A new interview was just released by World Magazine, in which they have interviewed Walden Media’s president Micheal Flaherty. He explains what we’ve known for a while, but it’s always good to have the explanation direct from someone that is involved. The interesting part of it is the glimmer of hope that he has that they can continue making the movies.
Before you ask, “didn’t Walden Media lose the rights?” Well, the answer is actually not “yes” or “no,” but rather “it’s complicated.”
Here’s the part of the interview that talks about it. I’d like to point out, however, that the interviewer is commenting only on U.S. Box Office, and not Worldwide. At the box office, Dawn Treader did MUCH better at the foreign (non-U.S.) box office than Prince Caspian did, and was profitable. The reason they aren’t doing another film yet does have to do with the Box Office, but not in the way that you think.
An economic question: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe did well at the box office. Prince Caspian did not do so well, and Dawn Treader did worse—both tracking closely the sales pattern of the book.
Yeah, almost identical.
So, with revenue going down and production costs remaining high, so what’s next for the Narnia movie series?
There are multiple opinions on all this and a lot of different players: The C.S. Lewis estate, the studio, our company—and we’re not all of one mind. I would love to find a way where the economics work, acknowledging the decline. I’d like to do The Magician’s Nephew. Other people want to do The Silver Chair, and there’s disagreement about the economics and the overall vision of where the franchise should go next. My hope is that we may all become of one mind, but unless something providential happens there, I’m focusing on a number of other stories.
So, at this moment, no deal?
Nope.
–via
Translated: The box office receipts for each film, in the U.S., matched up with the sales numbers for each book very closely. The Silver Chair is the lowest selling book of the Chronicles, while The Magician’s Nephew comes in a close second to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Based on the trends of the North American box office numbers lining up with the book sales, you can see why Walden Media would want to make The Magician’s Nephew next. Personally, I think that would help to fund the production of The Silver Chair after that, as well as potentially The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle. But that’s my own perspective, and I’m not actually sure what they’d do after The Magician’s Nephew.
So, all of this means that we’re going to be waiting for a while. All parties could, at any time, come together and decide to move forward, and it would be with Walden Media and 20th Century Fox. The moratorium that exists before anyone else can make the movie is in place to protect Walden Media’s contract to be the studio that makes the movie(s) happen. Will it happen? Probably not, but I like to think that there is always hope.
Did anyone noticed????
George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise was first released in 1977 then the sequel The Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980 and finally, The Return of the Jedi was released in 1983 concluding the Original Trilogy of the franchise…. After 16 years, Star Wars hits again in the big screen starting with The Phantom Menace in 1999, then Attack of the Clones in 2002 and in 2005, Revenge of the Sith to complete the saga of the franchise…..
Now, the first film of Narnia franchise, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was released in 2005, following in 2008 with Prince Caspian and the latest in 2010, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. More than two years it’s been after VDT hit the theaters, and now the future of the franchise is still in hold. But notice the franchise of Star Wars….. Well, yes: Will Poulter’s age is the main problem of the franchise if SC will be next. Now, if they’ll do The Magician’s Nephew as the fourth one, they should do The Horse and His Boy next then The Silver Chair and The Last Battle to conclude the series…. Just so, Narnia should now be in pre-production and should be released in 2014 or 2015….
This is just my opinion……. Any more thoughts about this?
I hope that the Narnia stories do make a similar comeback to that of the Star Wars films (see comment by Spare-Oom, January 11, 2013).
I can’t see The Horse and His Boy ever being done faithfully to the book in our current political environment.
I would like to see The Silver Chair next. There’s a lot more action to that than The Magician’s Nephew.
I think they should do the silver chair next just because of how the order of the series has been going with the movies, but at some point they should definetly do the magicians nephew. Maybe they could do the silver chair next, then following after, the last battle, then they could do the sequel type stuff like the magicians nephew and the horse and his boy. kind of like how they did lord of the rings AND THEN the hobbit series.
They need to do Silver Chair next and soon, or Will Poulter is going to be too old to play Eustace, unless they just shift the whole timeline in the story.