The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. One of the most beloved fantasy adventures of the 20th century and a timeless tale of sheer imagination at last comes to life with this stunningly realistic, painstakingly authentic adaptation of C.S. Lewis' masterpiece. Years in the making, this is the first-ever big-screen adaptation of the powerful classic that has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide.
The story, in which four young adventurers are playing hide-and-seek in the country home of an old professor, there they stumble upon an enchanted wardrobe that will take them places they never dreamed. Stepping through the wardrobe door, they are whisked out of World War II London into the spectacular parallel universe known as Narnia; a fairy-tale realm of magical proportions where woodland animals talk and mythological creatures roam the hills. But Narnia has fallen under the icy spell of a mad sorceress and is cursed to suffer through a winter that never ends by the White Witch Jadis. Now, aided by Narnia's rightful leader, the wise and mystical lion Aslan, the four Pevensie children will discover their own strength and lead Narnia into a spectacular battle to be free of the Witch's glacial enslavement forever. Touching on eternal themes of good and evil, and of the power of family, courage and hope in the darkest moments, THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE is a classic fable for all times.
Meticulously created by director Andrew Adamson to match C.S. Lewis' own vision of Narnia, THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE marks the live-action debut of New Zealander Adamson, who came to fore bringing worldwide audiences the loveable green ogre at the heart of the Oscar-winning Shrek and Shrek 2. Adamson carries to the film a passion for Lewis' story that began in his own childhood. One that now meets up with extraordinary advances in motion picture technology. The vast scope of the director's vision of Narnia is brought to life through a mixture of moving human performances and cutting-edge, photo-realistic techniques in CGI, animation and prosthetic makeup that turn the wildly creative worlds and characters Lewis forged into something heart-stoppingly close to reality.
Says Adamson: "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe has taken millions of young minds into realms of fantasy, so the enormous challenge as a filmmaker was to try to recreate those worlds in a way that might live up to and even exceed people's imaginations, that could truly transport you to another time and place. You couldn't have made this film five years ago. You couldn't have made a photo-realistic lion like Aslan five years ago, or joined animal legs unto a human body realistically as we did with centaurs and minotaurs five years ago. Now is the right time to be making this story."
In forging Lewis' vast fantasy world, Adamson collaborated with a creative team that includes Oscar-nominated cinematographer Donald M. McAlpine, ASC, ACS, Oscar- nominated production designer Roger Ford, costume designer Isis Mussenden, editors Sim Evan-Jones and Jim May and composer Harry Gregson-Williams. The story's eye-popping gallery of creatures was created under the supervision of visual effects supervisor Dean Wright ("The Lord of the Rings") working with award-winning visual effects teams from three of the most highly esteemed facilities in the industry: Rhythm & Hues, Sony Imageworks and ILM. The film's creative team further includes four-time Academy Award winning visualist Richard Taylor and the wizards from his WETA Workshop. Taylor's team joined with veteran movie makeup magicians Howard Berger and Gregory Nicotero, whose award-winning K.N.B. EFX Group manufactured hundreds of special makeup prosthetics to bring the myriad Narnian creatures to life.