Is it REBOOT time?

If they rebooted the sereis, should they keep it in World War II? If it were updated when should they be set?
 
That depends.

If they start with The Magician's Nephew, how about the first decade of the 20th Century.

If they start with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, then during World War II of course.

"Setting" is paramount. It's the most fundamental aspect of a story, so I don't see how altering this would result in an effective reboot, but in mere madness.
 
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If they start with The Magician's Nephew, how about the first decade of the 20th Century.
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Kind of depends on how old you imagine the professor to be in 1940 (late 50`s or early 60`s?).
Sometime in the last decade of the 19th Century (more in line with whats implied in the book) or the first couple of years of the 20th at the latest I would say.
The Victorian Hansom Cab dissappeared from London pretty rapidly after the appearance of motor taxi`s so Jadis`s rampage through the streets becomes increasingly unlikely the later you get (and that`s a scene I really want to see).
 
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In the C.S. Lewis Encyclopedia, Colin Duriez describes the setting of The Magician's Nephew as "Edwardian London." The reign of King Edward III was 1901-1910, immediately after Britain's longest reigning monarch Queen Victoria. At any rate, Lewis references The Bastables in the opening paragraph of The Magician's Nephew, which did not appear until 1899, so it looks like we agree in placing it right at about 1900 (that's the general consensus I believe). In as much, the setting would still be "Victorian."
 
I'm looking over the wide span of TV and movie adaptations of Narnia and I've come to the conclusion that Silver Chair has become a sort of sound barrier, that limit that people would argue is or is not insurmountable.

We ended the earlier BBC adaptation with Silver Chair. That's sad. Nobody has ever gone beyond that point. A reboot would most likely stall there too unless someone goes beyond Silver Chair just to prove it can be done.
 
That may be because BOTH "Magician's Nephew" AND "Last Battle" force the reader to confront Aslan being God Almighty, while "Horse/Boy" would be looked at (by idiots who WANT to have a grievance) as appearing "racist."
 
Alambil and Tarvis said:
So, I know a lot of people have been holding out hope for another sequel, whether it be MN or SC. But after having gone over the (unfortunately) inconclusive reports on Walden's negotiations over the future of the film franchise, I'm beginning to think (A) the next sequel isn't going to happen, and (B) the best thing to happen now, should the film franchise continue, is for there to be a complete reboot of the series - WITHOUT Walden.

Anyway, thoughts are appreciated.
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This is a matter of concern for me: First of all, because the amount of money and time invested into the remaking of these movies was tremendous (I would note that Walden and Andrew Adamson did a good job on LWW and the new "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" had some redeeming features). Secondly, because the last three films are remakes; we already had the BBC versions of the same films and the animated version of LWW. Let's be honest, the film industry has given LWW, PC and VDT a fair shot. It is NOW time to make another of Lewis' fabulous fairy tales into a film. I don't necessarily care which studio does it, who the director is, or who plays what part; what I want to see is someone emerging with a bold plan to make one of these great stories, such as "The Last Battle" or "The Magician's Nephew", into a movie regardless of whether the studios will immediately jump on it (because they certainly will, if the film is good.)

To justify myself I would argue that while The Chronicles of Narnia is a series, each book stands on its own, since every story accounts the adventures of particular people in Narnia that occur independently of one another. There is no direct continuation of the narrative, like in Lord of the Rings, neither is the story an account of one particular person, like Darth Vader in Star Wars. From Digory and Polly to Puddleglum and Shift, every character plays his or her part within the particular story involving him or her. Even characters such as Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy who appear in numerous chronicles are not linking the seven into one, seamless tale. LWW has as its climax the Deeper Magic From the Dawn of time overcoming the sorcery of the Witch through the self-sacrifice of Aslan, and Prince Caspian has its climax in the defeat of the tyrant Miraz and the restoration of the King of Narnia. Thus, each chronicle stands on its own in this way. Narnia is a series of fairy tales, not, like Lord of the Rings, one fairy tale. For this reason the film adaption of any one book can and should be made independently, especially if greedy film producers and studios can't agree upon the most profitable way of making the whole series and insist upon making unnecessary and shameful changes in the stories in order to attract more moviegoers (a scam that evidently does not work -- the new VDT is a case in point.)
 
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EveningStar said:
I'm looking over the wide span of TV and movie adaptations of Narnia and I've come to the conclusion that Silver Chair has become a sort of sound barrier, that limit that people would argue is or is not insurmountable.

We ended the earlier BBC adaptation with Silver Chair. That's sad. Nobody has ever gone beyond that point. A reboot would most likely stall there too unless someone goes beyond Silver Chair just to prove it can be done.
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This is one reason that I think starting a new series of adaptations with "The Magicians Nephew" has some advantages.
In itself its a good stand-alone story which has never been done before, has for a potential sequel `The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" then the option of either doing a new version of "Prince Caspian" or going in a different direction and doing "The Horse and His Boy" next.
Perhaps doing the stories in a different sequence is a way to break "The Chair Barrier"?
 
AsbelMctalisker,

Yes, this could work. Rebooting the series beginning with the Magician's Nephew is something they haven't done on film, but it has proven to be a success with Focus on Family Radio Theatre's adaptions of CoN.

Yet my concern is not so much with how they're going to start over as with when they're going to crank out some new material that we haven't seen in the cinematic format. I have little doubt that an excellent adaption of The Magician's Nephew would be immensely popular.
 
