By George McQuade
West Coast Correspondent

Walt Disney Co. used a Christian pitch to "hook" the media on its blockbuster film, "The Chronicles of Narnia," but soon has to come up with various angles to maintain PR momentum, Dora Candelaria, senior publicist at Disney's Buena Vista Pictures unit, told a meeting of the Entertainment Publicists Professional Society in Santa Monica on Feb. 16.

The main challenge facing the studio was Narnia's lack of "starpower."

Dora Candelaria, senior publicist for Disney's Buena Vista Pictures unit.

Candelaria told EPPS that Disney didn't have anyone who was going to bring in the dollars. "We were coming from a series that was beloved, but it was also dated. We found that many adults had read the film as children, and children had read the film," she said.

Disney "started talking about the film even before it went into production," noted Candelaria.

"As soon as Narnia was green lit, everyone started meeting on how to market this film, utilize the angles that would work for publicity, and talk about the struggles that we would have," she said.

Disney knew the Christian angle was a winner, but it also had to redirect interest in the film in order to attract a larger audience. The press gobbled up the Christian theme, but that was its overriding interest in the film.

Disney forged a "buzz team" that worked to promote the sci-fi aspects of Narnia. It mounted a PR campaign aimed at Hispanics, and played up the music and literary aspects of the film.

Narnia is a key growth platform for Disney. "We needed to lay the groundwork to make it part of the franchise for the studio," said Candelaria. "This film touches every part of our company from parks to products, video games and music. The launching pad for that was the film."

Disney pitched Narnia as the "holiday film to see," and faced key competition for the family market as "King Kong" debuted a few days after Narnia was released.

Wanted film to be 'discovered'

April Florentine, publicist at Twentieth Century Fox, and Rayna Schwartz, publicity manager Warner Bros. Television Production.

April Florentine, publicist at Twentieth Century Fox, said her studio took a more low-key approach, wanting audiences to "discover" the film "I Walk the Line," which is the Johnny Cash story.

"We had screenings in every country & western market, but we did not want to alienate everyone else so we worked a host of groups in each market," she said.

One aspect of the campaign was to send Joaquin Phoenix, who portrayed Cash, to Folsom Prison for a screening.

"It was challenging, because people said 'Why are you rewarding prisoners?'" noted Florentine. "It wasn't about rewarding, it was about redemption. It was more about what Johnny Cash did years ago. A Christian group wanted to show an enlightening film to the inmates. It was tough to get talent to participate, but it was an amazing publicity event, and it got so much coverage, because it was a human interest story," said Florentine.

Not Willie Wonka

"One of our biggest challenges was to separate Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – which is based on the classic by Roald Dahl – from the original 1971 Gene Wilder movie title Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," said senior publicist Jeff Hare.

"The original music version was a beloved classic and adored by many," he said. "Getting the press and audiences to realize that this film is not a remake, but a faithful adaptation of the classic book was vital to the position of the film."

Jeff Hare, senior publicist for Warner Bros.

Hare said one of his biggest accomplishments was the declaration of National Chocolate Day on July 7, a week before the film debuted.

Actor Johnny Depp was filming Pirates of the Caribbean sequel in the Bahamas and was unavailable for a typical publicity campaign.

"We had to creatively secure as much publicity as possible without the use of our lead talent," said Hare. "The rest of the cast was full of unknowns and children which gave us a different set of obstacles.

"British Children's Labor Law dictates that we could use the actors for only a limited amount of time per day, leaving us with little opportunity to fully utilize our 'Charlie' played by Freddie Highmore. Tim Burton was working full-time on 'Corpse Bride' at the same time as making Charlie, which limited his availability to complete publicity efforts, too," he said.

Hare said his biggest challenges were flying to the Bahamas for the junket and arranging the press event at a hotel that wasn't big on the Hollywood press, not to mention worrying about hurricanes.