The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was suspense (can they/how will they succeed?) coupled with rollicking adventure and a big battle, with each successive book less and less so, focusing more and more on characterization. C.S. Lewis was no fan of war, and felt it a bad choice for children's literature. Unfortunately, the movie-going public disagrees, and that's the main reason these movies have been doing less and less well. Even if Dawn Treader is disappointing at the box office, I would like to see The Silver Chair, at least, to get the main narrative before the endgame told and provide a well rounded quadrilogy for fans to collect and enjoy.
Narnia books without the Pevensie kids. Too risky to film?
- Thread starter Argus Skyhawk
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Yeah, I just came back from seeing it and I really enjoyed it as well. Perhaps this is a nitpick, and it's not even really about the movie itself, but rather the film style. The picture didn't seem as sharp as the other movies, but maybe that's due a lower budget? Anyway, I thought it was a very faithful adaptation despite the different sequence of events. They made it flow so nicely that I didn't mind at all.
I began thinking when I was coming back from the theatre, that if we were to have more movies, nevermind my original comments. I'd go with The Silver Chair, since it would chronologically feature Eustace again, which would make sense since the way they were filmed in, it's like they keep passing the torch. So, after that one, I'd like to see The Magician's Nephew. We don't really need The Last Battle. It's rather unnecessary as a story and nothing much really happens in it aside from the donkey/false Aslan plot thread. The only thing that it really added were the cameos at the end, and one of the other movies, perhaps The Magician's Nephew could feature them instead.
I began thinking when I was coming back from the theatre, that if we were to have more movies, nevermind my original comments. I'd go with The Silver Chair, since it would chronologically feature Eustace again, which would make sense since the way they were filmed in, it's like they keep passing the torch. So, after that one, I'd like to see The Magician's Nephew. We don't really need The Last Battle. It's rather unnecessary as a story and nothing much really happens in it aside from the donkey/false Aslan plot thread. The only thing that it really added were the cameos at the end, and one of the other movies, perhaps The Magician's Nephew could feature them instead.
The Silver Chair was my absolute favorite of the books as a kid (I loved the mystery and quest aspects), so I hope it'll get filmed. I agree with the others that it's not likely, given how poorly Dawn Treader is doing.
even if the returns for the weekend are better than expected it will still get slaughtered by Tron Legacy next week. i guess i'm just a 'glass half empty' type person.
Nikki posts some leaked Saturday numbers, along with a guess of $25 million for the weekend, based on what they're seeing so far from Friday and Saturday:
http://www.deadline.com/2010/12/fir...s-even-with-johnny-depp-narnia-3d-opens-weak/
She also quotes some studio spin from Fox, but really, there is no good way to spin this. Compare to other 2010 releases:
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2010&p=.htm
A $25 million opening weekend, if that holds up, would be below such box office powerhouses as "Dear John", "Wolfman", and "Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too?" That's just a poor result for a movie with a $150 million budget.
Now granted, the international market is more important than the North American market for these movies. But the international sales weren't good enough to convince Disney to stick with this franchise. If Dawn Treader is going to do markedly worse than the last movie, then is Fox really going to want to keep making these?
http://www.deadline.com/2010/12/fir...s-even-with-johnny-depp-narnia-3d-opens-weak/
She also quotes some studio spin from Fox, but really, there is no good way to spin this. Compare to other 2010 releases:
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2010&p=.htm
A $25 million opening weekend, if that holds up, would be below such box office powerhouses as "Dear John", "Wolfman", and "Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too?" That's just a poor result for a movie with a $150 million budget.
Now granted, the international market is more important than the North American market for these movies. But the international sales weren't good enough to convince Disney to stick with this franchise. If Dawn Treader is going to do markedly worse than the last movie, then is Fox really going to want to keep making these?
Such a shame if they never planned to film the "Genesis" story (The Magician's Nephew - and my favourite) to fit in with Lewis' "Revelation" story (The Last Battle). Not to do so rather disrupts the whole Biblical meta-narrative Lewis had in mind when writing these books.
Then again, this is Hollywood where the producers and directors stamp their own identities all over the work of another under the guise of "artistic" licence (for which read profitability). Who really gives a shit about the original author's intent?
