Twentieth Century Fox has agreed to partner with Walden Media for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader after Disney dropped the film in December.
The two companies are hoping to begin production over the summer in order to release the film holidays 2010. Although this is later than the film was originally planned to be released, many Narnia fans were eager for a holiday release after disappointments surrounding the box office sales generated by Prince Caspian.
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NarniaFans.com’s Paul Martin writes:
Twentieth Century Fox has agreed to take on the Chronicles of Narnia and agreed to do the Voyage of the Dawn Treader! Welcome aboard, Fox!
The film will be produced on the Fox 2000 label whose previous fantasy film effort was Eragon.
The agreement is pending approval of the script and the shooting budget, but it is expected to go through. According to the L.A. Times, Fox and Walden first have to hire a screenwriter to do another pass on the script that was last rewritten by Richard LaGravenese. His credits include “Freedom Writers” and “The Horse Whisperer.”
The movie companies are looking to make the film for about $140 million. Michael Apted, who made “Amazing Grace” and the 1999 Bond flick “The World Is Not Enough,” is still on board to direct.
The Times also revealed some details of the meetings that have been taking place over the last few weeks. Walden chief David Weil and “Narnia” producer Mark Johnson met a number of times with top Fox executives, including movie chiefs Tom Rothman and Jim Gianopulos, to discuss script revisions and the movie’s cost.
The goal is to get back to the magical aspects present in the first “Narnia” pic but mostly absent from “Prince Caspian.”
They’re also going to film the picture in Australia, instead of Mexico, as was originally planned.
I would have preferred New Line Cinema to do it, but who really cares? Just as long as The Dawn Treader doesn’t turn out like Eragon, I love Fox for doing this! I did like the movie of Prince Caspian more than The Lion, the Witch, and the wardrobe, though. I’m still trying to find out if Harry Gregson-Williams is still doing the music for Narnia, I don’t even listen to classical music, but I still love the music for Narnia. Go Fox!
Sadly, Harry Gregson-Williams will not be doing the music for VDT, as David Arnold is taking over. He was upset about it, as Narnia is a dream project of his, but he did say that he hopes they don’t throw all of his themes away.
(You might already know this and if so, sorry to be butting in with my two cents worth.:D) The reason that Harry Gregson-Williams isn’t doing the score is that he works with Andrew Adamson. They’re a team. And David Arnold is a team with Michael Apted. So, hence the change.
Ravenclaw, if you’re curious about the work of the new team, I highly suggest that you watch Amazing Grace. Michael Apted directed it, and David Arnold composed the score. 🙂
I really think that we’ll all be quite pleased when this is all said and done.
~Np
You are absolutely correct! Thanks for responding with this. Another thing to note is that David Arnold has a diverse history in his composing that includes all of the new James Bond films since The World is Not Enough.
Sure thing Paul! I didn’t know that he had done the Bond films too, thanks for sharing! At any rate, he seems to really know what he’s doing and I’m really looking forward to a new soundtrack! 🙂
~Np
Yes!!!!! I hope they can get started on the filming ASAP. I also hope that Fox doesn’t do to Voyage what they did to Eragon. Then again, all of the Chronicles have been written, unlike the Inheritance cycle, and Walden Media is behind the Chronicles, rather than Fox–though I’m not sure how much influence Fox has in the actual production of the film. This should work to VDT’s advantage.
PC was so off the book that I cried. They left out some very important parts and totally ruined the end. Here’s hoping that these are more accurate. As Ravenclaw said, I was hoping that it would be New Line Cinema. But beggars can’t be choosers. And it’s not like it’s an awful partnership either. Welcome aboard to Fox and the best of luck!
AW
I think it’s GREAT they found a partner
I am very relived at least SOMEBODY is doing it! The VDT is my favorite Narnia book! I REALLY hope they keep to the book and it doesn’t turn out all dark and mystical like Eragon. I was a little disappointed with PC because it’s so far from the book, but it’s a great movie anyway!
Thanx, Fox!
Any word on whether Douglas Gresham will be on hand again to police the continuity?
Gresham is one of the producers, yes. It’s in good hands. 🙂
I love the Voyage of the Dawn Treader the best of the Narnia series. I knew Walden would get someone to partner with them. This story ranks as one of the top fantasies of all. It had to be made and I thank Fox for stepping in. Disney and Walden did a great job with the first two, I do believe that the Voyage will be just as good. I can’t wait to sit at the movies with my fellow Narnia fans to see this great masterpiece. I will wait for now and look at the picture on the wall, Narnia, Narnia!
