Disney ditches Narnia

News24 ^ | 12/25/08 | (SA) staff

[grandpa jones]

The Hollywood Reporter said the decision reflected a cooling of interest by movie studios in adapting children's fantasy novels, following the success of the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings films.

$1.1 billion? Yeah, that kind of "cooling of interest" says that there is more to this story than interest.

[Charles Henrickson]

But I wonder how “Caspian” (2) did, compared to “Lion” (1). If there was a significant drop-off, that could be a factor.

[piytar]

It is political. The Narnia Chronicles are a Christian allegory. Gee, shock that Disney won’t touch it, despite the proven bankability. Actually shocked they touched the first two. Even more shocked they didn’t manage to screw them up...

[the invisib1e hand]

good. maybe it will get picked up by someone with a little heart and imagination, who doesn't copy the "Lord of The Rings" model again.

Call the people who did Shreck. Narnia is supposed to be animated.

Mr. Gresham, are you reading?

[FlingWingFlyer]

Ditto to what you said.

[ChildOfThe60s]

Certainly makes one wonder.

[apocalypto]

Sure does.

[JimSEA]

Don’t worry, they will come up with a children’s movie about greedy humans screwing up the environment like all the rest of the industry. Conformity sells movies don’t you know.

[piytar]

Lion grossed over $700M. Prince grossed over $400M. So yes, there was a drop off, but $400M+ movies aren’t exactly failures, or even easy to find...

[pvoce]

1.1 billion probably could produce three of the movies on their own.

What has "cooled" the "genre" is #1: Bad production on the later HP movies, and 2: Its been nearly 10 years since any LOTR movies.

Narnia has done well consistently, so where is the loss of audience?

[NordP]

Figures Disney wouldn't want to produce good clean wholesome movie.

They stand for crap!

Walt Disney must be rolling over in his grave. This is so sad.

I REALLY loved the Lion, too.

[AndrewC]

The Lion ...

TOTAL LIFETIME GROSSES
Domestic: $291,710,957 39.2%
+ Foreign: $453,300,315 60.8%

---

= Worldwide: $745,011,272

DOMESTIC SUMMARY
Opening Weekend: $65,556,312
(3,616 theaters, $18,129 average)
% of Total Gross: 22.5%

Widest Release: 3,853 theaters

Close Date: May 11, 2006

In Release: 154 days / 22 weeks

Prince Caspian...

Domestic: $141,621,490 33.7%
+ Foreign: $278,027,596 66.3%

---

= Worldwide: $419,649,086

DOMESTIC SUMMARY
Opening Weekend: $55,034,805
(3,929 theaters, $14,007 average)
% of Total Gross: 38.9%

Widest Release: 3,929 theaters

Close Date: September 4, 2008

In Release: 112 days / 16 weeks

[jas3]

Lion grossed over $700M. Prince grossed over $400M. So yes, there was a drop off, but $400M+ movies aren’t exactly failures, or even easy to find...

What were the projected production costs of "Voyage"? And if you draw a trend line, the third film would only gross $100M+ worldwide. After production, distribution, and marketing costs, "Voyage" is certainly no sure thing.

jas3

[pvoce]

good. maybe it will get picked up by someone with a little heart and imagination, who doesn't copy the "Lord of The Rings" model again. Call the people who did Shreck. Narnia is supposed to be animated.

I was actually glad that the movies had a LOTR feel to it. Both Lewis and Tolkein were very much friends - in fact, it was Tolkien that Lewis gave credit to for his reversion from atheism, although Tolkien was disappointed that Lewis embraced Anglicanism rather than Tolkien's Roman Catholocism.

That being siad, the two were not very far apart in their approach to literature, nor in major theological doctrine, so it is appropiate that the fi,ms have the same "feel".

This could be a face-saving opportunity for New Line, who have totally screwed up the future Hobbit film due to their financial shenanagans...

[aruanan]

Narnia is supposed to be animated.

Holy crap, no!

[Joe 6-pack]

"- in fact, it was Tolkien that Lewis gave credit to for his reversion from atheism..."

Read Lewis's spiritual autobiography, Surprised By Joy. He specifically cites GK Chesterton, and Chesterton's book, Everlasting Man, many of the themes and arguments resurface in Lewis's Mere Christianity.

[pvoce]

You are correct. It was both GKC's writing and 'arguments' with Tolkein, who was his collegue at Oxford at the time.

Thanks for the clarification.

[angcat]

I got stuck watching that last night with my kids. I wanted to stick nails in my eyes it was so boring.

[Joe 6-pack]

Certainly Tolkien was instrumental, but I've long been under the impression their relationship blossomed some time after Lewis's embrace of Christianity. Doug Gresham has written some interesting vignettes of his trips to the pub with "Jack" to meet with Tolkien, where he was party to many of their discussions and exchanges.

A bit of interesting trivia: In the recent Lion film, there is the scene where the children are sitting indoors at the professor's estate due to the rain and war news is coming over the radio. The voice on the radio is Doug Gresham, Lewis's step-son.

[AnAmericanMother]

Thought that was a nice touch to involve Gresham!

I've been a huge fan of the Narnia books since I got them as a Christmas present at age 6.

And really I think these movies are about as good as it gets film-wise. The Narnia stories are hard to translate to film.