I agree.
Though I do think that no matter what the estate does , that any studio that distributes it is going to view it as the same series as the Disney/Fox films. I fear that they might try to tackle the unmade books (though not a bad thing) leading to a more 'Broken' franchise (different actors playing the roles, etc.).
 
Hopefully, the estate after their experience with Walden will want to retain as much control as possible before selling the rights elsewhere once the moretorium runs out.
In any case I suspect that any decent studio that may want to tackle these stories in the future will probably want to do things differently.
The `big budget/huge epic` way that Walden chose for their versions, probably because of the success of `The Lord of The Rings` isn`t the only way to do things after all and a lower budget often results in more creative storytelling.
I`m kind of hoping for some kind of UK/Australian/New Zealand co-production myself, with minimum Hollywood involvement.
 
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Hmm, that would be nice! Though I do think Big and Epic do work for certain books (LWTW, LB, HH&B) while small calmer fantasies seem better suited to others (MN, SC, VDT). I think a combination of the two would make the world of Narnia more realistic since in a real living world not all events are earth chattering battle-heavy epics.
 
It is so hard! If we wanted a reboot, we should get the directors to plan ahead. But that would waste so much money! And I don't want the actors to leave, because they act good. Except, well, you know, Peter, when he acts rather harsh and colder than in the book. But if they do plan a reboot at least get the actors of the Pevensies and Eustace to play the older versions of them in LB.

^^That's just my opinion.^^
 
MorningTime4 said:
It is so hard! If we wanted a reboot, we should get the directors to plan ahead. But that would waste so much money! And I don't want the actors to leave, because they act good. Except, well, you know, Peter, when he acts rather harsh and colder than in the book. But if they do plan a reboot at least get the actors of the Pevensies and Eustace to play the older versions of them in LB.

^^That's just my opinion.^^
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I agree completely. Just because the director made some very questionable/out of character decisions doesn't mean they should throw away the talent and charm of this cast.
 
Hmmm... if new films are made after a delay, either remakes or versions of books Walden never got to, how about these possibilities:

William Mosely as Frank the Cabbie in "Magician's Nephew"?

Georgie Hensley as voice talent for the mare Hwin in "Horse/Boy"?

Skandar Keynes as Rabadash in same?

Anna Popplewell as the Green Witch in "Silver Chair"?

Will Poulter as the Professor in a new version of "Lion/Witch," if it were done after a LONG delay?
 
That is a possibility copperfox, I think that if they where to do another film it would be good to continue the same epicness that the other films had.

As for a reboot,maybe but it would have to be good. I also agree with the notion of Aus/NZ/UK co-production that would be very well.
 
I really don't want a reboot, but it looks like that is their only option. I enjoyed William Poulter as Eustace, but by the time they can finally make the SC, he'll be to old. I hope that they can still make the SC through another company, though.
 
I'm beginning to think "No, it is not reboot time." I know I've waivered on this. Naturally, in today's visual culture, it'd be awesome to have a faithful adaptation. But "faithful" varies from Narnia fan to Narnia fan, and this goes back to C.S. Lewis' original wish that the series never be translated to film. So, I believe I've already disrespected him for watching the existing versions, and now I'm more of the opinion that an enduring "hands of" policy would be most apropos.
 
Lately, I have thought off and on about the introduction of the little girl in VOTDT, and the interaction between her and Lucy. It seems pretty obvious that their intent is to show Lucy growing up and maturing, as she becomes a "big sister" and comforts the little girl. I don't necessarily mind this with the current state of things with the films, but I keep returning to continuity issues in my own mind that go something like this: If Lucy was a queen in LWW, she should already be well aquainted with mentoring/ruling over any number of little girls, being comfortable in her own womanhood.

And so I find myself wondering if the moviemakers, knowing they never intended to make anymore beyond VOTDT knew they had nothing to worry about in the storyline. Anyhow, just thought I'd share.
:)

P.S.
Yes a million times yes I would still love to see Horse and His Boy
 
I personally think it's too soon for a reboot. I had no issues with either movie that's been done so far. I know critics and sales say differently though. I don't think they should reboot any movie, nor let's say remake VOTDT just because it didn't do so well in the eyes of some people. It would be like all the work people put into it, including the actors was completely wasted. I wouldn't be happy if I had been in the movie and they suddenly remade it like let's say three years after it was made.

I would say maybe 10 years from now it would be acceptable to remake it.

Perhaps we haven't heard anything or seen anything about the continuity of the series is because they're thinking long and hard about what they're going to do and taking their time instead of rushing into it. They might be taking into consideration about VOTDT and how it did so they can make changes so it will sell well, hopefully.

They also have to try to get some of the same actors from the previous movies to be in the future movies, at least some of them. If they were doing Magician's Nephew they would have to try to get Tilda to be the White Witch again and she may not want to do it. They may have to get another suitable actress to play the White Witch. If they wre doing the Silver Chair they would have to get Will to play Eustace and maybe they have tro negotiate how much he would make or whether or not he wants to do it in general.

I'm sure there's a lot that goes into planning a movie and I would rather they take their time in deciding stuff before they reveal anything to the public.

On a side note, if they did reboot whose to say it would be any better. It could be worse for all we know. Just some food for thought.
 
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