Connie's Warwick Davis Fanpage and Leprechaun Center

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
To be released May 16, 2008
Directed by Andrew Adamson
Starring William Moseley, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Anna Popplewell, Liam Neeson

Back in 1989/90, Warwick made his first venture into the land of Narnia, playing the parts of Reepicheep the mouse and Glimfeather the owl in a BBC miniseries version of the C.S. Lewis book series. Now, almost two decades later, he's returning to that world, for the big screen this time. On February 7, 2007, Walt Disney Pictures announced that Warwick would be playing the part of Nikabrik the Black Dwarf in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. This big-bucks production is Disney's follow-up to their 2005 release of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.

I've never read the book that the movie is based on (that situation will change), but there's a good plot summary on this Narnia fan site. Of course, when Disney gets through with a story it frequently bears little resemblance to the original anyway. It looks as though Nikabrik isn't the biggest role available for a short actor in the movie, but it's probably the most fun. Trumpkin the Dwarf (played by Peter Dinklage) will probably get more screen time, but he's a good guy. Nikabrik is a baddie, and we all know how good Warwick is at being wicked onscreen.

Narniaweb.com printed a Total Magazine interview with the director that includes this information:

"Right away Andrew started pursuing Peter Dinklage and Warwick Davis for Trumpkin and Nikabrik. Peter is just wearing a nose, gelatine ears, hairpieces and paint. But Warwick is completely covered! Even his lips are covered. I'd say his eyelids are the only thing that are his actual skin in that make-up, because Warwick Davis is very recognisable and I was absolutely frank with him about that. We sat down and I said, 'Listen, my feeling is that everyone knows who Warwick is. He's the Willow guy! We don't want that - let me go to town.' I looked at the make-ups that disguised him in other films, but I felt they always looked stiff and didn't allow him to perform. There's one make-up in particular in the first Harry Potter where it looked 10in thick. We did 20 different designs from young to old and Andrew went for the most gnarly, old, messed-up one."

Here's some commentary on the Nikabrik makeup from the movie's production notes:

Berger and a team of more than 40 special makeup artists gave birth to the film's more fantastical creatures. "My favorite Narnians are the dwarves," Berger says. "We had two fantastic dwarf characters in the film: Trumpkin, played by Peter Dinklage, and Nikabrik, played by Warwick Davis. We designed some very intricate makeup applications to transform them into Narnians."...

While Lane concentrated her daily efforts on actor Dinklage, fellow makeup artist Sarah Rubano won the assignment to metamorphose Warwick Davis into a character the actor himself calls "sour inside."

 "Howard's makeup was loads of help for me in understanding the character," says Davis. "Then you find the character's voice. Then Isis' costume, which was such an immaculate piece of workmanship...while the detail may not come across for audiences, subliminally, it's all there. As an actor, it makes you feel so at home in the character. I lived, worked and fought in those clothes. You are then placed in the surroundings, the sets, and magically, you are in Narnia."

"Warwick is an actor who has been able to imbue all of his characters with something different," notes producer Johnson. "That's what I prize most in an actor- surprises. I think his Nikabrik character is very surprising because he is irascible, yet speaks real logic. Nikabrik has really paid for the fact that Narnia has been under the thumb of the Telmarines. So he has some real surprises as a character up his sleeve."

Davis was intrigued by a clever illustration of the character done by one of Berger's associates at KNB, John Wheaton. "It was brilliant, because it was me, but as an old man. It was my photograph over which he painted the character concept. It captured Nikabrik perfectly."

When Davis looked in the mirror after the marathon session, "What I saw was the character in three dimensions that Howard's artist had portrayed in two dimensions," the actor notes. "It was astounding."

Some helpful links:
The movie's official website.
IMDb's listing for the movie.
Greg's Preview on Yahoo Movies.
A brief description of Nikabrik on a Narnia fansite. Other parts of the site discuss the movies including spoiler material on differences from the books, although there's not much available on Prince Caspian at the moment.
A brief article discussing Warwick's role in the movie.

There are more pictures in the Warwick Davis Pictures section.