Then again, this is Hollywood where the producers and directors stamp their own identities all over the work of another under the guise of "artistic" licence (for which read profitability). Who really gives a shit about the original author's intent?
Indeed. Just look at what happened to The Golden Compass.
Sad... Magicians Nephew was the one i was most looking forward to. To see the absolutely DEAD world of Charn, to actually see it...
I reckon they could do all of them, without offending anyone. Hollywood is magic.
I don't want to see them, in case I start crying. When you're sat in the cinema, with all the music tugging at you, it's very moving.
I'd love to see that map of Narnia, that you see in the books, put into a petabyte CGI model and flown over.
I don't want to see them, in case I start crying. When you're sat in the cinema, with all the music tugging at you, it's very moving.
I'd love to see that map of Narnia, that you see in the books, put into a petabyte CGI model and flown over.
There won't be another Narnia movie.
The Narnia movies haven't ever done amazing, Disney even ditched after the last one, which was a very smart move.
Whomever came up with the idea to release this movie a few weeks after Harry Potter is an idiot. It should have been released Christmas Eve.
So as long as we get the complete trilogy of these main characters I don't see any issues. Maybe in a few years they will try to make the next group of characters (I doubt it), but maybe leave the Narnia name off of it.
Actually I think that's dumbass Disney's fault. They didn't make any money from overseas, they sold the rights to a third party, I think Sony. I really have no clue why.
The Narnia movies haven't ever done amazing, Disney even ditched after the last one, which was a very smart move.
Whomever came up with the idea to release this movie a few weeks after Harry Potter is an idiot. It should have been released Christmas Eve.
So as long as we get the complete trilogy of these main characters I don't see any issues. Maybe in a few years they will try to make the next group of characters (I doubt it), but maybe leave the Narnia name off of it.
Actually I think that's dumbass Disney's fault. They didn't make any money from overseas, they sold the rights to a third party, I think Sony. I really have no clue why.
Actually the first one made $745 million worldwide, and its domestic take was up there with the Harry Potter films. In 2005, I never expected the interest in the series would so completely evaporate.
But yeah, considering the box office numbers of the new film, it looks like the series will end as a trilogy.
A Horse and His Boy and The Magician's Nephew are, sadly, the two novels least likely to be adapted into film given the way that Walden/Disney/20th Century FOX have developed and set up the franchise thus far, which, incidentally, actually makes the filming of The Silver Chair and The Last Battle very easily doable; I haven't yet seen Dawn Treader, but know that the filmmakers have included the White Witch, Peter, and Susan in the film in cameo roles, which helps provide some sense of continuity for people who have never read the novels. I wouldn't expect this to change vis a vis The Silver Chair, and The Last Battle sees the return of most of the characters who'd dropped out of the story previously (the exception being Susan).
I also wouldn't put too much stock in the low opening day numbers for Dawn Treader, since there's really not a lot of same-genre competition for the film coming out during the month of December, and it has pretty much the entire month to build up box office steam and audience numbers as a result (the only two films that are of the same genre and could provide competition to Dawn Treader are Tron: Legacy and Gulliver's Travels).
Contrary to what most people think, Lewis didn't actually write the Narnia novels to be deliberately viewed as an allegory for his adopted Christian beliefs, instead stating that they were meant to be fairy tales first and allegories second. Also, Douglas Gresham, Lewis' step-son, has been intimately involved with the production of the Narnia films thus far, so it's not by any means a question of the 'filmmakers stamping on Lewis' original intent in the name of artistic license', as you put it. If you listen to Gresham talk about the Narnia films and his involvement with their production, you come to realize very quickly that he has a very good understanding of what it takes to remain true to what Lewis was trying to say with the novels, both as fairy tales and as allegories, while also being able to make the stories of the novels work filmically.
I also wouldn't put too much stock in the low opening day numbers for Dawn Treader, since there's really not a lot of same-genre competition for the film coming out during the month of December, and it has pretty much the entire month to build up box office steam and audience numbers as a result (the only two films that are of the same genre and could provide competition to Dawn Treader are Tron: Legacy and Gulliver's Travels).
