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Disney plans 'Chronicles of Narnia' film
WorldNetDaily.com ^
| Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Posted on 03/02/2004 10:54:57 PM PST by JohnHuang2
Disney plans 'Chronicles of Narnia' film
C.S. Lewis classic coming to big screen in $100 million production
Posted: March 3, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
As Mel Gibson's blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ" plays to millions of church-goers nationwide, the Walt Disney Co. is planning to co-finance and distribute the C.S. Lewis children's classic "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."
C.S. Lewis |
Disney has struck a deal with Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz' Walden Media on the more than $100 million production, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Andrew Adamson, who directed "Shrek," will begin filming this summer.
Walt Disney Pictures expects a Christmas 2005 release and will retain the option to release future films in the series.
"It's a very, very ambitious production and one that we believe could be very important to the studio," said Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook, according to the Reporter. "The story and the characters are so inviting that audiences around the world will be excited for the franchise."
The late C.S. Lewis, who was an Oxford professor, is regarded as one of the 20th century's preeminent Christian thinkers.
Lewis' seven-book "Chronicles of Narnia" series tells the adventures of four siblings in World War II England who enter the world of Narnia through a magical wardrobe. In Narnia, the children discover talking beasts, dwarfs and giants who have become frozen under the spell of an evil White Witch. The children cooperate with the lion Aslan to overcome evil.
Aslan is seen by many enthusiasts of the series as a Christ figure.
Walden Media CEO Cary Granat told the Reporter the film "has unbelievably great scenes for families, with four kids who leave a world consumed by war that they have no control over only to enter a world where a war is raging in which their actions are crucial to the outcome. It says a lot about empowerment and fractured families coming together."
Lewis began the series in 1950 with "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," followed by the prequel "The Magician's Nephew" and the sequels "The Horse and His Boy," "Prince Caspian," "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader," "The Silver Chair" and "The Last Battle."
Walden Media, which was launched in May 2001, sees its purpose as "marrying popular entertainment and education."
In December 2001, Christianity Today noted Anschutz, a billionaire Christian, owned one-fifth of America's movie screens. A September 1999 Fortune article said he was "working deliberately and diligently" to do "something significant in American Christianity."
Walden Media head Cary Granat, who formerly ran Disney-owned Dimension Films, told Variety in 2001 the C.S. Lewis Co. "saw eye-to-eye with us on exactly how to make this film."
Lewis' stepson Douglas Gresham told the Hollywood Reporter at the time, "It has been our dream for many years not simply to make a live-action version of 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,' but to do so while remaining faithful to the novel."
"We are delighted to make this film with Walden Media, which we are confident will create the adaptation that my stepfather would have wanted," Gresham said.
TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: disney; narnia
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To: JohnHuang2
It says a lot about empowerment and fractured families coming together. Uh-oh...
2
posted on
03/02/2004 10:57:40 PM PST
by
ECM
To: Salvation; Romulus; ahadams2; Eala
Better than expected news. When I heard the name Disney in on this project, I assumed disaster. But I will now be prayerfully hopeful.
Please ping the Catholic and Anglican lists -- oh ye keepers of lists. Thank you.
3
posted on
03/02/2004 10:59:40 PM PST
by
Siobhan
(+Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet+)
To: JohnHuang2
Guess I better go audition.
4
posted on
03/02/2004 11:01:09 PM PST
by
Prince Caspian
(Don't ask if it's risky... Ask if the reward is worth the risk)
To: JohnHuang2
In Narnia, the children discover talking beasts, dwarfs and giants who have become frozen under the spell of an evil White Witch. The children cooperate with the lion Aslan to overcome evil.
The lion is Britain, the dwarfs are all the little countries and America was definintely a giant.
I wonder...
5
posted on
03/02/2004 11:05:47 PM PST
by
GeronL
(http://www.ArmorforCongress.com......................Send a Freeper to Congress!)
To: Prince Caspian
LOL
Better hurry indeed.
See how quickly these companies now want to produce films that christians will go out and see??
I better finish my script where lawyers try to steal Christmas in a small town...
6
posted on
03/02/2004 11:06:57 PM PST
by
GeronL
(http://www.ArmorforCongress.com......................Send a Freeper to Congress!)
To: JohnHuang2; CARepubGal; Wrigley; drstevej; Dr. Eckleburg; OrthodoxPresbyterian
What a shame that the likes of a giant such as C.S. Lewis has to be associated with the likes of a Michael "Gay Day" Eisner. One would think that another company could have been chosen, such as perhaps...Icon Productions
7
posted on
03/02/2004 11:07:13 PM PST
by
Calvinist_Dark_Lord
(I have come here to kick @$$ and chew bubblegum...and I'm all outta bubblegum! ~Roddy Piper)
To: JohnHuang2
I like the Narnia books and I highly regard C.S. Lewis. I am bitterly disappointed that Disney is going to film Narnia. I don't see how they can do anything but ruin, pollute and damage the message.
Blecchh.
8
posted on
03/02/2004 11:09:09 PM PST
by
little jeremiah
(...men of intemperate minds can not be free. Their passions forge their fetters.)
To: JohnHuang2
50 bucks says they "Poohify" it.
To: JohnHuang2
I think I recall seeing some threads on FR a year or two ago saying that Disney (or another studio) wanted to remove the Christian analogies from the story.
10
posted on
03/02/2004 11:15:22 PM PST
by
weegee
(Election 2004: Re-elect President Bush... Don't feed the trolls.)
To: weegee
to remove the Christian analogies from the story
That was the first thought through my mind when I read the story.
11
posted on
03/02/2004 11:23:17 PM PST
by
yhwhsman
("Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small..." -Sir Winston Churchill)
To: Calvinist_Dark_Lord
Maybe Disney won't have Eisner to kick around much any longer -- God willing.
12
posted on
03/02/2004 11:34:52 PM PST
by
Dr. Eckleburg
(There are very few shades of gray.)
To: JohnHuang2
If Walt Disney were still running Disney, this would be great news.
But Michael Eisner, the anti-Disney, is running Disney now.
Therefore, expect the movie version of "Chronicles of Narnia" to be Christenrein.
13
posted on
03/02/2004 11:41:02 PM PST
by
Map Kernow
("I hold that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing" ---Thomas Jefferson)
To: ECM
The family was fractured as a result of war in the books. Disney will most likely make it a divorced/never married situation, unfortunately.
To: GeronL
"... See how quickly these companies now want to produce films that christians will go out and see??" Remember the filth they peddled under the guise of 'We're only giving them what they want'.
15
posted on
03/02/2004 11:44:25 PM PST
by
The KG9 Kid
(Semper Fi)
To: Calvinist_Dark_Lord
ditto
16
posted on
03/02/2004 11:44:58 PM PST
by
teldon30
To: JohnHuang2
I remember seeing at least part of the animated Narnia story on TV as a kid. Anybody remember who put that out? I seem to recall at least the first two books were on.
17
posted on
03/02/2004 11:45:08 PM PST
by
squidly
(Money is inconvenient for them: give them victuals and an arse-clout, it is enough.)
To: squidly
I remember a live action version.. It was british I think
18
posted on
03/02/2004 11:51:03 PM PST
by
GeronL
(http://www.ArmorforCongress.com......................Send a Freeper to Congress!)
To: weegee
um... I kind of remember that
19
posted on
03/02/2004 11:51:29 PM PST
by
GeronL
(http://www.ArmorforCongress.com......................Send a Freeper to Congress!)
To: goldensky
Yes, and that's precisely my fear.
20
posted on
03/02/2004 11:59:28 PM PST
by
ECM
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