It looks like I’m going to be one of the interviewees on CBC Radio’s The Current tomorrow morning, talking about — what else? — The Chronicles of Narnia. Due to the differences between our time zones, I have to be at the studio by 4:45 in the morning. Yikes. Thank goodness I live only 20 minutes’ walk away. DEC 9 UPDATE: Click here for a link to a RealAudio file. Read more

I took my dad to see the Narnia movie tonight. He made a point of telling a few of the people we spoke to that he had read the books to me almost 30 years ago. (‘Tis true, and I can never hear the word “Cornelius” without hearing how my dad pronounced it way back when.) Meanwhile, I noticed that I have become more “alert” to the presence of children at these movies since my wife became pregnant. I laughed... Read more

The trailer for The Second Chance, the feature directorial debut of former Christian pop satirist and music producer Steve Taylor, is now online at the movie’s official website. I was a huge fan of Taylor’s in my teens and early 20s, and, after interviewing him at a couple of local music festivals some ten years ago or more, I interviewed him over the phone eight years ago when he first announced his intention to direct a movie (under the rumoured... Read more

I grew up reading the works of C.S. Lewis, including The Chronicles of Narnia, and I grew up reading the Famous Five and Secret Seven stories and others written by Enid Blyton, too — but I never thought to connect the two authors, until today. Today, I read two early reviews of the upcoming Narnia movie, both of which refer to Blyton or her works, but in rather different ways. First, there is The Guardian‘s Peter Bradshaw: There will be... Read more

Here are the figures for the past weekend, arranged from those that owe the highest percentage of their take to the Canadian box office to those that owe the lowest. Maurice Richard — CDN $1,002,404 — N.AM $1,002,404 — 100%Derailed — CDN $3,854,297 — N.AM $32,829,000 — 11.7%Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire — CDN $25,568,160 — N.AM $229,839,000 — 11.1%Pride & Prejudice — CDN $2,071,525 — N.AM $22,633,000 — 9.2%Just Friends — CDN $1,833,452 — N.AM $21,108,000 —... Read more

Just a few quick thoughts about the marketing of the new Narnia movie. 1. I saw an ad in the newspaper yesterday, letting people know that they can buy advance tickets to The Chronicles of Narnia and King Kong, both of which open in the next ten days. The ad had a picture of Aslan, the lion, next to a picture of Kong, the gorilla. And I suddenly realized that, just as The Lord of the Rings invited comedians and... Read more

My review of Aeon Flux is now up at CT Movies. FWIW, this film wasn’t screened for critics in advance, unless you count the screening that began last night some time after 10pm — so as you can imagine, this review was written in a rush. Read more

Over a month ago — on Halloween, in fact — I said that I had one more article on The Exorcism of Emily Rose in the pipeline. Today, it was finally posted to Christianity Today‘s website. This piece was written for the magazine, so it borrows heavily from my earlier online-only coverage of the film for CT Movies. Read more

My article on religion and spirituality at the movies — with the upcoming Narnia movie as my obvious hook — is now up at The Georgia Straight. (My byline seems to be missing, though; so is the quotation mark at the end of the last paragraph.) Read more