The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was nearing $664 million at the beginning of this week at the global box office. The film has rung up $288,193,914 at the U.S. box office since its Dec. 9 release, while “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” which came out three weeks earlier, is a nose ahead at $288,733,970.
The new Narnia sequel “Prince Caspian” is on its way, creators shooting for a pre-Christmas 2007 release.
Rev. Bob Beltz, director of special media projects for the billionaire media entrepreneur Philip Anschutz, had a vision of what his Hollywood colleagues might be doing someday just before his funeral. Using a best-case scenario, it would take two years to make each movie, said Beltz. That would mean 12 more years and the last film would appear in 2017.
“They could end up holding the first screening of ‘The Last Battle‘ just before my funeral service. That’s about how long it may take us to do the whole series,” quipped the 55-year-old Presbyterian pastor, referring to the seventh and final Narnia novel by the Christian apologist C.S. Lewis.
“Seriously, when we started seeing those first really big numbers roll in at the box office, that’s when it hit me,” said Beltz. “Some of us worked on this first movie for a very long time and now it seems like we may literally get to work on the Chronicles for the rest of our lives.”
Director Andrew Adamson of New Zealand will return for the next film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, along with the young quartet of British actors Georgie Henley, 10, Skandar Keynes, 14, Anna Popplewell, 17, and William Moseley, 18.
“If we don’t make [the film] now, we’ll never be able to because they’ll be too old,” said Director Adamson according to ContactMusic.com. “That Chronicle is set one year after this one, so it would allow for the kids to get a bit older.”
Adamson added that he would be, “perfectly happy to make all seven.”
Although matters get complicated when the two youngest children, Lucy and Edmund, are featured in the following novel “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”
“Prince Caspian” finds the Pevensie siblings pulled back into the land of Narnia, where a thousand years have passed since they left. The children are once again enlisted to join the colourful creatures of Narnia in combating an evil villain who prevents the rightful Prince from ruling the land. “Prince Caspian” was first published in 1951, and is the second book in the seven-book series written by Lewis.
