Joe Johnston to Direct THE SILVER CHAIR!

Joe Johnston will direct The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair! Here is the announcement from the official Narnia Facebook page:

We are so pleased to welcome Joe Johnston, director of ‘Captain America’ to the Narnia family! Joe will be directing the next Chronicles of Narnia movie–The Silver Chair.

Says Douglas Gresham: “It is very good news that Joe Johnston has agreed to come on board for The Silver Chair! We need a man with real feeling for beauty, enchantment, excitement and indeed humour and fun, all things that this Movie will be full of. I am really looking for to working with Joe on the project. In the best movies, the Director is always a vibrant, hidden character in the film — and I reckon we’ve got one!”

Producer of The Silver Chair movie, Mark Gordon, says “Joe is a wonderful storyteller who is equally at home in the biggest franchises and the most intimate character pieces. Because C. S. Lewis’s story is iconic and epic but also tender, personal and emotional, he’s the perfect choice to bring The Silver Chair to the screen.”

One step closer to the next movie! Stay tuned for more movie news.

Joe’s directing credits include: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Hidalgo (2004), Jurassic Park III (2001), October Sky (1999), Jumanji (1995), The Rocketeer (1991), and Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989). Like Andrew Adamson he also has a visual effects background, having worked on the original Star Wars trilogy and Raiders of the Lost Ark. 

There is a certain irony here: Narnia screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely eventually went on to write the Captain America trilogy… and now the series has returned the favor.

No word on the  release date for The Silver Chair.

Stay tuned for our analysis of this news in an upcoming episode of our biweekly podcast, “Talking Beasts.”

Congratulations, Joe! Welcome to Narnia!

36 Responses

  1. narnia fan 7 says:

    Wow! We finally have a director. The only film I've seen of his is Captain America witch I liked, other then that I don't know much about him.

  2. Utterreep says:

    And the screenwriters for that Captain America film wrote the first three Narnia films!

  3. coracle says:

    Joe, welcome to Narnia! (and to NarniaWeb, as your name will be mentioned here from time to time now… hehe, lots!)

  4. Angelo says:

    Thank God, I hope this turns out great or even better.

  5. Adam Dens says:

    Not too sure about this one… First captain America was only okay, nad is overshadowed by its sequels. Jurassic Park 3 is easily the worst of the four films, and Jumanji, while I loved it as a kid, really didn't age that well. But we'll see, I'll give him a fair chance, of course! I like his visual effects background from the days when they used models over CGI, and films like Captain America and Hidalgo show a dedication to location shoots and a cinematographic style that easily trumps the straight to dvd look from VDT.

  6. Glumfeather says:

    Hoping against hope that Douglas Gresham has more say in this than in previous films, and he manages to secure some sort of faithfulness to the wonderful original story.

  7. Movie Aristotle says:

    You had me at "Captain America."

  8. HPofNARNIA says:

    oh my gosh! i actually did though of him at first because he Directed my Favorite Tristar movie, jumanji. oh my gosh, this is Awesome and its my Birthday today. Wow! this is Great. im so happy 😀

  9. Trish says:

    That is my biggest hope as well!

  10. The Rose-Tree Dryad says:

    Happy birthday, HPofNARNIA! 😀

  11. Louloudi the Centaur says:

    I've only seen Jumanji of all of these films, but I quite like that one, so here's hoping for the best!

  12. ElaineL says:

    I'm just so happy SC now have an official Director… so that means we're moving a lot more forward!

  13. Reepicheep775 says:

    I can't say I have strong feelings other than the other (apart from NEWS!! THIS MOVIE IS HAPPENNG!! 😀 ). I've seen both Jumanji and October Sky, but not for many years. It's definitely cool that he worked on Star Wars and Indiana Jones though! Now I have a bunch of movies to watch and re-watch.

  14. wolfloversk says:

    I like this 🙂 Captain America was awesome, I actually enjoyed Jurassic Park III even if a lot of other fans complain, and Hidalgo is easily one of my favorite movies. October Sky was well done too… so I'm encouraged.

