The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Who cares about the box office? Narnia sure doesn't! Prince Caspian might have struggled to put an impressive number of arses in seats, and gotten unceremoniously dumped by Disney, but someone still wants those Pevensie kids. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Fox 2000 is picking up the tossed aside The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and wants to get it in theaters by the holiday season in 2010. Talk about a risky proposition. The last one wasn't only over budget -- it brought in a sucky box office. Who in their right mind would take on a struggling series and try to bring dragons and other beasties to the big screen while saving pennies in a bad economy? The warning bells, they are a-ringing.

Meanwhile, The Thing is coming back to attack! But have no fear -- the man behind this might just make this a desirable remake. Variety reports that Ron Moore is writing a new treatment of the short story "Who Goes There," which was the basis for both Howard Hawks and John Carpenter's films. Who is Ron Moore? He's one of the executive producers of Battlestar Galactica, and has written most of the show's episodes. (He's at the top with 73, and the next closest are Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, each with 15.) Considering the fan mania and critical adoration involved with that show, if Moore can't make The Thing thrive in the 21st century, who can?

Finally, another girl is heading for a coma. Unfortunately, The Smiths won't be wishing her to pull through, and it's not based on Douglas Coupland's best book (yes, I said best). Even more unfortunately, The Hollywood Reporter posts that Girlfriend in a Coma is coming from Marco Schnabel and Larry Stuckey. Does that mean nothing to you? Schnabel directed The Love Guru, and Stuckey is the man who penned Little Fockers. Ugh. All that's being said about the plot is that it's a "satirical high school comedy that looks at an unlikely romance." Gee, could that be a girl in a coma? I think we've already covered that enough with Miss March.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ... Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia. The End! Finit! Voila! All done! Merry Christmas, Narnia!

Can you imagine a world where The Chronicles of Narnia only made it through two installments? Can you imagine no Dawn Treader, or Silver Chairs, or Horses, or Nephews, or The Last Battle? It's come to be, at least where Disney and Walden Media are concerned. The Hollywood Reporter posts that the companies have chosen to not co-produce and finance the next Narnia installment (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader), citing "budgetary and logistical reasons." (And also declining to elaborate on these reasons.)

The plan was to get the film in production soon, to be released in May of 2010. But without a company and deep pockets to finance the fantasy, there's a decent chance that this will all go up in smoke. The key cast were attached to the third installment, but there's no telling if they'll wait around for a new bank. However, Walden does plan to shop the film around in hopes of finding someone willing to fork over the money. I imagine that it will be a pretty hard sell -- the second only pulled in close to half what The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe pulled in, so it's far from a sure bet, box office-wise.

Are you happy with the news? Is this the chance for someone else to bring the franchise more critical acclaim? The chance for the adaptations to die and fade away? Will the MPAA just mislabel it anyway? Weigh in below!

It seems crazy to me that studios "claim" release dates two and three years before the movies come out. I understand that it builds up anticipation, but hanging a release date over filmmakers' heads can't help the end result. For example, I attended a screening of the director's cut of Troy the other night (very cool), with director Wolfgang Petersen introducing. He discussed how at test screenings he realized the score of the film wasn't working. He wound up replacing it in a huge rush to make the release date, and it became one of many aspects of the final film he was unhappy with. Why not just give directors time to make the films they want instead of all the "starting without a finished script" -type stuff that goes on? Well, two upcoming movies -- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (or as I call it, TCONTVOTDT -- it just flows better) and The Wolf Man -- seem to be doing just that.

Prince Caspian, the second Narnia adventure, is still set for release this May, but TCONTVOTDT has been moved from May 1st, 2009, to May 7th, 2010. Taking its place on the '09 date is something called G-Force, "a Jerry Bruckheimer family-adventure about a band of animal commandoes trying to stop an evil billionaire taking over the world." If that plot description is any indication, Summer '09 is going to be a magical time at the cineplex! Mark Romanek's The Wolf Man, with Benicio del Toro in the title role, is being moved from November 18th, 2008 to Spring 2009. I love del Toro, and am really looking forward to that one. I wonder if the notoriously hairy Robin Williams was considered for Wolf Man? Might have saved money on makeup. Reasons have not been given for the release date changes, but Empire speculates that it likely has something to do with the actor's strike that could shake up the industry next June. Hopefully, putting some extra time and care into these movies will be a good thing.