I reached out to some sources of mine within the production team, and what I was told has made all of this even more confusing than before. I have seen NarniaWeb’s story on the situation, and there are some facts that they have that don’t line up exactly with what I have. And that also compounds the confusion. Whether or not Walden Media lost the ‘film rights’ or allowed the ‘option’ to expire depends on who you ask. What that means also depends on who you ask. As far as I know, Walden is still the only company that can move forward with another film, unless they sell the rights to another studio.
Tirian and I spoke on the phone about all of this, trying to come up with something that we can say, that is factual without a doubt, and this is it:
The bottom line is this: It will be a long time before another Narnia film is on the silver screen.
If Walden Media started tomorrow on another Narnia, the earliest the film could hit the big screen is three years from now. Movies take a long time to produce.
I wish that I could give more details about the why and what that is happening, or not happening, behind the scenes. There may or may not be scripts being written. There may or may not be ongoing negotiations. We’re trying to get information that we can tell you from both studios and the Estate. It’s not my place to spread that kind of information though. I can only report what I hear that isn’t mentioned in confidence.
We will hear about any further developments and report about them when we can. Just remember that it could be a very long time. And that, I’m afraid, is all that I have that I can report at this moment. And remember, as folks have pointed out in the comments, we still have the books our imaginations and each other.