Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew has reportedly faced its first audience. According to World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy, an early cut of the film (running roughly two hours) was recently shown at a test screening, with Gerwig herself on hand.
NarniaWeb’s sources indicate there have been at least two test-screenings over the last three weeks, one in New York and another in New Jersey. Both screenings were for non-industry audiences, with the second apparently intended for families.
Ruimy describes the version screened as rough and unfinished, with visual effects nowhere near complete. However, he does mention that it had an “intentionally anachronistic” soundtrack with “rock music throughout the film,” comparing it to Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006), which used anarchistic songs in a period setting.
It has been common knowledge since filming started that the book’s late Victorian setting has been moved ahead to the time of its original publication, 1955.
Of course, the usual caveats still apply. This is a single early report from a site with a hit-or-miss track record about a single early cut designed *specifically* to gauge audience reaction to the film and its approach. Plenty can change between a test screening and a finished film. Indeed, scores are often the most frequently changed element of a movie when undergoing test-screening.
Gerwig has previously talked at length about test-screening all three of her previous films:
I found [screen testing] was really valuable for a few reasons. One of which was, you lose the ability to almost watch your movie after a while. And when I had new people sitting and watching, I was able to see it with their eyes. And then the notes that they would give, sometimes we take, sometimes we wouldn’t, but it was more like looking for patterns. Like did this come up more than once with different people? Is there confusion? I think that was a big part of it.”
Greta Gerwig, The Deadline Podcast (35:48), 2018
Ruimy himself recently wrote at length about how little early test screenings actually tell us, citing the likes of Fight Club, The Shawshank Redemption, and Mad Max: Fury Road. All films that confused or underwhelmed preview audiences before releasing to great acclaim.
We’ll update as more is confirmed. Does this Rock or should heads Roll? Tell us below!