The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)
Die Chroniken von Narnia - Prinz Kaspian von Narnia
Interview with Mark Johnson
Mark Johnson
As one of the industry's most accomplished producers Mark Johnson returns to the world of Narnia following the global box-office hit The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe which earned over $745 million in its worldwide theatrical release and collected numerous awards. Johnson is no stranger to the podium at the Academy Awards® - he won the Best Picture honor for Barry Levinson's poignant drama Rain Man. Before commencing his career in feature films, he earned his undergraduate degree in drama from the University of Virginia and his M.A. in Film Scholarship from the University of Iowa.
OutNow.CH (ON): For the first time we have two Italians as the bad guys, of course you had Berlusconi in this vision of Italy but why?
Mark Johnson (MJ): First of all my favourite film of all times is The Conformist. But what was interesting, in talking to Sergio and Pierfrancesco they said that they had two or three films together in which Sergio slashed Pierfrancesco and we didn’t even know that they had done it before. I don’t know if you have already talked to Andrew Adamson but he wanted to make the Telmars a Mediterranean race, not necessarily Italian, not necessarily Spanish or Portuguese, but the idea of pirates, or that they came from a pirate background like C.S. Lewis had said he wanted to keep. And he wanted to make them different from the British cast also because he was bored by the very pasty way the British look and he comes from New Zealand where it’s the same thing because of the sun. He just liked the idea of having this different culture and so we looked at actors we looked at Spanish actors, Italian actors, even when we looked for Prince Caspian, we wanted an actor from Spain or Argentina or Mexico before we ended up with Ben Barnes which was a long process which was by coincidence and you know the third important bad guy is from Mexico so...
ON: And what about this movie, how do you envision the franchise? Cause it’s very unusual, some characters are old, some other return, some don’t...
MJ: It is different. You know, as C.S. Lewis wrote these books they were all connected but in some cases they are just barely connected because unlike Harry Potter or some of the other franchises the characters come and go. Like the four Pevensie kids are in The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe, they are again in Caspian but the two older ones now disappear the two younger ones along with prince Caspian go on to the third which is the Voyage of the Dawn Treader then those two younger ones disappear and a new character which is their cousin is introduced in that one and is basically the lead. The only character which repeats in all seven is Aslaan the lion. So for me The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is more of a lyrical film, Prince Caspian is more of an action film I guess and the next one is more of an adventure film that takes place on a boat, they go from island to island and the kids have different adventures with the different characters there.
ON: How many more are there going to come?
MJ: I should say seven but some of the books are harder to do than others and it also has to do with the success, both the critical and the financial success of the film, you know if they start to dwindle.... I mean, I’d like to find a way to do all of them but.... Let’s see what happens...
ON: But first you do the ones with the Pevensies?
MJ: That’s right, because once we started with The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe, which is the best known of the seven books, we had to continue with Prince Caspian because otherwise we would have had to recast because the actors would have been too old. Cause for me, one of my favourite of all the books is the magician’s nephew but there, I don’t know when we will get there, it might be the fifth one,
ON: It’s very much genesis?
MJ: Yeah
ON: Narnia hasn’t become only a successful franchise but also a brand. We see from the producer and also the media was based on this. What does it mean for you to build a brand?
MJ: You know, I’ve never done anything like this before; I produced family films like My Dog Skip or The Rookie. I like doing films for the family, I like the challenge of it ‘cause I think that in many ways a young audience is both critical and we don’t give them enough credits. But I did, to be honest, The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe because I had never done a film like this and I had seen Harry Potter or Lord of The Rings and I wanted to see how it works. How do you do this movie, and then a second and a third with the shooting done in New Zealand and the video effects done here and how do you keep it all together. I really have to thank Andrew Adamson cause I fell in love with Narnia and when The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe came out and everybody was like we’re going to wait what happens and then it was such a success and suddenly the studios where asking, wait, where is the second one and up to there they hadn’t said anything. One night late I had a phone call from Andrew, he didn’t even introduce himself and he was like “Do you really want to do another one of these?" Because we were really exhausted and yet the idea for him of somebody else directing, directing his “children", wasn’t acceptable. But in his particular case, he is directing since 11, 12 years now, he wrote and directed Shrek, and Shrek 2, and Narnia 1 and I think he will take some time off and do some adult films. I just think it would be smart for him to do a film like Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind. But Narnia is very important to me, I feel very protective about it and there are themes which I find very important in a general sense. It’s difficult to say if I’m going to do all seven but right now it’s a world which I have a lot of affection for and it’s the only thing that I’m doing.
ON: Would you continue and use the Pevensies for a spin-off for example?
