Disney no longer partnered with Walden for Voyage

I know this might not be the best place to go in terms of money, but it seems to me that if a film studio wants to get a good story produced, in the Christian industry at least, they go to Sony Entertainment Pictures. I'm probably wrong, but from what I've seen in terms of good family-friendly entertainment, which is a mostly a small budget/scale film, it's distributed by Sony.

Looking at the full list of major and secondary-major film companies, Fox would be the best bet for Narnia. Warner Brothers might be the best in terms of money and production, but they're owned essentially be Mr. Turner, so Fox is probably the best bet. Plus, Fox has a bit of a tendency to go for the controversial productions, at least in terms of their TV shows, so why not take on the controversial books of Narnia as well? And do them the way they were written?
 
Well, having received the film on DVD for Christmas, I finally watched the BEHIND THE SCENES thingies.

From the mouth of the director himself comes two stunning statements that enable a realization of why the movie did so poorly domestically. The first is that Adamson connected on the emotional growth of the characters as the story line. The second is that he felt he had to outdo the first film, LWW, because that was what everyone expected.

First, Adamson missed the story for his conception of emotional growth. If you see the omitted scenes sections, you can be thankful they were omitted because they veer from the story arc of Lewis in predictable Hollywood manners and would have only corroded the presentation further. This substitution of the director's story arc for the actual story is the basic problem with the storyline. It is the foundational error which made all the other deviations plausible. Adherence to the text story with much less "seizing the opportunity" to EXPAND the DIRECTOR's misconceptions would have produced a more coherent movie. Watch the extras and Adamson's remarks about the deleted scenes to get a good grasp of these strategic errors.

Secondly, Adamson was far too focused on attempting to outdo LWW in terms of "movie magic" and hence the driven need for excess of martiality in the strictly military sense. The warlike additions of the raid on Miraz's castle are specially telling, I think.

Thus, the huge budget was spent in a vaunting pride attempt to outdo himself on the big screen, plain and simple. That attempt cost large amounts of money, altered the story, and failed. Hopefully the next folks working with Adamson will get him to return to the storyline of whatever project it is. For, if he is like most directors, he will attempt to cover this "failure" with a splashier next effort. If his conception of whatever is as MISconceived as this effort, they'll certainly "lose" money too.

Perhaps I'm a bit simple, but frankly if you make more than it took to do the film, I believe that is called profit. If you happen to make 2 to 1 returns, that's a one hundred percent profit in my books. Of course, if you think you have to make an 8 to 1 return, try the stockmarket before the bubble burst... or has Hollywood lined up for a bailout because it can only make 2 to 1 returns?:mad:
 
"I think Protagonist is referring to the scene in the Caspian movie when Lucy steps onto the bridge in plain view of the Telmarines, displaying her dagger as if they all should be afraid of it. I know that YOU, Kim, did not see this as a joke at all, since on your view Lucy should ACTUALLY be able to defeat the entire Telmarine army all by herself. But it was intended as a joke, for a moment later Aslan became visible beside her and made it plain that HIS presence was why Lucy feared nothing. For me, that moment was one of the VERY FEW things done WELL in the movie."

As Lucy is my favorite character and that was my favorite scene, let me defend that scene. While it was intended as humorous, I did not see it as a joke nor did I see it where Lucy should have been able to take them on. What that scene showed was that Lucy was, indeed valiant. She was living up to her moniker with gusto.

Aslan had just told her that she was like a lioness, echoing a line from the book after Lucy plaed her face in Aslan's mane and felt stronger. Aslan tells her "Now you are a lioness." She stood there at the end of the bridge to stall the army in order for Aslan to do what he needed to do. She had to go out there to show them (and herself) her strength of faith. No one, not even her, believed that she herself could take them on, but the signifcance of her pulling out the knife was intended to show that she was not afraid--she had Aslan on her side.

So while it was a funny scene, it was also a great point of ultimate faith.

