Did Walden Media Leave the Narnia Franchise? No.

June 23, 2011 Paul Martin Narnia Film News, Walden Media 34

Many have been e-mailing, asking if we had seen the stories that broke yesterday that claimed Walden Media had decided not to pick up their option for the Narnia franchise.  Those reports were posted prematurely.  I can report that negotiations on the next film are ongoing and that Walden Media, Twentieth Century Fox and the C.S. Lewis Estate are still very much discussing the next films in the Narnia franchise.  This is a story that we’ve known since April and were the first to learn about, but after discussing with a few producers and the webmasters of the other two fan sites, we decided not to report it because things were actually still as they had been… in negotiations… and Walden Media has responded the same way both times: they’re still hopeful to make more Narnia films.

There is nothing more to say that wouldn’t be conjecture at this point.  I have been in contact with a couple of the producers from the film series, however, and they mention that negotiations can be both very long and very frustrating at times, but that these things are completely normal in the film industry.

One thing that we got from Walden Media is that nothing has been confirmed at this point.  There’s been no final yes or no. The one thing that is the more certain about the future of the franchise, is that if Walden Media does continue, the film they make will most likely be The Magician’s Nephew.

Where do we go from here?  We wait until we have the final word on the future of the franchise, and we stay out of it.  (Personally, I feel that the films have all been wonderful, and I’ve replaced the BBC versions almost entirely, with hopes to replace the BBC Silver Chair in my collection sooner rather than later, not that I watch the movies very often.)  That said, we have another few films to be excited for that we know are in the works: a C.S. Lewis movie and The Hobbit films!

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34 Comments

  3. I did. NarniaWeb published it all. They are still wondering if Walden lefts Narnia…

    • No, they’ve updated the story a couple of times. My story is a summary of everything that we know and discussed over the phone in the last few months.

  4. This is good! 🙂 In the meantime all who want more films can continue to be supportive. Buy Narnia DVDs, especially “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”. Show support in other ways.

    Hopefully we’ll get really good news soon!

  5. I was kind of surprised that NW jumped the gun on an unconfirmed report. They usually don’t do that. But I guess when news is slow, it will tend to happen. Anways, I kind of figured that was the case when NF reported no news on this. Thanks for the heads up Paul!

    • Yeah, I was too. But the situation is correcting itself and bringing everything back to status quo for what it was before the article was posted. It was unfortunate that it was leaked in such a manner, but that shouldn’t happen again.

  6. Why would they want to leave their most successful movies? All of them have made over 400 million at the box office, plus dvd sales.

  7. hehe, I’m happy to hear this BUT it sounds like its heating up between Fox and Walden… What it sounds like to me is Walden wants MN, and Fox wants SC… How will they compromise!

  8. The frustrating part is that it might be years before we hear anything. I doubt Walden would make a formal announcement “we have decided not to make anymore films.” Rather, after a few years fans will start to give up.

    My suggestion for a replacement for the BBC versions: The books. 😉

    • lol.. I’m far too slow a reader. Each book takes me about 2-3 weeks to read. I know some people that can read them in about 2 hours. 2 hours for me is about 2 chapters.

      Yeah, it could be days, months or years. When a company gives up their option on a property, they don’t always announce that, but usually news starts to pop up that the option is being shopped around. This is a special case, however, and I feel like we’ll know if they opt out.

        • I’d strongly encourage you to try the books a second time. Perhaps you could listen to them on CD (Michael York, LWW, is the only reader I don’t like)

          Every time I go back, I find more and more depth. These books were truly one of the great literary achievements of the century. Few books have accomplished so much using so little. Just check out this video: http://vimeo.com/19443414

          • I’ve read the books a few times. I just have so many other books to read that I can’t continue to re-read the same books over and over. I’m not really looking to replace the books, just for a way to enjoy the characters and adventure without setting aside all of the other books I have on my list for half a year.

            I’ll check out the video, though. I actually have them all on CD, plus the radio drama versions. I am a stickler for unabridged audiobooks, though, and am currently listening to the latest Imaginarium Geographica novel.

  11. I just want all the books adapted into movies. Can’t wait for The Last Battle where we get to see everyone together again, all as adults.

  12. Fortunately for me I saw that news and I was taken a back a little at that news because I knew it was Walden Media who was trying to find a new company to cater VDT after Disney dropped it, but never expected them to drop it themselves. Then below was where someone verified that the claim was false. I came here and didn’t see anything so I knew that there really isn’t anything going on about Walden Media leaving Narnia. If it was then surly there would be a big stink about it here, but there wasn’t thank goodness.

  14. Has anyone heard from Aravan lately? I haven’t seen him post anything for a long time…just wondering.

  15. Personally I hope they do the SC first. It would make the less fanatic fans who don’t watch the movies all the time (opps…I’m guilty on that one!) forget who Jill Pole is when she is mentioned at the end of DT.
    It’s also a part I’m looking at going in for, if they do MN first, then I can always go in for Polly, but Jill has for some reason always appealed more…

  16. This is the first time I’ve heard this news, but I’m glad that the Narnia films will continue to be made, I’m also looking foreword to watching The Hobbit movies.

  17. Hi, this might sound lame but I was thinking about if Walden should still pursue making more narnias and I realised yes they should! In the book The Horse and His Boy, the four Pevensie childeren are back…well not back but in narnia and the time setting is when peter was high king,or when they first visited narnia through the wardrobe. They are all older in this one but it would be great to actually make other narnia films and later come back and make this one. Why? You ask, well because walden could ,mabey in my opinion, resighn the four original actors and actresses to play their parts again! They would all be older by then and actually look the part! I really, Really, Really, would love to see THIS happen.
    If you have read the horse and his boy and the other narnia books, this will probabley make more sense…i hope. Anyway, I just wanted to throw this idea out there and say i enjoyed the horse and his boy the most next to the lion the witch and thw wardrobe because of the four pevensie’s.!!!

    • @#Narnian I completely agree with you They HAVE to make the origonal actors as the part other wise it would totally wreck The feel of it and it just wouldnt fell like narnia !! I REALLY WANNA SEE THE REAL PEVENSIES IN HHB !!!!!! 😀

  18. Hey everyone, long time no comment! It looks like all the stuff I pushed aside during my summer vacation has caught up to me! 🙂
    This is good news….i think, i HOPE :S
    I’m still pretty concerned, though. This doesn’t mean that they won’t EVER abandon Narnia, it’s just for the time being…

  19. I am dreaming that one day, I would be surprised knowing that another narnia film will be made. They should continue the movies with the same actors and actresses and casting for the new characters like jill pole, polly plummer, etc.
    I’m looking forward for the movies…they are really exciting and splendid!….

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