Club Jade

Costumes from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Also, if you happen to be in or near Los Angeles in the next few months, the Fashion Insitute of Design & Merchandising is displaying costumes from several 2005 releases, including ROTS, Serenity, King Kong, The Corpse Bride, and others. (via The Daily Digest)

Vanity Fair has Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley naked on the latest cover. This is the infamous cover shoot that Rachel McAdams walked out of and really… Can you blame her? The creepy (clothed) guy that replaced her is Tom Ford, the issue’s guest editor.

Paradox now controls Robert E. Howard film rights. Come on, is the world really clamoring for more Conan?

Ewan McGregor to star as one of Hitchcock’s leading men in biopic of the director.

This weekend’s Saturday Night Live was mostly forgettable – even with Jack Black hosting – but the best bit by far featured Andy Samburg and Chris Parnell rapping about Narnia, cupcakes, and Mapquest.

A letter by CS Lewis has emerged indicating that the author of the Narnia books was “absolutely opposed” to live-action adaptations of his works.

In the letter, dated December 18 1959, Lewis made clear he approved of the radio version of the book produced by Lance Sieveking, a pioneering BBC radio and television producer. But in letters written shortly before the death of his wife, Joy, Lewis also said he was “absolutely opposed – adamant isn’t in it! – to a TV version” of any of the books. “Anthropomorphic animals, when taken out of narrative into actual visibility, always turn into buffoonery or nightmare. At least, with photography,” he wrote.

A cartoon version would be “another matter”, he said. But Lewis, who died in 1963, added: “If only Disney did not combine so much vulgarity with his genius.” In conclusion, he said that “a human, pantomime Aslan would to me be blasphemy”.

It’s sad Lewis won’t be here to see it. Perhaps he’d have changed his mind.

The Scotsman has a fascinating article on the friendship between two of Britain’s most beloved literary figures.

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.

The drama-documentary is scheduled to air on the Hallmark Channel in the US this December. The BBC is hoping to air it at the same time.

NarniaWeb reports that Liam Neeson could be the voice of Aslan in WETA’s adaption of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The source of the rumor is AICN and there’s no official proof, but with the film’s December release fast approaching there’s little doubt that someone must be filling the role. Neeson is as good a guess as any!