Remember that rumor that we reported on several weeks ago -- the one from Jim Hill that said Disney was considering abandoning The Chronicles of Narnia franchise for John Carter of Mars? The response was, well, harsh. No one felt it could possibly be true.Well, it might be. FirstShowing.net was at the Prince Caspian panel at New York ComicCon, where producer Mark Johnson confirmed that Disney was planning to end the series as a trilogy with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. There are "no plans" at present to film the remaining books -- although there is the possibility that if Caspian and Dawn Treader do well, Disney will revive it. As of now, there's no confirmation that Disney plans to replace Narnia with John Carter -- but you have to imagine they'll certainly explore all options.
The news doesn't surprise me at all. I think Disney's enthusiasm for the beloved fantasy franchise was admirable, but not entirely well thought out. I stand by my original opinion that the books become darker, stranger and nigh unfilmable from this point on. I think A Horse and His Boy would make a spectacular standalone film, though, and an ideal place to revisit the series if Disney ever revived it. Well, at least I'm getting Dawn Treader. I can live just fine without ever revisiting The Last Battle, but give me Narnian adventure on the high seas!
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian comes to theatres May 16th, 2008.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-22-2008 @ 3:19PM
Noah said...
I hope you were joking about A Horse and His Boy
I'm glad they are ending it at 3 - I totally agree with being happy not seeing The Last Battle
but wait a second did Disney just say no to more sequels, what what - hahaha
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4-22-2008 @ 3:59PM
Nick said...
Disney said they wouldn't make any more sequels to their classic Disney cartoon movies, meaning The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, etc.
4-22-2008 @ 4:31PM
LiqwidZero said...
I really wished The Magician's Nephew had come out. That was my favorite book in the series.
4-22-2008 @ 3:47PM
Patrick R said...
Although I didn't really like the "Lion/Witch/Wardrobe" film that much, I would've still liked to see The Magician's Nephew some day.
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4-22-2008 @ 3:47PM
Ryan Beesley said...
I thought Silver Chair would be great to see on film. So dark and sinister. I can't say I agree with stopping at 3 (or 4 if you go with the modern numbering which starts the series in chronological order with the Magician's Nephew). That would be like stopping the LotR saga at book 5...
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4-22-2008 @ 4:01PM
Stephen Lang said...
I think it has nothing to do with 'filmability', they are just getting cold feet because there's been a overload of children's fantasy adaptations (many of which have underperformed at the BO.) Harry Potter is the king and guaranteed BO gold, Narnia is above the others but not as strong as Potter. Add to that the fact that sequels typically do some small percentage less than their predecessor, and bean counters are obviously worried at risk/return for something like Narnia 6...
Since they are planning their budget and release schedule 3 to 5 years out, they are penciling something else instead of Narnia 4, 5, etc.
If somehow Narnia 2 and 3 blow out all expectations and deliver huge profits for Disney, do you think they are going to walk away from the franchise? I think they would surely continue releasing movies until the well has dried.
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4-22-2008 @ 4:31PM
will said...
I mean, none of the original kids would be in the movie after Voyage of the Dawn Treader, so I can see why they would end it there.
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4-22-2008 @ 5:02PM
AJ said...
Honestly I don't know what their problem is. Remember the winter of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Lion/Witch/Wardrobe, and King Kong? GoF came out in like mid-November to an over 100 million opening then came LWW to a 60 million opening. Then the next week King Kong was coming out and everyone was like LWW is going to die King Kong will prevail and bury LWW especially because Harry Potter just came out like a month before. King Kong disappointed and was number one for two weeks then LWW INCREASED it's weekend-to-weekend box office and climbed back to the number one spot and became the #1 movie of the winter beating out Harry Potter and #2 for the year. I don't think guaranteed box office is the issue.
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4-22-2008 @ 10:57PM
Mark Sommer said...
First Showing's report left out one important detail. Johnson went on to day that The Silver Chair will be the fourth movie if Caspian does well. See my report on the Hollywood Jesus Narnia News Blog: http://live.hollywoodjesus.com/?p=1971
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