I am thrilled to hear that Voyage will be made. It’s such a great story. I’m not so thrilled that anyone remotely close to the Eragon production team will be a part of it. I loved Amazing Grace however so that’s encouraging. I hope that what they did to Eragon was a fluke and all will go well for VDT. PC did stray from the text, but I still ended up liking the flick. Sometimes that’s just necessary for a good screen write. I think sales would have done better if folks just had a bit more cash right now. Probably can’t take it too personally. Well here’s to VDT and the hope of what it can be!
I’ve been an avid Narnia fan since I was very young. I’ve got the books practically memorized. PC was in some ways good and in others bad. The Su/Caspian romance…uh! I about threw up. These were childrens’ stories! Had PC been the first relased, I would not be looking forward to the others.
However, as LWW came out first (making the filming of the movies the same order as the books were originally published), and it was fairly true to the books, I can at least hope for some improvement in the upcoming VDT. After all, Susan will not be returning, and the romance for Caspian is in the books.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what they do with the Duffers.
Always,
Jen snow
I’m looking forward to seeing the duffers too, but I am also afraid that they will leave them out. I hope they don’t. I also wish they had done The Horse and His Boy. That’s probably my favourite book.
Yayyy!!!
I am a little bit sorry to see Fox be the one to replace Disney b/c of the absolutely horrid job they did on Eragon…. I hope someone redoes the movie before they make Eldest, and Brisingr. But i am not sad to see that Disney isn’t doing VDT after the lousy job they did on PC. They did a good job on the characters but the way they changed it from the book really made it a pathetic movie, and the ending was totally pathetic. I just hope that FOX can do as good a job on VCD as they did on Amazing Grace because then the movie will be AMAZING.
Ben
i think it is great walden is joinig up with fox.VDT is my fave book.good luck fox and welcome aboard.
This is just HORRIBLE! Disney should’ve just hung in there, gutted it out, and finished what they started. FOX will make this another Eragon, tanking it into the toilet faster than you can say “FLOP”. New Line Cinema would’ve been a better studio to pick it up, but, again, DISNEY should have kept the film. As Napoleon Dynamite would say, “IDIOTS!”
In all actuality, the creative team behind Narnia is not the same team that made Eragon. We’ve got people that are protecting the stories. I know that, to most people, the studio behind the film is what they believe makes all of the decisions for every film they create, and that is definitely not the case. Remember: the creative team is responsible for the film, and not the studio.
I so hope you are right, Eragon was a horridly developed movie compared to the detail put into the book. Eragon should have been done like the Lord of the Rings in full scope, not 1.5 hours. I hope the Dawntreader gets the screen time it is deserving. They have been made cheap before by BBC and I will not watch those painful movies again. Please do these right!!!
it doesn’t bother me that you are changing companies, as long as you don’t change the characters and you make all the movies!
Otherwise it will be good.
A lottle bit of advice: You should keep the White Witch as the “green girl” in the Silver Chair. :]
Actually, Chloe, she’s not the same woman. The BBC made a huge error in casting the same actress in the role. It was not as Lewis wrote it. The White Witch is not the Lady of the Green Kirtle.
It wasn’t an error, per se. It was a creative choice. And an interesting one, IMO, which this series might cleverly be able to play off of. Tilda Swinton’s performance in LWW is what many critics and casual moviegoers have most appreciated about the series. Having Tilda Swinton appear, in some capacity, in every film she can fit in doesn’t seem like a bad idea. After her welcome (IMO) appearance in PC, she could be in Edmund’s vision in the Dark Isle in VDT as well as be the Lady of the Green Kirtle in SC. I’m not saying this is what they SHOULD do. I am merely saying that it wouldn’t be a bad idea. Furthermore, just playing the devil’s advocate here, but Lewis never explicitly stated that the White Witch and the Emerald Witch were different people either.
I’m kind of glad that Disney no longer has the stories in their hands. LWW was TERRIBLE, a total disgrace to the book and a huge disappointment for myself and many other fans of the books. Prince Caspian was a better film, less magical or not- I enjoyed it much better. Personally can’t wait to see what Fox does with Dawn Treader, I just hope that they don’t take too much liberty with the details and leave out the meaty stuff from Lewis’ intentions as Disney has obviously (and atrociously) done. That’s my bit, I guess.
