About Town: Rambling Reporter

In September, Narnia series producer Mark Johnson previewed 30 minutes of his Dec. 10 release The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. One teenage fan, Johnson recalls, impressed him as “sweet and polite.” So when the lad e-mailed him with questions about the film, Johnson wrote back with detailed responses, discussing, among other things, the controversial addition of Gael, a character not in the original book. Ping! The recipient posted it in the form of an interview to the blog AslansCountry.com. “I saw it at 6 a.m., and I called my assistant to tell them to take it down,” Johnson says. “He has to learn you can’t take a private conversation and make it public.” The site complied and replaced the post with: “I’ve been asked to take the interview down until further notice.” But the cryptic message led readers to believe Johnson had revealed spoilers — which wasn’t the case, according to the producer. On further reflection, Johnson reversed course, and it was back up. Sounds like this kid might become a Hollywood reporter himself.