The Royal Albert Hall was transformed into an ice palace especially for the event to match the theme in CS Lewis’ book. In addition, as movie stars and celebrities entered they were welcomed in by a blue carpet rather than a red one.
The official general release of the movie will take place in the UK today, Thursday Dec. 8th, and is expected to pack out cinemas across the country.
Among the stars attending the premiere yesterday were Tilda Swinton, James McAvoy, Dawn French and Ray Winstone.
The movie focuses on the Pevensie children, and how they discover a portal to another mystical world of Narnia – a world frozen by an evil witch.
Controversy has always surrounded the series of books by Christian author CS Lewis, and it has been debated as to whether the book has a clear Biblical and Christian theme, or whether the morals in the book are just there coincidently.
However, just last week unpublished letters from the author himself to a child fan shed greater light on the debate.
letter sent by CS Lewis to a child fan in 1961 reveals that Lewis was referring to Jesus Christ as he portrayed the mystical land and its saviour – the lion Aslan.
The letter tells the child: “The whole Narnian story is about Christ.”
The clear letter has been made public by Walter Hooper, who is a literary advisor to the Lewis estate.
Over the past few months the hype surrounding the movie release has been building, and this in turn has caused great debate as to whether Lewis’ portrayal of Aslan the Lion is a depiction of Christ.
Christians, since the books initial release have seen clearly the greatly highlighted Gospel themes in the stories, but secularists have chosen to simply state that the themes are general and not specifically aimed at depicting the Christian story.
The movie is set to be a blockbuster, and has used some of the most hi-tech digital effects ever seen on the big screen, and cost a total of £75 million to make.
At yesterday’s premiere Anna Popplewell, 16, who plays eldest daughter Susan, the sensible one of the four children commented that it had been “amazing, incredible and overwhelming”, and that she had practiced her curtsy for when she met Prince Charles.
Popplewell continued, “I've already seen the film a few times and still enjoy it, so many wonderful memories come back.”
Child actress Georgie Henley, 10, who plays Lucy also said, “It's a little overwhelming but I love it. I just thought wow when I saw Narnia for the first time. How have they created this, how is this any different from the book?”
Yesterday’s Royal premiere was used to help raise money for the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund, and other celebrities attending the event were Sir Cliff Richard, Sharon Osbourne, Miranda Richardson, Sir Roger Moore and Jennifer Saunders, Annie Lennox, Lulu and Kelly Brook.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe will go on UK general release today and is available to see at cinemas across the country.
Daniel Blake
Christian Today Correspondent