I liked the darker story in Prince Caspian the movie. But would be very hard to stay close to the book and have it be a dark story. I think they could have a good balance of magic and dark story because it make for a more dramatic movie.
ooh cool amazing i love narnia i am from venezuela…. the narnias movies are anosome….
Hooray! I was so bummed when my husband told me there was not going to be a “Voyage” made! I think that is my favorite one! Now, it looks like it will happen! I will say . . . I LOVED “Prince Caspian” and thought it captured the essence of the book beautifully. My only problem with it was how whiny Peter seemed to act. But the film itself was not really affected by that aspect. I hope that the next film will be as good as it was!
Prince Caspian had a darker look & feel, with more violence, but it was artfully done so there wasn’t any blood & guts. It wasn’t explained why the centaurs were darker & greasy-looking, & if the Narnians were breeding “like cockroaches,” why haven’t they shown any female dwarfs or fawns? I also noticed an undercurrent of anger from Moseley (Peter) that came through on film. Was it the knowledge that he wasn’t coming back for the next film? The ending of Caspian bummed me out – why couldn’t Susan stay, to make a life with Caspian? It ruined the whole movie for me, & now I learn that she & Peter aren’t coming back. What’s the reason for it? I haven’t read the books, so if its in the book, then what’s the explanation? Other than that, I’ve enjoyed both movies, & look forward to the next.
Well, let’s start with the female dwarfs and fawns.
They didn’t show any? There are some female dwarfs in the background in the scene when they first enter Aslan’s How. As for the fawns, I don’t remember if they appear or not. The centaurs were darker, sure, but that was one of the families of centaurs. There were centaurs of many colors in this one.
Peter’s anger was primarily because his humility had turned into pride, and he didn’t appreciate being treated like a child after having been an adult for so long. His father hadn’t yet returned from the war, and he was acting as surrogate father to his brothers and sisters, and it caused a lot of stress. What he was going through was actually a realistic psychological response to the situation that he had found himself in.
He and Susan didn’t know they weren’t coming back to Narnia until they had a talk with Aslan before they left. They would not be coming back because of a couple of reasons: They had learned all that they needed to learn from their time in Narnia, and they were getting too old to return. There are others that need to help in Narnia now, including Lucy and Edmund. Peter and Susan could have been help, but then Lucy and Edmund wouldn’t learn what they need to.
Susan couldn’t stay with Caspian because that’s definitely not what happens in the books. The third film will cover Caspian’s future, so don’t worry about that.
I hope they return the movies to the original story as told by CS Lewis and don’t add a bunch of “hollywood” stuff. Did any of the directors for Prince Caspian even read the book? Voyage of the Dawntreader is my FAVORITE BOOK!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON’T MESS WITH THE STORY LINE!!!
I talked to the director and the writers of Prince Caspian, and they actually know the book better than than any of us. They went through page by page, line by line, and start by creating index cards with every character, and their emotions throughout the story. They create cards for every scene and list every character that appears in each scene. And they create cards with every interesting line of dialog. At that point they look at the sequences that would cause them to go over budget and start trimming. Then they started putting things together and writing. They wrote a script that was nearly identical to the book, save for the school-house (I believe) and it wasn’t working because it was full of flashbacks. As soon as they took out the flashbacks, everything finally came together.
I was diappointed in the Prince Caspian you should stay as true to the story for memories sake.
I must be the only one around here that thinks that liberties taken with Prince Caspian made it a much better movie than its predecessor. TLWW had it’s Christian subtext watered down to almost entire non-existence in the Walden Media adaption.
I also don’t know why people compare this to Eragon. Think of “The Dark Is Rising”, an absolutely amazing book written in the 70s. The movie had close nothing similar to it and the book. NOTHING. And that was the reulst last time that Walden Media and Fox got together. Who cares about Eragon, when their work (together!) on TDIR movie was 1000000x worse?
I loved LWW, but was disappointed with PC. It was such a great story. I felt the movie concentrated too much on the battle scenes and left out so much of the story. I love VDT and hope it is done well.
LWW was an excellent movie. Even my brother Stephen who loved the books and HATED the BBC verisons really ENJOYED Disney & Walden’s version of it. He was very disappointed with PC though. I also didn’t like it and neither did my brother JP. It really didn’t stay true to the book. It may have been good for someone who had never read the books before, but for those die hard fans who LOVE the books were mostly unstisfied with it. I hope VDT turns out great.
I meant UNSATISFIED.