Christianity Today interviewed Anna Popplewell last week. Popplewell, who plays Susan in the new Narnia movie, had this to say about one way the movie version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will be different from the book:
CT: In the books, Aslan is clear that females should not go into battle. But you and Lucy are in the battles in the movie. Can you talk about that a bit?
Anna:That was a slight alteration we made because we felt that Susan and Lucy should [go into battle]. To be honest, the part that Susan and Lucy play in the battle, although it's very important, is right at the end of the movie in terms of the "battles" where women fight. It's not Susan and Lucy fighting all the way through the battle. But we thought that was important to include them in the battle. So, yeah, that is a difference from the book.
She also shared her explained her unfortunate fear of mice.
Fairly early on, [director Andrew Adamson] asked me whether there was anything that I was particularly scared of. I said yes, I'm scared of mice. And I mean jump-on-a-chair-and-scream scared of mice! He laughed and said, "You know you have to do a scene with mice at the Stone Table where the mice chew Aslan's ropes." I laughed and said I thought he was joking, because we have so many animated creatures in this movie, I didn't think there was any way we'd be using real mice…. But as we got closer to doing the Stone Table scenes, Andrew made it clear that he wasn't joking and that there were going to be real mice. So I was kind of silently freaking out about it. There were going to be a hundred or so mice on the set, so Andrew thought it would be a good idea if he showed me one to see if I could deal with it. So he called me onto the set one day and he said, "Anna, I want you to meet Mr. Jingles." And he held this mouse up and I screamed and cried. I was nearly sick. I just couldn't do it. So anything you see in the film with mice and Susan, it's not me, it's my double. I just couldn't do it.
Read the full interview: Of Mice and Lions