All Four Final Narnia Movies Greenlit at Once? (April Fools)

April 1, 2011 Paul Martin April Fool's Day 37

Consider this the rumor to end all rumors.  In what can only be seen as an unprecedented move by any company, 20th Century Fox and Walden Media has not only greenlit one, but all four Narnia movies to be shot at the same time by a team of directors.  The goal is to top the number of films shot at one time, set by Peter Jackson with The Lord of the Rings.

On the short list for this massive undertaking of productions are the following directors: Brett Ratner, Matthew Vaughn (fresh off of X-Men: First Class), Darren Aronofsky (having recently dropped The Wolverine), Michael Bay (after he finishes up Transformers: Dark of the Moon), Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) and the late John Hughes.  Mysteriously missing from the list are directors Andrew Adamson and Michael Apted.  Other directors that have been mentioned are M. Night Shyamalan, who is busy working on a film with Jaden Smith, Billy Bob Thornton, and Tim Burton.

I’ve also heard that Mel Gibson was interested in tackling The Magician’s Nephew, but would only commit to the project if he could film using the original languages of Charn and Narnia (which would need to be developed for the film).  This is in line with how he made both The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto.  It would be interesting to see how that would work, as the Narnians clearly spoke English, particularly due to their English speaking King and Queen.

Michael Bay’s involvement would be limited to The Last Battle, for which he plans on assembling the creative team from Armageddon.  No word on if he plans to have Shia LeBeouf play Shift or Tirian.

The producers will draw straws on a daily basis to decide which set they will attend each day of filming.  Writers that are working on the four scripts are also pooling resources.  The writing team consists of comedian Dave Barry, Judd Apatow, Craig Titley (who is fresh off of Percy Jackson) and the screenwriter from Eragon: Peter Buchman.

Filming is expected to start around January of 2012, after all four screenplays are locked, and take until August.  The first will release on April 1, 2013, two years from today, which happens to be April Fools Day.

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37 Comments

  3. What??? That’s crazy! Crazy awesome! I always knew that a day would like would come. I suggested this very idea to Fox exactly a year ago. I can’t believe they accepted it! Wait, does that mean they’ll credit me in all the movies??? I I I so excited! I so excited! I gonna have a ball today!

        • I dont know if it helped but some time ago I sent an e-mail to fox telling then to make both SC and MN same time. I hope, Daniel, we both got heard by then!

  6. As much as I would LOVE this, we must remember it is April Fools Day. I’m not sure if I believe this. I hope I’m wrong.

  7. That’s awesome and scary at the same time. This could be harder than ever, especially for the actors. How would some of the filming work since they need Eustaces and Jill in SC *and* LB? Will the Pevensies come back to play their olderselves as well in HHB and need to double duty as well for LB? I aslo hope they get the scripts “right”, else it would’ve been for nothing.

  8. Love the idea of using a deceased director. Now that’s got to have some novelty value for attracting audiences!

    • i dont even know who most of those people are…with an exeption of tim burton, and we dont want narnia turning into a horror story, right??

  12. I think it’s funny that you said the screenwriters will be the same ones who did “Percy Jackson” and “Eragon” as both of those movies are nothing like the books they’re based on, and a huge majority of Narnia fans are purists. 😀

  14. My reactions:

    Screwtape Letters cast, before realizing it was a joke: “Well, that’s not going to be a good movie, really… well, who’s in it?”
    After: “Oh, I guess that was a joke.”

    Uncle Andrew actors, before: “Oh, cool, who might play him? Lol, they included Charlie Sheen.”
    After: “Oh, I guess that was a joke.”

    Miley Cyrus, before: “Haha, well, she’s never going to get it. It’ll make some nice trivia.”
    After: “Haha.”

    This one, before: “Really? REALLY?!? That’s so awesome!!! Yay, M. Night Shaymalan! Wait, I thought Michael Bay sucked.”
    After: “****”

  17. WAIT!!! So this is real!!??? PLEASE say it is!!! 🙂 And that old cast will come back for their roles?!

  18. man, that was just son mean!! xD with who was going to play uncle andrew, i was all “this is good, this is good…og, that’s exactly how I picture him!” and then…”ooooh…-.-” but this was just mean!! xD very good, though…wish it was true!

  19. I hope this is true! If it’s not whoever posted this is totally mean! I think it might just be a joke though 🙁

  20. i love your guys’ april fools day stuff! last year i totally freaked out. this year i’m much smarter 🙂 hilarious!!!

    • Me too! I fall for it every year, but I was on top of it this time! Drawing straws? I mean seriously! 😛

  21. Oh, I wish this was true! I know it’s not, but I WISH it were! Hey, maybe (yeah right, but I’ll day dream about it anyway) the same thing that happened with the Susan/Caspian prank with happen with this!

    (squints eyes) hey, did someone come up with this just in hopes of that happening? Kinda desperate…don’t you think?

  24. Sigh. I really wish THIS post was real. I could go without the Justin Biber ones!

  25. BAHAHAHA!!!!!!! I think Tim Burton would actually be a good director for The Silver Chair though………..

  26. Oh my gosh… that’s so not funny! 😛 I almost had a small heart attack until I realized there’s no way that could possibly be real because stuff like that doesn’t happen. Plus some of it seemed really unlikely. Wow… that’s just mean! XP

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