Contrary to what most people think, Lewis didn't actually write the Narnia novels to be deliberately viewed as an allegory for his adopted Christian beliefs, instead stating that they were meant to be fairy tales first and allegories second. Also, Douglas Gresham, Lewis' step-son, has been intimately involved with the production of the Narnia films thus far, so it's not by any means a question of the 'filmmakers stamping on Lewis' original intent in the name of artistic license', as you put it. If you listen to Gresham talk about the Narnia films and his involvement with their production, you come to realize very quickly that he has a very good understanding of what it takes to remain true to what Lewis was trying to say with the novels, both as fairy tales and as allegories, while also being able to make the stories of the novels work filmically.
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Bollocks.
I think Narnia was always going to be a problematic film series.
If film audiences want "more of the same," Caspian was always going to be a hard sell as a sequel to Lion. Caspian, the book, essentially reboots the entire Narnia concept; the major players (outside the Pevensies) are all different, the names and places are all different. Lion and Caspian might as well be set in two entirely different worlds because there's so little continuity between them. It's to the credit of the screenwriters that they tried to pull more of Lion into Caspian than Lewis did, but they were plastering over the cracks in what is, arguably, the weakest of the Chronicles.
(I've never spent the time researching the creation of the Narnia series the way I have researching Middle-Earth, but I've often thought that Caspian might have been a separate story that Lewis decided to add the Pevensies to, perhaps because his publisher wanted a sequel to Lion.)
I also think that, frankly, Walden Media got very lucky with Lion and that the film vastly over-performed. Studios circa 2002/2003 were looking for the next Lord of the Rings, and Walden just happened to hit with Lion when that iron was still mildly warm. By the time Fox released Eragon in 2006 and New Line released The Golden Compass in 2007, the iron wouldn't even pass for lukewarm. I think that what the studios didn't realize is that Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter had loud, passionate fanbases, something these other series wannabes that followed in LotR's wake simply don't have. Best-selling novels? Yes. Cultural touchstones? No. Just because it looks superficially like Lord of the Rings doesn't mean that audiences are going to respond to it like Lord of the Rings. (And yes, I recognize that some novelists, like Dennis L. McKiernan and Terry Brooks, have made entire careers of writing Lord of the Rings-without-the-serial-numbers fantasy, but films and books are two entirely different beasts.)
Narnia provides a comparatively weak source material to start with, and that was going to lead to diminishing returns no matter how well the first film did. I don't even think an aggressive release schedule would have helped. Maybe Dawn Treader will find its legs and the series can limp on to a fourth film. But that's just it. Narnia is a limping series.
Unfortunately, Liam Neeson stepped into that pile of doo when he angered Narnia fans by suggesting that Aslan can represent any spiritual or religious figure, like Muhammad or Buddha. The Telegraph writes: "Walter Hooper, Lewis’s former secretary and a trustee of his estate, said that the author would have been angered by Neeson’s comments."
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^ Hooper can choose to be offended by what Neeson said if he wishes, and is also free to offer his opinion as to what he believes/thinks Lewis' reaction would have been,, but Neeson is equally free to offer his own opinion as to who/what Aslan represents, notwithstanding that Lewis wrote the character to represent, and be representative of, Christ, the central figure of his own Christian beliefs.
Wow I never knew the first one did so well. The drop-off is stunning.
I said "for awhile" too. I don't think I'm wrong, the franchise is very likely to be completely dead after this weekend. Even if it had legs it would need it's opening weekend box office total to stay the same or go up over the next month and that's not going to happen. With ads and everythnig I don't even think it will make money unless it does insanely well overseas and it doesn't look any better there either.
Don't be so sure: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader looks to be on track for about $80+ million this weekend in the foreign markets. I'm still not convinced that will be enough to justify further Narnia films, but this movie may not turn out to be a complete disaster after all.
Let's not forget that TL,TW&TW is a very popular book amongst the general public, and the others aren't. It also has a very Christmas-y tone that the Christmas-release ads were able to capitalize on, and it's filled with the characters' wonder at being in Narnia - a story that's only fresh once.
I just read that too. I think that was Disney's issue, they didn't own the over sea rights, stupid move. With this the movie should break even around $200 million.
If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but the movie still didn't do nearly as well here as it should have.
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