MJ: I hadn’t thought of that, I think it’s hard because the audience’s respect for the C.S.Lewis books and the fact of doing a film not based on Lewis material but with Lewis’ characters wouldn’t be accepted.
ON: But they did that with James Bond for example?
MJ: That’s right, but I guess right now the spin-offs will continue to be the Narnia books. We talked to all the actors and the Pevensies really do feel like a family; their respond to one another. When we were doing The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe Georgie was asked early on from a reporter, about her family and she said she was so close, well the fact that her brothers and sister were half way around the world, she said that in fact she felt closer to her film family than to her real family and her mother was quite upset about it. For a couple of reasons it was reality but she didn’t want to find her sisters reading about it and from what I understand they really have become a family.
ON: How do you like this statement? Were you fond of it?
MJ: On one hand you say oh isn’t that good for the film that they feel so close but on the other hand you have to say as a parent, oh I’m not sure of that. And it’s a great responsibility, I mean you come to New Zealand and that’s on the other side of the world for them and obviously they are there cause they want to be there. But it’s a huge impact. I actually talked to Georgie’s mother last night and she told me that it turned out to be a good thing because her middle daughter became much closer to her father which before The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe had something of a distant relation.
ON: But it has an impact on the family?
MJ: Oh, sure, and you’re making films of a strong family so you may also be putting strain on the family.
ON: Isn’t that also part of the reason why movies are successful because what we see is part of something what we don’t see and what works well?
MJ: No, I think it’s true, somebody asked me what my hardest job on the film was and you know it’s not about coordinating the stunts or about the details, you have to look after the actors and that they are true to themselves and to the story. Because otherwise....You know there are a lot of fantasy films that have the looks but I think that they don’t have the heart which you need to succeed. You need to know that your characters are connecting.
ON: Because sometimes when the marketing is over, there’s something that they call the shelf life, I mean Narnia, there’s a long shelf life it’s not like some movies that are forgotten after a very short time. So what is it about movies that have a heart and make money at the same time?
MJ: Well all you can do is to do it as well as you can and make a film that pleases you because if you’re just going to do movies where you think that they are going to be a big profit then.... You know there are a lot of films that I’ve done which I think are great films but they haven’t necessarily done well for whatever reasons. So it’s hard to explain but I did know that with The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe I felt confident because it worked so strong for me that it would work for a general audience. I didn’t know it would be so embraced all over the world but....
ON: What’s the point additional media will play in the case of Narnia? Computer games etc.
MJ: It’s hard to tell because I don’t really know. Part of producing this film, sometimes I joke that the making of a movie is only a part of my job and the other piece is coordinating all the different departments that come in from the toy department to the games department, the marketing team. On the first film in particular we had all kinds of things, like McDonalds and the little toys within the happy meals. You know all of that you had to approve so I had to be careful and warn myself that I was actually still producing movies.
ON: But isn’t that also something, I mean the fact that you’re in independent producing, something that keeps you grounded?
MJ: I hope so. I hope that as a film goer I like the big spectacular Hollywood film but I also like the small sort of obscure independent on. And I hope that I bring this kind of sensibility also to Narnia, so that there’s something new and unexpected.
ON: The next film will be with a new director. Can you tell us, will that be exciting or did you even choose him?
MJ: When Andrew decided he wasn’t going to direct it well obviously I asked who will? Well who are the most obvious people and I think, I always was such a big fan of Michael Apted, well I never worked with him but I think that he is particularly good for Voyage of the Dawn Treader because he’s such an actors director and that film is very much performance based. And I’m very excited about what he has done so far and how he’s approaching the script. And it’s gonna be something completely different from what Andrew did.
ON: When do you think you will start shooting and when will be the release?
MJ: Well we want to start shooting by the end of the year. The release as it’s been announced by Disney is May 2010, we will see what happens because on one hand it seems like it’s a long time to go and on the other hand it seems just round the corner. These films are so hard and they take such a long time to put together. For this one we needed close to a year for post production. Some of the effects were even delivered just a week before the film opened in the US.
ON: So when is the period that is off-time for you in this whole procedure?
MJ: Well there really isn’t because while we were finishing Prince Caspian I was preparing Dawn Treader, so I keep thinking when is the obvious time of taking a vacation, but there isn’t.
ON: Do you envision 3D movie for Narnia?
MJ: You know, I’ve seen some 3D movies recently and it seems to be more of a gimmick, in the sense that they haven’t used it specifically. But I think it would be a good thing, for some of the stories certainly. We would need to find a way to approach it so that it is somehow integral to the story. The Walden has a movie coming out this summer which is called Journey to the Center of the Earth and it’s in 3D, so I’m curious to see that...
