Source: EW

EW has learned that Ben Barnes, best known as the British Johnny Depp lookalike in Prince Caspian, has been cast as Hamlet in Ophelia, an independently financed retelling of the story of the tormented young Dane from the perspective of his long-suffering girlfriend. Nevertheless, this may be the first time ever that an actor playing Hamlet doesn’t have the juiciest role in the production. That honor goes to relatively unknown English actress Juno Temple (Atonement and the upcoming Jack Black-Michael Cera comedy Year One), who will play a young woman slowly driven insane by an unavailable man.

Producers Daniel Bobker and Ehren Kruger (The Brothers Grimm and Skeleton Key) tapped first-time director Dawn Shadforth (best known for her cutting-edge music videos for Bjork and Oasis) to provide a dynamic, contemporary take on the classic characters, somewhat in the vein of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, minus the iambic pentameter dialogue. Because the filmmakers aren’t beholden to American studio financing, they were able to cast fresh faces and are hoping to tap into a market full of the same ardent teen moviegoers who flocked to see the star-crossed love birds in Twilight and Slumdog Millionaire. The production, which hasn’t been shopped to U.S. distributors yet, is aiming for an early-summer start date.

Source: Variety

Twentieth Century Fox and Walden Media will release “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” on Dec. 10, 2010.

Move means “Narnia” will once again be a winter franchise.

Fox recently partnered with Walden on the “Narnia” film series after Disney and Walden parted ways.

Mouse House released the first two “Narnia” films. First one debuted in December 2005 and cumed $291.7 million domestically.

Sequel was released last May to less spectacular results, cuming $141.2 million at the North American box office. Walden and Fox believe “Narnia” is better suited for a December release.

As of now, “Dawn Treader” has the 2010 date to itself.

Source: Variety

One month after Disney decided to pull the plug on co-financing the third movie in Walden Media’s “Chronicles of Narnia” series, Walden has found a new partner in 20th Century Fox.

Fox, which was entitled to first crack at “The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader” after Disney dropped out because of the shared Fox Walden marketing and distribution label, has made a commitment to develop the project. The two sides are still working out budget and script issues, but the hope is to shoot the film at the end of summer for a holiday 2010 release through the Fox Walden label.

After budget and script concerns are settled, Fox and Walden are expected to greenlight the film. The intention is to move the production away from Mexico, where, ironically, it was going to be shot at the Fox-owned Baja facility called Rosarito used for “Titanic” and “Master and Commander.” “Dawn Treader” will instead likely shoot in Australia because of concerns for the drug violence and kidnappings that are taking place near Baja.

Ben Barnes, Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley are reprising their roles as Caspian, Edmund and Lucy, respectively. New to the production is Will Poulter (”Son of Rambo”), who will portray Eustace Clarence Scrubb. Pic is being directed by Michael Apted, with Mark Johnson and Andrew Adamson producing.

Read the entire article at variety.com.

Ben is in Gap’s new holiday adverts. Click the picture to go to the HQ scan.

I’ll be catching up with everything tomorrow. So watch for tons of pictures in the gallery!

The film will be playing at the Austin Film Festival on Thu, Oct 16 at 10:00 PM and Wed, Oct 22 at 10:00 PM.

It will also be playing throughout the UK, opening October 10.

Premieres

• 06.10.08: ‘Bigga Than Ben: The Russian’s Guide to Ripping Off Londoners’ Charity Premiere x 5

Bigga Than Ben

• On Set x 3
• Stills x 13

Source: London MCM Expo

Ben Barnes star of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian will be attending London MCM Expo on Saturday October 25, 2008, Ben be taking part in an on stage panel with other Narnia star Warwick Davis who played Nikabrik in the recent summer block buster.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian 2 Disc special edition is released November 17th.

With the summer release of Prince Caspian, Disney virtually papered the globe with pictures of his face. The exposure catapulted the Ben Barnes into worldwide attention, and generated more work in major motion pictures, including the third “Narnia” feature and an opportunity to romance Jessica Biel in a big-screen version of Noel Coward’s “Easy Virtue” (2009) and more recently as Dorian Gray in the movie of the same name.

Panel & Autograph signing Saturday the 25th.

Thank you to LB for pointing this out to us.

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Photoshoots

• Daniel Boud x 2 HQ
• Jennifer Taylor x 7 HQ
• Nathaniel Goldberg x 10 HQ
• Unknown #1 x 8 HQ
• Unknown #2 x 3

Press Conferences & Photocalls

• 27.06.08: Edinburgh International Film Festival + 7 HQ
• 09.09.08: 2008 Toronto Film Festival - ‘Easy Virtue’ Portraits x 7 (5 HQ)
• 30.06.08: ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ - Madrid Photocall + 13 HQ