The Silver Chair to film in 2008?

With all of this strike business happening around Hollywood, a list of films to be made has surfaced, and there is one very interesting item of note to be found there. Under the Walden heading, there are two Narnia films listed. You’d think to yourself, okay, that must mean Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. You’d be only half correct. They finished shooting Prince Caspian within the last few weeks.

Here’s what the Strike Memo says:

WALDEN
NARNIA 3 – DAWNTREADER D: Michael Apted
NARNIA 4 – SILVER CHAIR D: tba

This is from a list that is being circulated around major talent agencies in Hollywood. It includes all the movies that the studios are making a priority before the impending Writers Guild, Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild strike next year. The strike, I have heard, will probably begin in June.

What this means is that there is no director yet attached to The Silver Chair, and that Walden Media and Disney are making it a priority to complete the filming before the strike begins. This is very important as the length of the strike can and probably will effect film releases. With Dawn Treader scheduled for May 2009 and Silver Chair for May 2010, this would give them plenty of time to complete both of those films, and prepare The Horse and His Boy, The Magician’s Nephew and The Last Battle for filming after the strike ends.

This is good news, but not great, as we haven’t received any word yet on whether or not Silver Chair has officially been given the green light. They have, however, already signed Ben Barnes to reprise his role as Caspian.

The only question that remains is: who will direct? Will Andrew Adamson have time to direct? Probably not, with the release of Prince Caspian in May, he’ll be busy with press conferences, interviews and premieres. Will Michael Apted direct it then? Perhaps. Given the timeframe for filming Dawn Treader, starting in February, he just might be ready and willing to direct them back to back, keeping the story going. However, with a fairly new cast for Silver Chair, save for Eustace, a new director could begin pre-production while Dawn Treader is being filmed, and then jump right in shortly after it wraps production.

This is all speculation at the moment, but we’ll ask around to learn whatever we can about it.