Posted on 12/25/2008 5:50:35 PM PST by grandpa jones
With the bad economy and an actors strike pending, this is probably a good decision.
I don’t think its anti-Christian in its intent. Disney is all about the bottom line...it doesn’t care if something is pro-Christian or anti-Christion or non-confrontational. Disney just wants your money, like any other business.
The movie has child actors...during a strike their appearance could change dramatically. A movie with high production costs is not wise at this time, especially if it would have to be re-shot or re-cast.
I gotta go with the theory that the source material just wasn't godless enough for Team Rat's liking. Of all the channels on my Cable system, Team Rat is the only one I have blocked.
Actually, you would expect the 3rd movie to do as well as the 2nd. The first gets a lot of bump from people who don’t know about it, and who are drawn into the hype. The 2nd movie will be mostly people who care enough about the story to spend money a 2nd time. Those people are likely to follow through with all the subsequent movies, so long as they don’t screw them up.
A lot of people haven’t seen Caspian yet. It’s funny to compare the two movies, since I imagine this month Caspian is going to get a bump from DVD sales, just like LWW got the Christmas after it came out.
If 40 is younger than you, then yes - I am younger. I have read the books in my youth as well, and can enjoy reading them as much as watching the movies.
I trust, also, that as a USAF veteran and a preacher, no pounding upon is necessary upon MY part...
“What I want to see is a computer-generated film of George Washington”
Please dont! I love George and shudder to think of what hollyweird might do to him.
Jeff Daniels in “The Crossing” was good!
“The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” is, imo, inarguably the most well known and beloved of the Nania series. It stands alone.
I’m a huge fan of C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles but I do feel it is more difficult to create the same suspense for the other books in the Narnia series the way it was done for LOTR trilogy. Even as a fan of the Narnia series, I confess I’m not as interested in the followups as I was for the first film. That was my favorite book, still is. No matter how good sequels could be, I’m still partial to TLTWATW.
I would still like to see the series continue as I do still enjoy it well enough and I suspect it will though perhaps with a little more care to the costs incurred in production.
I hate to say it, but though I love the books, the movies are kind of weak, despite special effects. It just doesn’t engage. I’m not surprised it doesn’t have more staying power, attracting an audience. Just saying.
Personally I found that a very satisfying ending but as literature it is far from the light, allusive touch in The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe. For persons unacquainted with Christian symbology it was likely to appear incomprehensible; for those hostile to it the thing would have been shrieked at as heavy-handed propaganda. In short, I think of all of the series except The Last Battle it might have been the most difficult to translate into a multi-leveled screenplay.
Not so The Silver Chair, a much simpler story that is, IMHO, eminently filmable. But of all of the others I'd most like to see someone film The Magician's Nephew. It's blatantly Genesis - Digory is even tempted by an apple - but done with the same light touch of The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe and working perfectly well on the level of a simple adventure story for those who find the Christian allusions distasteful. And that, unfortunately, describes a significant portion of the movie's market. And, of course, for those of us who did love The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, it explains so very much, so very well.
Lewis’ storeies were plot driven with character development secondary. Tolkein’s stories were character driven with the plot being rather thin. Different styles, but both can be successful.
Not a cartoon, but a younger child’s view of fantasy - a wild mixture of humans, mythological creatures, talking animals, and monsters. LOTR has an older child’s view of fantasy that is more sophisticated and structured.
I believe their fear is that the third one would generate less than $200M, and in their eyes on return profit...it starts to become questionable. Too many people who expect a two dollar return on each dollar invested.
“It would indeed be ironic if the Golden Compass train-wreck scared studios away from Narnia”
I think the fact that Compass and Caspian basically made the same amount of money meant the 1st Narnia didnt impress, and didnt establish with audiences that they needed to see a 2nd film.
The problem here, however, is deflation + big budget = toxic.
Speilberg and Peter Jackson just had their financing for RinTin fall apart.
Dreamworks2.0 cant find a penny in financing. They’ve mothballed and will try again in Q2 2009.
That’s 2 more giant examples of what’s going on right now.
In deflation, only a true fool spends large on a product that wont hit the market for upwards of a year. Deflation means the price pyramid is cratering. It means sticker prices are falling, and wages will race them into the toilet.
Treader was carrying a 200 million budget. No stars, so that was all going to end up on the screen. You could kill the budget, bastardize the original novel so the ‘expensive’ stuff gets written out ... and still you’ve got a 150 million price tag.
When the film comes out and tickets have deflated $1 or $2 per seat, and that price is a result of theaters chasing customers because no one is spending ... enjoy your bankruptcy.
I don’t think we are going to see that kind of deflation in the next two years. I guess the point is that nobody knows for sure, so nobody can take risks of that size.
Valid, but the situation is more complicated. GC and PC made similar amounts worldwide (and Compass may have been slightly ahead expressed as return on investment). But going back to my #25, what matters sequelwise is domestic Box Office, and Compass only made $70M - a half Caspian. That gave a Compass sequel no chance, while Narnia III was on the bubble.
Compass was primarily financed by pre-selling the foreign distribution rights, with New Line surrendering every penny of foreign in the deal, in exchange for the cash to make the flick.
Opposite to what you’re saying, the foreign boxoffice potential of Compass is what got it made in the 1st place.
Disney passing on distribution means Anshultz either self-finances the flick 100 percent, which means Disney itself would turn around in a heartbeat and distribute it, or he pre-sells the foreign to fill the financing hole.
The Disney deal was teetering on collapse since the summer. Anshultz had months to obtain alternate financing, and I suspect Disney had been clear since July or August that they’d distribute, but they wouldnt finance.
So I am thinking no one wants in on Caspian, but it’s not really about Caspian. It’s about no one wanting to spend 100-200 million on a product with no idea what ticket prices are going to look like when the flick hits theaters.
Did you see the 30 % decline in November DVD sales? Stunning. The industry has no idea where the money is going to come from tommorow.
And being a continuing franchise, unlike self-contained episodes (like James Bond), the whole set of films will have combined value.
By splitting the series among several studios, it’ll complicate sales of a “boxed set”.
Wonder if there is influence from the lavender mafia over prop 8.
3 of my 4 kids love the books and movies. We watched Prince Caspian the other day. I wasn’t really paying attention so can’t comment on it, but they loved it.
And Jadis -- what a villainess for the screen!
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