While Mel Gibson doesn't have another religious epic in the offing, that does not mean there won't be a lot of God in the movies during the next several months. The two marquee releases already are generating polar opposite reactions from faith communities. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is garnering street-level support along the lines of Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, which attracted churches to buy tickets en masse and fueled seminars and Sunday school series. [More]

Today is Kiran Shah's birthday! Kiran was born on September 28th, 1956 in Nairobi, Kenya in 1956. That makes him 49 years old today! Happy Birthday Kiran!

New to DVD today is Jim Broadbent's animated film 'Robots'. Jim voices Madame Gasket. Take a look! [More]

Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, an ice rink, a giant ice chandelier, ice carvings and indoor snow falls will feature in the lavish world premiere of Kiwi director Andrew Adamson's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Details about the premiere, to be held in London's Royal Albert Hall on December 7, were unveiled by the film's backers Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media. Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, will attend, and a white carpet will replace the traditional red carpet in keeping with the theme of a 100-year winter from C S Lewis' book for children. [More]

From the cloistered world of Oxford they created two of the best-loved fantasy realms in English literature which themselves inspired blockbuster movies. CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien were the closest of friends, one struggling to make his fantasy world of Middle Earth a literary reality, the other trying to convince friends his first book about Narnia deserved to be published. But new research has revealed that their friendship was riven by the most bitter and personal of rows on everything from literature to religion and even their choice of spouse. The fascinating revelations about their real relationship have been made by film-maker Norman Stone while researching a new drama-documentary on the life of Lewis. Stone, who made the award-winning movie about Lewis, Shadowlands, talked to mutual friends of the literary pair as well as examining documents in minute detail. [More]

Weta Productions, a sister company of Lord of the Rings and King Kong special effects shop Weta Digital, has spent several hundred thousand dollars setting up its own IT infrastructure to create animated TV series Jane and the Dragon. Though not on the scale of Weta Digital's infrastructure of more than 1000 IBM blade servers, Weta Productions has also turned to IBM for its hardware. It has bought 50 blade servers, each configured with two 3GHz Intel processors and 2 gigabytes of memory, 50 IBM workstations and four terabytes of high-speed disk storage, also supplied by IBM. [More]

Celebriel reports that the Ian Brodie's new book, Cameras in Narnia, is now available for pre-order at his website & Amazon.com. (Ian is director of the New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum in Wanaka.) The site notes "Ian Brodie has been on set and on location throughout its production, and has documented the making of the film from behind the cameras, with interviews with the director and key crew members. Using this movie as a specific example, he explains in layman's terms the magical process of turning a much-loved classic of children's literature into a blockbuster movie."

The book's release date is November 10, 2005, so it should arrive in plenty of time to read before the film's opening in December. The advantage of ordering direct from Ian's website is that all copies will be personally autographed! Lord of the Rings fans will be familiar with Ian's outstanding Lord of the Rings Location Guide, essential for New Zealand visitors to Rings locations. This looks like a terrific followup. [Pre-Order 'Cameras in Narnia' on Amazon.com today!]

LONDON (Hollywood Reporter) - The world premiere of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" will take place at London's Royal Albert Hall on December 7 with Britain's Prince Charles and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, in attendance, organizers said Thursday. Shot in New Zealand, the cast of the Walden Media/Disney film includes Tilda Swinton, Liam Neeson, James McAvoy, Rupert Everett, Jim Broadbent, Ray Winstone and Dawn French. New Zealander Andrew Adamson directed. Access to royal film premieres is normally restricted to invited guests and charity donors but for this event a "large numbers of affordable seats" will be offered for sale to the public, said organizers. [More]