By Neil Smith BBC News entertainment reporter

With its New Zealand locations, state-of-the-art effects and epic fantasy narrative, the latest film version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe inevitably begs comparison with the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Tilda Swinton described the White Witch as "a psychopathic killer"

CS Lewis, author of the Narnia Chronicles, and Lord of the Rings creator JRR Tolkien were contemporaries who both took inspiration from the Scriptures, Greek mythology, Anglo-Saxon literature and traditional fairy-tales.

In addition, both series unfold in make-believe worlds populated by fantastical creatures locked in timeless battles between good and evil.

At a recent press junket for the film, however, cast and crew members were at pains to stress the differences between Peter Jackson's Oscar-winning threesome and their venture, reported to have cost $150m (�87m) to bring to the screen.

"There are worse things to be compared to, but ultimately they're very different," said Andrew Adamson, the Auckland-born director best known for the computer-animated Shrek films.

"The Rings trilogy was about a dying world, while this is a story about a family from our world who step into a fantasy land.

"I see this as an intimate family drama taken to epic proportions, as opposed to an epic fantasy story."

'Parallels'

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, four siblings who have been evacuated from wartorn London to the countryside stumble upon a portal that transports them to the magical land of Narnia.

There they join forces with its rightful leader, the wise lion Aslan, to free the fairy-tale realm from the tyranny of the White Witch Jadis, played by Tilda Swinton.

Aslan the lion was created using computers and animatronic models

"They're both series, they were both shot in New Zealand and they're both available to a certain age group, so the parallels are there," said the British actress Swinton.

"But I'm one of those rare people who's never seen the Lord of the Rings, so it doesn't mean anything to me."

"The Rings trilogy seems to allude to a world that was perhaps ours at one time," adds Scottish actor James McAvoy, whose role as Mr Tumnus - a kind-hearted 'faun' with the torso of a human and the legs of a goat - required three hours of make-up every day.

"Narnia is very different. It's very definitely a world that's never been ours."

That said, Adamson does concede the box-office triumph of the Rings trilogy paved the way for his first live-action feature.

"The Lord of the Rings showed you could remain faithful to a piece of English literature and still be commercially viable," he told the BBC News website.

'Photorealistic'

"It allowed me to make this true to the book in a way we wouldn't have been able to 10 years ago."

For actor William Moseley, though, the current plethora of fantasy titles is rooted in more practical concerns.

"The only reason they're being made now is because they can be," said the British 18-year-old cast as Peter, the oldest of the Pevensie children.

William Moseley plays Peter, the eldest of the Pevensie children

"Visual effects and technology have moved on to such a high degree that we're able to see a photorealistic lion walking across the screen. Five years ago we couldn't have done that."

With Wardrobe ready for its UK release on 8 December, discussions are under way for a follow-up based on Lewis' second Narnia story, Prince Caspian.

"Andrew and I would like to do it, but we won't know unless everybody deems this movie both a critical and commercial success," said producer Mark Johnson.

"We've started playing around with the story, and we need to get to it fairly soon if we want to hang on to the kids," added Adamson.

"I am signed up for another one, but that's not to say another one is definitely happening," said McAvoy.