Interview with Mark Johnson

Infuze Magazine has interviewed producer Mark Johnson about his upcoming films, including Prince Caspian. Read the full interview here (free sign-up required). Thanks to Aslan’s Homeboy for the heads up!

Infuze Magazine: What can you tell us about the upcoming Prince Caspian movie?

Johnson: Well, we’re not even shooting yet. We start shooting shortly after the first of the year. February actually. We have moved the movie and it is now being released in the summer of 2008.

Working with Andrew Adamson again?

Yes.

How is this process differing from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe?

You know, it’s an interesting challenge. Many of the elements from the first film will be involved in Price Caspian, but it’s also an original story on its own. Some of the characters from the last one will be back in the new movie and some of them will not repeat.

The children are coming back for this film…

Yes, all four of the Pevensie children are coming back.

Is that a challenge since they are obviously growing up?

Yes, but we are very lucky because C.S. Lewis created a distance between The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and Prince Caspian. The children are meant to be a year older. So what ends up happening is that we, as the film, are allowed to cheat a bit because the children aren’t supposed to look the same.

What about these books? Have you read them?

Yes, definitely!

Did you read them as a kid?

Yes, but I don’t think I read all of them. Honestly I can’t remember why I didn’t’ read them all. But I definitely read The Magician’s Nephew and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. I also know that I read The Voyage of The Dawn Treader. That’s the one we are doing third. Actually, I should say that if we do a third one, that will be the one we choose to do.

What do you think it is about the Narnia series that made the film so successful?

I think Lewis did a masterful job of creating the world of Narnia. It’s a world of all of us would like to visit. It’s a world in which our heroes were really disempowered or unempowered children. All of a sudden, their father is away at WWII and they are lost and they find themselves in a magical world in which they are required to save it. It’s just a fantastic place and yet the heroes are just like us.