For the fantasy fans out there, C.S. Lewis’s magnum opus has hit some major problems.
The Hollywood Reporter announced today that Disney has declined “for logistical and budgetary reasons” to jump onboard for a third Narnia film.
Considering the initial plan was for Disney to back a trilogy, this is quite unusual — but considering “Prince Caspian” only hit $141 million domestically versus the $292 million of “Lion,” Disney may simply used this as ballast to tighten their belts in the growing media recession.
An interesting question now is where the series will go next. Considering the influx of children’s book adaptations, including Harry Potter, Despereaux, and the Golden Compass, co-producer Walden Media may have a number of backers to petition. The frontrunner at this point is Fox, who already co-produces films with Walden under the Fox Walden banner.
The third film set to be produced by Walden Media would be “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.” According to reps, the film would retain all four main characters from the first films, and was slated to open May 2010.
December 26th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
DAWN TREADER. Sorry to nitpick, just FYI.
December 26th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Considering the influx of children’s book adaptations, including Harry Potter, Despereaux, and the Golden Compass, co-producer Walden Media may have a number of backers to petition.
On the other hand, considering the tepid opening of Despereaux, the weak domestic box office of Golden Compass ($70 million on a $180 million film), the understandable lack of follow-up to the Lemony Snicket adaptation, it may be hard to get backing particularly for the domestic rights to a children’s book series.
December 26th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
why not be smart, spend a little extra on a better script and shoot the film for less money?
December 26th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
The reason the first film made so much money over the second isn’t something to be surprised about. The simple fact is the book has been adapted many times to film/TV and it’s the book that many people are most familiar with.
Better hurry up and start filming the next movie, folks before those kids get any older.
December 26th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Voyage of the Dawn Treader, actually.
December 26th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
It’s “Dawn TREADER” not trader.
December 26th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
can’t say that i’m surprised. lion, witch and wardrobe left me underwhelmed. so much so that i didn’t even bother to go see prince caspian. and looking at walden media’s list of movies to date — all of them imho, are just as underwhelming — i’m shocked this company is still in business.
http://www.imdb.com/company/co0073388/
December 26th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Dawn Treader. Between the blogs and the news posts, does anyone who puts stuff on this site even proofread it before they do?
December 26th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Yaaaaaaawwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnn.
December 26th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
barely any advertising/no publicity + mediocre sequel = FAIL
way to drop the ball, Disney…
December 26th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
The movies so far absolutely sucked. I watched the BBC version of the first as a child which is why I gave the new adaptation a try. Price Caspian just rubbed me the wrong way, especially with all the death only to have a chosen few brought back at the end. I told my partner if he wanted to see more, he would do it without me.
This post is GOOD news to me.
December 26th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Man that sucks, I wanted the third book more then any of the other ones.
December 26th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Well, despite what Walden seems to think, two of the four characters of the first two films aren’t even IN this “Dawn Trader.” The end of Prince Caspian the movie made pretty clear Peter and Susan wouldn’t be back too.
December 26th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
yyyyaaaawwwwnnnn TO THE SECOND POWER!
December 27th, 2008 at 1:29 am
First movie was pretty enjoyable and close to the book. But the second movie was not enjoyable and changed alot from the book. They need a good script.
December 27th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
That’s too bad. Voyage of the Dawn Treader was my favorite of the books.
December 27th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Walden, like all other companies, has had hits and misses. “Holes,” “Because of Winn-Dixie,” and “The Bridge to Terebithia” were all quite good. Others, e.g. “Around the World in 80 Days” were not. I didn’t care much for “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” but I’m not sure it’s a book that adapts well to live action. It has too many fantasy characters in it.
I don’t think it would be hard to get backing for a children’s book, but it has to be done correctly. “The Golden Compass” was a difficult movie to watch, but I think part of that was the book–it was hard to read (just what was “Dust” anyway?!). Ditto for Lemony Snicket–part of the fun is his style of writing which you lose in the transition.
Let’s see if someone else jumps aboard.
December 28th, 2008 at 1:05 am
I’m going to disagree with those who’ve panned the movies. Given what they are and the source material, I think the movies have done an excellent job not just visually, but story-wise; the opening scenes to the first film (the bombing of London) helped put the timeframe of the original books’ setting in its proper perspective, and the battle in the middle of the second fleshed out themes not quite explored in the original novel.
Personally, I was most looking forward to the underserved novels in the series– books five, six, and seven, most especially five, “The Horse and His Boy”. Possibly the best and tightest tale in the series and the one most ripe for a big screen adaptation.
December 30th, 2008 at 11:12 am
I’m kind of glad Disney has backed out because not gives a chance for a different producer to come onboard. The movies are really good in my opinion. I think the graphics could be more, but the story is amazing.