Now onto something else. We know one thing for sure now: how VotDt performs is vital to whether the series continues.

MrBob
 
I think VotDT could do amazing things, but the filmmakers have to do it just right. Its the Narnia film series' do or die moment. I just hope they are able to do.
 
I hope Fox gets the rights because they make some of the best family friendly films that are still exciting. Disney jumped ship because they got too impatient after PC's results. It would also be bad if WarnerBrothers or Universal got the rights because they have a rather bad reputation for making unfamily friendly movies that have terrible plots. (The Dark Knight was the best one in a long time.)
 
kingcaspian said:
I hope Fox gets the rights because they make some of the best family friendly films that are still exciting. Disney jumped ship because they got too impatient after PC's results. It would also be bad if WarnerBrothers or Universal got the rights because they have a rather bad reputation for making unfamily friendly movies that have terrible plots. (The Dark Knight was the best one in a long time.)
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Well, WB did some GREAT family movies in the 90's--Black Beauty, A Little Princess, and The Secret Garden, to name a few. But I'll admit, they've fallen away from that sort of thing since then...and besides, they already have the Harry Potter franchise.

Overall, I am very surprised and upset at the decision--for the past few years, Disney has appeared to be over-hyped about the Narnia franchise (take, for example, the fact that they added a Narnia exhibit in Disney World's Hollywood Studios park complete w/ a guy dressed up as Caspian, whom I DID get my picture taken with this past summer). Just because the second movie didn't do as well as they'd hoped doesn't mean they had to "jump ship" and abandon Walden. I mean, it's only the SECOND movie out of what will hopefully be seven. If anything, I would've waited until after the third film to decide whether to abandon the franchise or not. To me, the third film just seems more crucial (and it still is--I think its success is going to be the deciding factor for whether the series continues in film). I have a feeling that VDT is going to be phenomenal when it is finally released (hopefully it won't be further delayed b/c of this nonsense), and that Disney is going to seriously regret letting go of it. I'm worried, a lot about Fox, too--they did wonderfully with Because of Winn-Dixie, but Eragon was Fox and that sucked (but then again, Walden wasn't a participant in that movie).

What I think is really going to determine if VDT gets made (in time) or not is whether Michael Apted and Stephen Knight decide to stay on-board with the project. When I read Apted's interview with NarniaWeb when he first signed on to direct VDT, he sounded extremely enthusiastic (he's been a fan of the books since he was a kid--Lewis was in fact still writing the books at that time). And knowing Knight is, to my knowledge, a very Christian screenwriter (despite the fact that Apted isn't even Christian), and the two have worked with Walden before (Amazing Grace), I highly doubt either of them is going to leave. And to add to that, composer David Arnold was all excited about composing his first fantasy soundtrack in about 13 years since Stargate. So...yeah. I don't think this is going to deter any of them...I hope...

I just hope the release date doesn't get pushed back even farther and that Walden finds a new partner SOON. Knowing how popular the series has become because of the films, I think the contending partner companies could be more than willing to jump on the bandwagon easily. What would be really funny is if New Line did it...then they'd be able to lay claim to both LOTR AND Narnia...oh, how that would be a slap in the face for Disney...:p
 
Copperfox said:
I think Protagonist is referring to the scene in the Caspian movie when Lucy steps onto the bridge in plain view of the Telmarines, displaying her dagger as if they all should be afraid of it. I know that YOU, Kim, did not see this as a joke at all, since on your view Lucy should ACTUALLY be able to defeat the entire Telmarine army all by herself. :p But it was intended as a joke, for a moment later Aslan became visible beside her and made it plain that HIS presence was why Lucy feared nothing. For me, that moment was one of the VERY FEW things done WELL in the movie.
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I agree with you on that, I started laughing hysterically when I saw her standing there, man she's so cute. She hold's the movies by herself IMO.
 
