Posted on 12/25/2008 5:50:35 PM PST by grandpa jones
Los Angeles - Disney confirmed Wednesday that it would not be involved in the third film of "The Chronicles of Narnia" fantasy series, dealing a blow to the franchise based on CS Lewis's classic books.
A spokesperson for Disney confirmed in an e-mail that the company had chosen not to exercise an option to co-produce and co-finance the next Narnia film with producers Walden Media.
The Hollywood Reporter cited "budgetary and logistical reasons" for Disney's decision, which leaves the third film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader facing an uncertain future.
The film was due to start filming early next year with a release date tentatively set for 2010.
The two previous films in the series The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian have grossed more than $1.1bn worldwide since the first film was released in 2005.
(Excerpt) Read more at news24.com ...
$1.1 billion? Yeah, that kind of "cooling of interest" says that there is more to this story than interest.
But I wonder how “Caspian” (2) did, compared to “Lion” (1). If there was a significant drop-off, that could be a factor.
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...
Call the people who did Shreck. Narnia is supposed to be animated.
Mr. Gresham, are you reading?
Ditto to what you said.
Certainly makes one wonder.
Sure does.
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.
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 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?
They stand for crap!
Walt Disney must be rolling over in his grave. This is so sad.
I REALLY loved the Lion, too.
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
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...
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.
Thanks for the clarification.
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.
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.
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