I wonder if they are negotiating more rights for the whole series vs. just one book. I wonder what Lewis' estate has to say.
News Netflix is developing a Narnia series and films!
- Thread starter The Nth Doctor
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I felt the film franchise had finally hit its stride with Dawn Treader. I was looking forward to The Silver Chair, while at the same time hoping they never made the Last Battle (I have issues with the book, but if you like it, fine). The Greco-Roman and Christian allegories in the books irk people now in a way they did not back then. Personally, I enjoy it. It doesn't have to move away from that. I felt the recent films had a decent enough footing.
It's easy to see the heavy handed writing of the Calormen being evil swarthy heathen people of color. Lewis didn't even try hard on that one. Horse and His Boy is going to be a tough sell. And of course Susan not making it to Narnian heaven because she liked to apply makeup and had a healthy interest in boys her age says more about the state of Lewis's mind when he finished his series than I want to delve into. It's not going to be easy to make a 2020 Narnia. Some might think it not even a great idea when they are arguably better fantasy alternatives on the library shelves (I would love to see Brian Aldiss's Helliconia series make it to the screen, personally). But I suppose for any of us that cracked those books open as a child, there's a room in our minds where that wardrobe still sits and waits.
2 years though, sheesh.
It's easy to see the heavy handed writing of the Calormen being evil swarthy heathen people of color. Lewis didn't even try hard on that one. Horse and His Boy is going to be a tough sell. And of course Susan not making it to Narnian heaven because she liked to apply makeup and had a healthy interest in boys her age says more about the state of Lewis's mind when he finished his series than I want to delve into. It's not going to be easy to make a 2020 Narnia. Some might think it not even a great idea when they are arguably better fantasy alternatives on the library shelves (I would love to see Brian Aldiss's Helliconia series make it to the screen, personally). But I suppose for any of us that cracked those books open as a child, there's a room in our minds where that wardrobe still sits and waits.
2 years though, sheesh.
the grandson said recently (January) he'd heard nothing since the deal was made. It was a $250,000,000 deal, as I understood it, for everything.
That's very odd to me but I guess unsurprising, for the reasons you outline. There is a good story to be had there, even shying away from the allegory, and changing up Calormen to explore it. I mean, if we can have Aladdin then Calormen shouldn't be that hard. Largely because "A Horse and his Boy" is as much about palace intrigue and overcoming personal biases (being a "war horse" and not being "good enough" to be a Narnian horse, recognizing other lives are not for oneself but ok for others) as much as anything.
Eh, I think it was more an apostatic statement than anything else. She simply dismissed it as childhood make-believe rather than a true experience.
Good points, and in fairness to symbology in the series, Jadis was cursed with whiteness in Magician's Nephew as a mark of her evil. She was not the white queen by choice. In general I just don't find The Last Battle a very good novel or end of the series. As a child I was dissapointed with it, and in fairness I have never re-read it, so I am going off assumptions from longer ago than I would like to admit.
I don't think "The Last Battle" is very good either, and there is a lot of things tied up in ways that feel very rapid and sloppy. It ties things altogether but in a rather odd way. So, I can appreciate not wanting to revisit it.
Honestly, I really wish they would start with "The Magician's Nephew" to really show the development of the world.
Prince Caspian is the only one I was underwhelmed by.
They've managed to work their way around a lot of racist stuff while adapting other books from the same era as the Narnia books, so I don't really see where that would be a serious enough issue to stop an adaptation.
The fact that we haven't heard anything about it in 2 years, makes me think this isn't happening. We probably should have at least heard about some scripts and casting by now.
For reference, we first heard about a Wheel of Time series in April 2017, heard about a series order in October 2018, Rosamund Pike's casting was announced in June 2019, and filming started in September 2019.
With The Witcher, they announced production was starting in May 2017, Henry Cavil's casting was announced in September 2018, and filming started in October.