I’ve never read the Narnia books (save for The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe) so I guess I’m not the best judge, but I’d guess they stay pretty true to the books. That’s the only worry I have about a new producer. What will happen to the true-to-the-books storyline?
One thing that always bugged me while watching Narnia battle scenes is that there isn’t any blood. It makes it seem just a little be less realistic.
I hope this issue brought on by Disney is solved and they still make the movie. It would be a shame if the series stopped with Caspian.
December 30th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
I gotta agree with those who simply didn’t like the Narnia movies to date. I thought the first one was pretty bland… Watchable, but bland. And the kids were downright creepy in that first movie. Maybe I wanted the charisma of Harry, Ron and Hermione and that simply wasn’t there. But, as a LOTR for the 8-year old set it was decent.
HOWEVER, I was checking my watch every 5-10 minutes during Prince Caspian and every time I thought “That’s all?” I thought Caspian moved at a snail’s pace, and it was often hard to keep straight who was who, who was betraying whom and why, the kid playing Caspian himself was bloddy awful. Oh, and then we get Aslan showing up for all of about two minutes and no good explanation as to why he was gone so long… I’m sure there’s some Christ parallel that Lewis was going for there, but strictly in terms of a fantasy/adventure movie it was a big disappointment. Aslan’s the best part of the first one, and his absence from the second one hurts the movie. A lot. That battles were OK, but not nearly as good as LOTR was. The kids were much better the second time around, but the supporting cast wasn’t nearly as endearing as Tumnus, or the otters.
Oh, and if I’m those kids? I don’t keep going back to depressing, wartime London. I’m staying in the magical land of talking animals where people regard me as royalty.
Maybe go back once you’re really old, maybe nearing death, and you’ve got your whole life to live over again as a child, apparently. And only a few minutes will have passed!
Anyhow, I remember reading The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe as a kid but I never read the others. I think that’s true for a lot of people. It seems like everyone knows that one book, but I don’t know of many who have read any of the others (and it seems to me that people have either read the one book or ALL of the books… Little in-between). I think for that reason alone Prince Caspian was never gonna match the first film’s take.
It was also the victim of packed summer movie season… As lame as I thought Caspian was, it would’ve done much better this holiday season than it did this summer.
December 30th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
@ jimbutler: Golden Compass a confusing read? Having read Pullman’s trilogy several times I don’t see it that way. Now, the first time I tried to read the first book I stopped after about 50 pages, put it down, and started it over again a bit later. It is packed with a lot of ideas, and Pullman’s world takes a little getting used to, but it clicked for me the second time and I never looked back.
The movie, OTOH, was a major disappointment for me. I thought New Line would serve up something almost as epic as LOTR, but they sure as hell didn’t. It has its moments. The polar bears and daemons were awesome, and I thought the casting was excellent, but the script was terrible. The story (in the film) was rushed, important points were glossed over or ignored, and too many things changed in ways that defeated the whole point of the story. The changed ending was simply unforgivable. Maybe someday someone will try to make a movie version again, and maybe then they’ll do it right.
As for “Dust,” well… There are books that devoted to discussing Pullman’s writing and they can speak to it better than I can, but I sort of see Dust as knowledge. The knowledge that comes with experience, as one inevitably loses his or her innocence. Some would likely see it as “forbidden” knowledge. Or you can just look at it as a magical device that helps move the story along and certain characters want to possess, control or destroy. Not unlike the Rings in LOTR, or the Horcruxes in Harry Potter.
December 30th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
@ Nat: Good point about a lot of these films based on beloved books not doing so well on the big screen. I didn’t see Desperaux, but my daughter did. She says it barely resembled the book. I wonder if that hurt it at all.
Anyone know how Golden Compass did in the rest of the world? I definitely tanked in the States, considering what it cost, in spite of it opening at #1, but the books were massively successful in the UK and Europe (even moreso than in the U.S.). Tthat’s probably where the film did most of its business. Probably not enough to profit, maybe not even with DVD, but I’m curious to know.
Desperaux might end up doing alright for itself, since it’s animated and not as expensive, but the most disappointing film based on a successful children’s book this year has to be City of Ember. A fine little book (as are the sequels), but the movie didn’t even hit the top 10 its opening weekend. And that was in Fall, when the competition wasn’t nearly as strong. Yet again, I thought it was pretty disappointing.
But I didn’t hate the Snicket movie. It was odd, the way they crammed three books into movie like they did, but I didn’t hate it. I’m not sure how else it could’ve been done. That underperformed too, and I’m sorry that there weren’t other films made of the series.
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