Apted starts Australian shoot for Narnia: Voyage Of The Dawn Treader

The film will shoot entirely in Queensland, primarily at the Warner Roadshow Studio in Gold Coast, which boasts the Southern Hemisphere’s largest water tank.

Filming is expected to wrap in November, and the film will then go into post-production for a year to be readied for a global release in December 2010.

Michael Apted is directing, with previous cast members Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes and Ben Barnes reprising their roles.

This production is a joint venture between 20th Century Fox and Walden Media (Fox takes over from Walden’s previous partner Disney).

Andrew Adamson, who directed the first two films, is one of Voyage’s producers, along with Mark Johnson and Philip Steur. Returning executive producers are Perry Moore and CS Lewis’ stepson Douglas Gresham.

The third film’s plot sees Edmund and Lucy and cousin Eustace (played by Son Of Rambow’s Will Poulter) swallowed into a painting, onto a Narnian ship for a journey to the edges of the world. They join forces with Prince Caspian and warrior mouse Reepicheep as they face Dufflepuds, dragons and merfolk. Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely wrote the screenplay with Richard LaGravenese and Michael Petroni.

Supporting cast members include Australian actors such as Gary Sweet, Bruce Spence, Arthur Angel and New Zealander Shane Rangi. Liam Neeson again voices Aslan the Lion.

Apted is working with Oscar-nominated DoP Dante Spinotti and film editor Rick Shaine.

CS Lewis published The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader in 1952, the third of his seven Narnia books.

The previous two Narnia films have taken a combined $1.2 billion at the global box office.