I am a huge fan of The Chronicles of Narnia both as books and on film (see proof here and here). On the official Narnia site they just announced a contest to name a character in the upcoming film adaptation of The Silver Chair. This is the film I had wanted to be next, there was a time when The Magician’s Nephew was slated to be next but that fell through.

The reason this contest is actually something that makes sense cinematically is well-explained on the site:

The Lady of the Green Kirtle, also called Queen of Underland and Queen of the Deep Realm, is the main antagonist in The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis. She is sometimes called briefly the Green Lady (an analogy with Jadis, the White Lady), and she is known also as the Emerald Witch; none of these names, however, appear in Lewis’s text. She enslaved Prince Rilian of Narnia and a horde of gnomes by her witchcraft, and plans to use them to take over Narnia. She is foiled by three friends of Aslan: Eustace Scrubb, Jill Pole, and Puddleglum.

We are inviting Narnia lovers everywhere to take on a simple challenge – write a name for Lewis’ character that will be used in the forthcoming The Silver Chair movie. Being known only as The Lady of the Green Kirtle doesn’t make for easy dialog. We want to add a name for this character by which other characters can address her in the script. And, we’ve opened the door for anyone to submit a suggested name for this character.

Here’s a little background:
Race: Unknown (Northern Witch)
Nation: Underland
Gender: Female
Title : Queen of Underland

Mark Gordon, Producer, David Magee, writer, and Douglas Gresham, C.S. Lewis’ stepson, will make the final choice on which name will appear in the final movie. Good luck fans and Narnia lovers everywhere—let the names begin!

So there is room for a proper name to be chosen and why not open it to fans worldwide who have kept the film series alive. I’m made my submission, if you so choose, you can too!

This has been a theme I’ve wanted to do a lot more of, however, how better to keep it alive than to throw it out there whenever it strikes me as useful. Typically I will focus on preservation efforts or crowdfunding, however, it’s really about getting you the film enthusiast more involved in what’s on screen in one way or another.

For those who don’t know, RiffTrax is the same team that brought us Mystery Science Theatre 3000. If you’ve ever had the misfortune of seeing something they should have lampooned before they did you know how useful this can be. My personal case being Birdemic, seeing it spoofed was greatly therapeutic (slrpnls).

If you have a title you’d like to see them handle, go here.

During this past 61 Days of Halloween I discovered a new, and great Lovecraft adaptation. It was produced in Germany and titled Die Farbe, or as it is know here The Color Out of Space. Albeit another adaptation of this oft retold tale it has its own slant and a great take.

As it turns out that same production team, including writer/director Huang Vu are embarking on a new Lovecraftian journey. This one entitled The Dreamlands purports to be the first feature-length film treatment of Lovecraft’s dream cycle.

While this other side of Lovecraft’s oeuvre has also inspired writing, most notably Brian Lumley’s Dreamlands Sequence; this would be a cinematic treatment of a very visually conducive subset of Lovecraft’s writings.

The Dreamlands has an interesting, fitting set-up:

Roland, an orphaned boy with a troubled past is led into another world by a mysterious old man. A world that has been created by the great dreamers of mankind in their sleep during the preceding thousands of years. There the old man rules as a king and he wants to educate Roland to be his successor. But Roland is unable to overcome the dark shadow that weighs on him, and he must decide whether he wants to use his abilities to further expand the Dreamlands, or to destroy what others have built.

The production team has released a teaser trailer:

I am posting about this early to spread the word ahead of the unveiling of this film’s Kickstarter campaign from March 1-31, 2014 because all too often these crowdfunding opportunities sneak up on us and don’t give us, prospective donors, time to prepare. Therefore, I wanted it known early so that the word could spread. Based on what this team did with The Colour From Out of Space they should definitely get a shot at The Dreamlands which would incorporate elements of Celephaïs, The White Ship, The Strange High House in the Mist and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.

Be on the look out.