More Sets Around Town: Narnia and Hercules

More Sets Around Town: Narnia (yes really) and Hercules

by TORn Staffer Tehanu

Well, I'm being a bit more cautious naming the sets that are springing up around town here in West Auckland, New Zealand. The first one HAD to be a Narnia set-- it was sticking out above the fence around the Lion, Witch &Wardrobe lot where the soundstages are. And to make doubly certain, I asked their publicist Ernie Malik about what you see in these first two pictures, and he confirmed that it's the London house that the Pevensie children lived in before going to their uncle's house in the country where their adventure started. In one photo it looks like a very ordinary house with a few roses peeking over the fence. In the other photo it's a bit clearer that only the front half of the house exists, and in the background are the warehouses that house the soundstages for the production. It looks grey and drab and wartime-y.

As for the other mysterious and exciting set that's out in the country a few miles away, it's developed a lot in the past week. I was doubtful that it was a Hercules set because it looked like generic medieval European architecture. But suddenly this week it's sprouted some vaguely classical and pre-classical Greek features -- pillars and pediments and so on, and so it does look very likely to be a Hercules set for the new mini-series that Sean Astin is involved with. Also there's a set-locator sign with a big "H" on it pointing towards it.

The wall with the tower is the right-hand wall of the courtyard, the steps form the centre, and the pillared wall with the upper gallery is the left-hand wall. The tower wall, with its different colour and its arched windows, actually looks like a different building from a different period of history entirely, but maybe when it's finished it'll be clearer what's intended. History buffs can help us all out here -- was Hercules a legend from before Homer? Are those Doric columns from after that period? Did the classical Greeks even invent arches? Who cares? I do, but then I care about stuff like the correct use of apostrophes as well.

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