For the royal premiere of The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Royal Albert Hall was transformed into a glittering ice palace, complete with snow falling down onto the assembled guests. Unfortunately, security was extremely tight due to the attendance of Prince Charles and Camilla, limiting all of the journalists' time (including mine) speaking with the cast and crew. But I did still manage to chat with many of them, and some additional celebrity guests such as Julie Walters, who played Mrs. Weasley in Harry Potter, and Roger Moore .

Howard Berger, co-founder of KNB EFX Group inc. and one of the film industry's effects houses of choice for directors such as Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill), Robert Rodriguez (Sin City), and Steven Spielberg (Minority Report), did the special makeup/creature/character prosthetics for Narnia. "It was the most exciting experience I've ever had, and I've been in the business for twenty five years and done a lot of movies." I asked him what the most challenging part of the film was for him, and without hesitation he replied, "The stone table sequence. It was physically draining, we had two sets, an interior and an exterior. And it took place at night, so we were outside nights getting 200 creatures ready and having our animatronic Aslan up there, it was just really tiresome. I ran a crew of 42 people...It was 21 days [or nights] to shoot just the stone table sequence. I kept thinking the battle was going to be the hard part but it was a vacation compared to the stone table." Berger is now working in Robert Rodriguez's next film, but he hopes there will be another Narnia to make.

Naturally, for James Cosmo, everyone wanted to know how it felt to play Father Christmas in the film: "It's wonderful to play such an iconic character, and maybe be part of a generation's belief in who Santa Claus is. When you think of Santa Claus, maybe they'll think of the character in this movie, which is a real privilege, He's the spirit of Christmas, the spirit of love, that's what I like to think." How did he like working with the children in his scene? "I've worked with a lot of kids, and I've got to say they were just terrific. Very much feet on the ground."

And, for the children themselves, what was it like being part of the Narnia spectacle? Skandar Keynes, who plays Edmund Pevensie said "It's so overwhelming, I never thought I'd be in a position like this and I realize how lucky I am. It's like a dream come true." Aside from the adventure of the film itself, Skandar also enjoyed the bonuses. "In the South Island we had choppers and if you were really nice and got through your work really quickly they'd like do this little detour where you'd go and fly down the mountain sideways and upside down!"

Anna Popplewell, portraying Susan Pevensie, looked beautiful as she strolled up the ice blue carpet. "It's quite a spectacle out there, and it's been a very sort of surreal but great experience." How's her archery after playing Susan? "A little rusty but it's ok. I actually got given a Weta bow and arrow set today." And of course I wanted to know what her favourite part of the film was. "For me, it was definitely meeting the beavers, because it's such a funny scene and it was just great fun to do." She wistfully talked about all of the, wonderful memories, of her time in Narnia: "There was never a dull day. We had Skandar locked inside the wardrobe once, and I had a moment because I had to do a scene with mice and I'm quite scared of mice." But she was looking forward to meeting Prince Charles at the premiere, and admitted she'd been practicing her curtsy.

Finally, the adorable Georgie Henley, who plays Lucy, bounced over. "It's really overwhelming but not too much, I LOVE it!" I asked her if she had a favorite scene, but unlike Anna she replied, œI don't have one, I loved them all, I'm sorry." Like the rest of the cast, she's eager for another one of the chronicles of Narnia to get made. "If I was chosen again to be Lucy Pevensie I'd just love it." I was especially curious about her reaction to seeing Narnia for the first time. "I just thought wow. How have they created this, how have they made this, how is this any different from the actual Narnia?"

So will there be another Narnia film in the future? Douglas Greshman, C.S. Lewis' stepson and co-producer, instructed, "Take your friends and your friends' friends and your friends' friends' friends and your enemies as well, because you're supposed to love your enemies, and go see the movie three or four times and then we'll be able to get the budget to make the next one."