnia book written, 4th in retroactive “chronological” order) caused delays. At one point they considered skipping Prince Caspian and moving on to the next book in the series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Possibly because Caspian is more talky and less action-oriented then the high adventure of Dawn Treader or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. But leaving out Prince Caspian’s book would have robbed him of his proper introduction, and his presence on the Dawn Treader would make no sense to an audience. A repeat of the late 1980s BBC television strategy was considered, wherein Prince Caspian and Dawn Treader would be shown as two segments of the same feature film. Director Andrew Adamson found a way to have the film stand on its own by adding a grand scale castle to the storyline, to make the film more epic and action oriented, whereas the book’s corresponding scene is only a few paragraphs long. In hindsight, Adamson regretted the decision to make this second trip to Narnia bigger and more overblown than the first.
  • Susan is browsing the magazine cart at the beginning of the London scene. What she is reading is the Dec 9 1939 issue of Picture Post. The Land Girl featured on the front cover is part of a civilian war effort group known as the WLA, Women’s Land Army. It was started during WW1 to replace the men on the farms and in the factories in both the UK and USA.
  • In the beginning of the movie, when the four kids go to Narnia, they are in the Strand subway station. In German, “strand” means “beach”. When they arrive in Narnia, they arrive on a beach.
  • “Aslan” means “lion” in Turkish.
  • Although C.S. Lewis wrote “Prince Caspian” second, it is actually the fourth book of “The Chronicles of Narnia.”
  • When Prince Caspian is walking through the forest and meets Reepicheep, the forest floor is covered with ferns. The filmmakers found a forest exactly like it in Poland, but discovered that it was cheaper to bring fake trees and 5,000 potted ferns into a studio than to bring all of the equipment to Poland and get permission to shoot there. They also later found out that the forest floor in Poland was filled with brambles.
  • Tilda Swinton, as well as playing The White Witch, also makes a short cameo as a centaur.
  • Harry Gregson-Williams: the film’s composer, as voice of Pattertwig the Squirrel.
  • A romantic subplot between Anna Popplewell’s character and Ben Barnes’ Prince Caspian was in an early draft of the script but was mostly dropped. In the book they don’t even meet until the very end of the story.