I wanted to make this clear:
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is NOT a dead property. It is now being shopped around to other studios. Walden Media is still backing this series 150%. Thank you, Walden Media. You rock!
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a property that is one of the most popular of the Narnia books, as evidenced by this poll:
Loading ...Whatever studio ends up picking this film up has a few things they need to do:
Keep to the Written Word as much as possible. There is good stuff in the rest of these books that shouldn’t be missed. I understand how filmmaking works, and that things can’t always follow the written word (and sometimes shouldn’t), but from here on out, as close as possible, please.
Promote, promote, promote. Actually get awareness levels up. We’re doing our part, but we can only do so much. And use the family friendliness of the series to your advantage. That Prince Caspian was promoted as a different, darker Narnia may have scared families off a bit.
But the most important thing is: have fun with the franchise.
Hm. I’m not sure this is the best venue for doing so, but I’d like to express my heartfelt appreciation for Walden Media and to Douglas Gresham who have really done great work to get the Narnia stories brought to a wider, movie-going audience.
And I’m glad we’re now looking for someone other than Disney to serve as distributor for these films. I have a feeling that there are studios out there who have a much better sense of what makes the Narnia stories work.
I’m excited to find out whose logo I’ll be looking at when I finally get to watch The Voyage of the Dawn Treader!
RE de Leon
from The Philippine Order of Narnians
Oh thank goodness! I’m glad that Walden isn’t giving up completely.
I actually think Dawn Treader has better chances of bringing the money in than Prince Caspian, simply because VDT is usually regarded as the more popular book compared to PC. I really hope they get a good studio to finance the movie, and that they stick closer to the canon, so as not to drive Narnian purists to boycott the film.
I am happy that Walden is sticking with The Chronicles of Narnia. I am praying that a studio will pick it up
I often wondered at Disney/Walden releasing Prince Caspian. It is the weakest book of the seven. I thought they might have done well to combine it with Dawn Treader. I do hope that another studio picks up Disney’s option or that Walden finds some financial assistance and can go ahead before the stars get too old. Please at least go direct-to-DVD if theatrical is too expensive.
These have been my favourite books since I first read them at age 10. I am looking forward to owning all of them on DVD.
I’m writing in support of the comments re. film version of Voyage of the Dawn Treader. As a lifelong Chronicles of Narnia fan, I was very impressed with Walden Media’s movie interpretations. I think that as long as Douglas Gresham is on board, Narnia fans will have nothing to worry about. It’s not such a big tragedy that Disney has bailed. Has anyone approached Icon Productions (Mel Gibson)?
“And use the family friendliness of the series to your advantage. That Prince Caspian was promoted as a different, darker Narnia may have scared families off a bit.”
oh for crying out loud, the second one was too dark for a family friendly film? – seriously? – remember the WORLD WAR? – you know, the one in which the kid’s father is fighting and the whole reason they are sent away to the country in the first place? – and you are the people who for sure have read the books – the series ends with everybody dying in a train wreck! – i mean, i know this is practically celebrated as a good thing in the book, but really – how much darker can you get? – the whole series is a buildup for their deaths! – dark? – yeah – of course it is! – but, since when have children not been handling “dark” in movies – The Little Princess, The Secret Garden, Lion King, Old Yeller, Bambi…
The war scenes were far from traumatic in the first film, and didn’t show as much of the real effects of war in the same way that Prince Caspian does. The phrase “I think you’ll find Narnia a darker place than you remember” is something that I think was a detriment to many families.