cool

[acroyear]

Fantasy film series' entering their next batch...

Warner Bros announced on Thursday that filming will begin next week of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" with Daniel Radcliffe,Emma Watson and Rupert Grint reprising their roles as teenage wizards.

Britain's David Yates is making his debut as a Potter director and among the new faces in the cast will be "Vera Drake" star Imelda Staunton [*excellent...*] as the new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School.

...and...

A sequel to the wildly successful movie "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe" is set to begin production later this year, with Andrew Adamson returning as director.

The film's backers, Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, are eyeing a Christmas 2007 release for "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian."

New Zealander Adamson also will serve as a producer and co-writer, collaborating with returning scribes Christopher Markus and Steve McFeeley. A screenplay is not yet written. The first film's principal cast will also be back.

...

Adamson also is on board DreamWorks' "Shrek 3," the computer-animated franchise on which he got his start as a feature film director. Adamson will executive produce "Shrek 3," and he has been involved with developing the story and will supervise voice talent recording sessions.

Comments

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It's a pity they didn't have the faith to start filming Prince Caspian ASAP - although fortunately, time has gone by in the world of the books, so it won't matter that the principle cast is all 2 years older.

[greendalek.livejournal.com]

Ah well. I was really hoping Carrie Fisher would be cast as Madame Uxbridge (she once said in an interview that she adored the Potter books and would LOVE playing that role), but Imelda Staunton will certainly do justice to the part.

[motherwell.livejournal.com]

How many Narnia movies can they make before the franchise runs out of creative energy? The fourth "Star Wars" movie was the beginning of the end for that one, IMHO, so the prospect of SEVEN Narnia movies looks kinda scary. LOTR was fantastic from start to finish, but we may be approaching the saturation point for big-budget fantasy flicks.

[scaleslea.livejournal.com]

It could be worse... They could be doing Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series as movies.

Doc

[motherwell.livejournal.com]

Never heard of that series. Am I blessed or cursed? :-)

[scaleslea.livejournal.com]

Latest volume is book number 11. It is expected to run to at LEAST 13 volumes.

Doc