All 7 Narnia Books to go to Film

[Sarangel]

At Comic-Con this year, the Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) announced its commitment to make all seven of the Chronicles of Narnia books into feature films, releasing one a year starting in May '08 with Prince Caspian. This decision follows the success of the adaptation of the first book -- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe -- which grossed almost $300 million.

This decision is not surprising, following the conclusion of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, which has no immediate plans to continue. Disney is predictably looking for its next goldmine franchise, and what better to use than a seven book series which already had a successful start?

The only question is whether the quality of production will suffer in the sequels from such an ambitious filming schedule, and after Disney pulled off the Pirates trilogy with such dazzling effects, I doubt that will be a concern -- although the quality of the Pirates scripts did fade down the stretch. At least with these movies, the writers will have a classic source to guide them.

This has been posted a couple of places, and I find myself echoing the last sentiment - can Disney make this schedule and retain any quality in the scripts, acting, direction, and special effects. We saw what this kind of schedule did to Feature Animation...

 

[Brian_WDW74]

Well, in this instance Disney isn't making the movies alone. It's working with Walden Media who, in turn, work with Peter Jackson's Weta Digital and Weta Workshop companies. So while the production schedule is a bit ambitious, I think if all these companies continue to work together then they could probably pull it off.

 

[EUROPACL]

I have a feeling that all 7 won't be made by Disney (or at least their money). Just a feeling. Only time will tell and the box office.

 

[MomofKatie]

And since Disney started with the 2nd book of the series, I don't see them going back to do a prequel to "Lion Witch & Wardrobe".

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

Not for nothing aren't they skipping the Boy and his Horse!!

 

[schmitty]

As if 1 movie wasnt bad enough.

 

[Barbers2005]

And since Disney started with the 2nd book of the series, I don't see them going back to do a prequel to "Lion Witch & Wardrobe".

Yeah, there is a bit of a problem with the timeline in the books. I mean, "The Horse and His Boy" takes place partway through the events in "Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe," and "The Magician's Nephew" was book 6, but describes the creation of Narnia. It seems like they've already decided to go with the order the books were printed, rather than putting the movies in chronological order.

 

[pouncingpluto]

Well...

POTENTIAL SPOILER FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T READ THE BOOKS...












I actually think The Magician's Nephew is cooler to be introduced to later on, once you're already familiar with Jadis, the Professor, and Narnia. I don't think the timeline should really present a problem, because they could do it somehow as a flashback from the Professor's perspective. Of course, then you lose the surprise of who Diggory turns out to be.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

And I thought they were just skipping the Boy and His Horse, because it was pretty much a boy and his horse. Be it a talking horse it was pretty much A Mr Ed compared to some of the other books.

 

[abw]

Will this still be jointly produced with Phil Anschutz's entertainment group? I think the first one was.

 

[EUROPACL]

Aint it cool was at Comic Con and here is some of the news from the Disney Pannel with reguards to Narnia and Prince Caspian.

-Adamson said CASPIAN was a more difficult film to make because the book isn’t as linear as LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE was.

-Release date is May 16th, 2008

-A lot has been made of Disney committing to make all 7 books. That’s been exaggerated a bit. The producer said that the plan is to make all 7, but only if the box office stays strong. If it does, then expect a new Narnia movie every May.

-The next movie up will be VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER, production beginning in February. ( Which makes me already question the every May release dates)

There is some more stuff about the special effects and such....go there to read the whole thing.