MrBob said:
"I think Protagonist is referring to the scene in the Caspian movie when Lucy steps onto the bridge in plain view of the Telmarines, displaying her dagger as if they all should be afraid of it. I know that YOU, Kim, did not see this as a joke at all, since on your view Lucy should ACTUALLY be able to defeat the entire Telmarine army all by herself. But it was intended as a joke, for a moment later Aslan became visible beside her and made it plain that HIS presence was why Lucy feared nothing. For me, that moment was one of the VERY FEW things done WELL in the movie."

As Lucy is my favorite character and that was my favorite scene, let me defend that scene. While it was intended as humorous, I did not see it as a joke nor did I see it where Lucy should have been able to take them on. What that scene showed was that Lucy was, indeed valiant. She was living up to her moniker with gusto.

Aslan had just told her that she was like a lioness, echoing a line from the book after Lucy plaed her face in Aslan's mane and felt stronger. Aslan tells her "Now you are a lioness." She stood there at the end of the bridge to stall the army in order for Aslan to do what he needed to do. She had to go out there to show them (and herself) her strength of faith. No one, not even her, believed that she herself could take them on, but the signifcance of her pulling out the knife was intended to show that she was not afraid--she had Aslan on her side.

So while it was a funny scene, it was also a great point of ultimate faith.

Now onto something else. We know one thing for sure now: how VotDt performs is vital to whether the series continues.

MrBob
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That's how I saw Lucy's little pulling out her dagger thing! She wasn't afraid of the Telmarines because she had Aslan right beside her. SHe knew He would show them.

VDT can be made right. I think we should give Apted and his team a chance to prove it or not. And please, don't gripe at the film when the trailer comes out. It's still only a part of the puzzle. I certainly hope they get Eddie Izzard to come back and voice Reepicheep though; he's great. :D
 
No, David Arnold (I think that's his first name) is the composer this time around. He's pretty good and has a lot of films under his belt from what I can tell so far. Hopefully he maybe keeps like Lucy's theme and continues a few of the other originals, but gives the film the sea-fearing/adventure theme that it needs.
 
I believe it must be TLB cause i was watching the Audio Commentary of PC and atv the end, I think it was Will that mentioned that was the last we'd see of him and Anna until The Last Battle. and i hope Fox does go through with it. i would cry if the series just ended like that..
 
I just can't and wont believe they'd stop the series where it is at. PC didn't make 700 million or whatever, but it did make a whole lot of money(way more than a lot of other movies could dream of), and it will continue to make a whole lot more if done right. Even if done decently(though I have faith it will be great, with the new director and such.), how many of us on here are planning already to see VDT - two years before it is to come out? Lol!

Anyhow, like someone else said(thank you for saying it, whoever did!) I think as long as Walden stays in(thank you Walden!) and they find a partner soon, the movie will be back on schedule. Maybe it wont start filming in Janurary, but it will start filming(and finish!), which is what I want now lol, alot.
 
Catherine said:
I believe it must be TLB cause i was watching the Audio Commentary of PC and atv the end, I think it was Will that mentioned that was the last we'd see of him and Anna until The Last Battle. and i hope Fox does go through with it. i would cry if the series just ended like that..
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See, the great thing is that the people who've already been involved with the Narnia films really want the series to continue onscreen. I just love their dedication :) And I think with dedication like that (added to the fact that Walden does have very close ties w/ the Lewis estate and Douglas Gresham is co-producer), all 7 will be made. :D

Oh, and David Arnold is a genius. I'll miss Harry, but my goodness, Arnold's score for Stargate is breathtaking. :p
 
Alambil and Tarvis said:
I know, I love his music too :( But trust me, as long as David Arnold keeps some of the original themes within his score, the music for VDT will be PHENOMENAL. :D
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And also he has done good ones the theme of 007 Quantum of Solace is directed by him and also some other things of the movie that sound really good... So I hope he might do it...:)
 
I think I'll miss Williams' music but new director, new composer. *DAvid Arnold sounds like a guy who composed music for the narnia radio drama series for Focus on the FAmily*
 
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