  15. Eustace says:

    Captain America and Rocketeer, and October Sky are really good movies, I am fine with this director.

  16. HPofNARNIA says:

    best Birthday Present EVER!!!!

  17. Bundi says:

    DELIGHTED to hear this!! I've seen several of his movies and loved all of them. Hidalgo is one of my all time favourite films. Silver Chair is starting to look promising! VotDT was an appalling movie, but Douglas Gresham sounds like he has more creative power in this one than he did for Dawn Treader, so that plus the director and I've moved from "wary but interested" to "cautiously optimistic."

    Now we just need Harry Gregson-Williams to come back to do the score again, and we'll be looking downright fantastic!

  18. MelanieJoy says:

    Was it the same guy for all three? Because he really dropped the ball on Prince Caspian with that crappy love story and one of the pointless fight scenes.

  19. MelanieJoy says:

    I'm not disappointed, I like many of the movies he has directed so I am willing to give him a chance…Boy us Narnia fans are a strict bunch aren't we? ;P

  20. Michael Leaser says:

    MelanieJoy, yes, they wrote all three films, with one or two other co-writers on the various films (Adamson and Peacock for the first film, Adamson on the second, and Michael Petroni on the third).

  21. Michael Leaser says:

    I'm with you on Jurassic Park III. The first one was the best, but I thought JPIII was much better than Lost World.

  22. Aslan#1Fan says:

    Yay! Welcome to Narnia, Joe!!!!! Finally . . . . a director.

  23. Aslan#1Fan says:

    And honestly, I really enjoyed the Rocketeer as a child, as well as Jurassic Park III (still do actually), and I REALLY loved October Sky. He's a very sound choice. I just hope he puts his heart into it. Michael Apted did a great job with Amazing Grace because he put his heart into it, but VDT wasn't a love project and you could tell . . . I hope Joe is a Narnia fan first and foremost, and I bet he is, since Mr. Gresham and co. like him. =D

  24. Mark Sommer says:

    I checked out Joe Johnston's IMDb page, and it makes me wonder. He has some great credits to his name, and I was glad to see he got his start with Star Wars. However, Captain America: The First Avenger, was his last feature film in 2011. Since, he has only done a low-budget film, Not Safe for Work (2014), and a TV movie, Lumen (2015). Does anyone know why he apparently took some time off, and why he left the mainstream for a time? Like I said: Makes me wonder…

  25. Lord Argoz says:

    Yes, one of my favourite things about the Narnia franchise is the incredible music by Harry Gregson-Williams, unfortunately not present in VDT. Please bring him back in all his musical glory!

  26. Hermitess of Narnia says:

    Maybe he was choosing films based on what sort of movies he wanted to make rather than how "big" the movie was predicted to be?
    In order for a movie to be a success, basically all parts of it must be good. Even if he is the best director around, he is limited by the skill levels of the people he is working with, so I am not necessarily concerning that he has been doing low-budget films.
    We know he can make highly successful films, so now we should hope that he'll have good ideas for The Silver Chair.

  27. Anfinwen says:

    EEEEEEEEEEEEEK! News! I don't know his movies, but this is exciting!

  28. GlimGlum says:

    Nice to have an experienced hand to guide The Silver Chair along. I liked Jumanji when it first came out in theaters. 🙂

  29. Jnarnia 2 says:

    Yes ! Bring him back ! That will recreate the magic and wander that we all felt on the first movies!

  30. Roger says:

    We'll see. October Sky is a big plus. The movie told the story almost like a documentary. The big visual effects background is a minus. He could turn the story into a big battle with the LOTGK and ruin the movie. Will he focus on the story of Jill like October Sky or will he let this movie decay into a epic battle between good vs evil?

  31. Gandalf the Grey says:

    Good Choice, Mark!

  32. Son of Adam says:

    Not bad! I like Hidalgo. 😉

  33. PhelanVelvel says:

    HE DIRECTED JUMANJI. I'M SOLD, BOYS.

  34. Gold Price says:

    I read this post completely regarding the resemblance of most up-to-date and preceding technologies,
    it's amazing article.

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