Narnia

An unusual casting choice has reportedly emerged for filmmaker Greta Gerwig’s forthcoming screen version of The Magician’s Nephew—and it isn’t a human actor at all, but rather a long-dead tree.

A story published by The Bucks Herald claims that the production team behind the new Narnia adaptation acquired a deceased maple last September. The tree came from Startop Farm, located near the village of Marsworth on the boundary between Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire in England.

The maple had become something of a local landmark thanks to its gnarled shape and the dramatic scars left by lightning strikes. To prepare it for its cinematic role, contractors dismantled the tree with great care, cutting off and labeling sections of branches so the entire structure could later be rebuilt precisely on the film set.

According to the report, the p ... Read more »