The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe engravings on the wardrobe, when it is a simple one in the novel, and the Professor's surprise and intrigue when Peter and Susan mention Lucy's discovery in the wardrobe. When Lewis wrote the novel, it was the first of the series and the back-story later outlined by the subsequent books in the series did not exist. Additionally in the novel, the father of the Pevensie children is in London with their mother, but in the film, their father is fighting in the war as Lucy states to Mr. Tumnus when they first meet in Narnia. Weta Workshop head Richard Taylor
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe make a faithful adaptation of the novel set in Britain. ""Harry Potter" came along, and all those cultural or geographical lines were broken," Mark Johnson explained. "When "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" was being developed at Paramount, the imperative was to set it in the U.S., and it just doesn't hold. [...] It's not the book." Guillermo del Toro turned down the offer to direct due to his commitment on "Pan's Labyrinth". Following an Academy Award win for "Shrek", director Andrew Adamson began adapting the source material with a 20-page treatment based on his memories of the book.