Why is Walden Making ‘Magician’s Nephew’ Next?
The Christian Post caught up with Micheal Flaherty to talk to him about the future of the Narnia films. Flaherty confirmed that Walden plans to make The Magician’s Nephew as the fourth Narnia movie (which we already knew) and that they’re currently in talks with Fox and the C.S. Lewis Estate about it.
But what was interesting was one of the reasons he listed as to why they were making The Magician’s Nephew next instead of The Silver Chair.
Looking ahead, Walden Media believes The Magician’s Nephew has the potential to be a blockbuster hit like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe because it is the second most popular book in the Narnia series.
Flaherty explained that box office performance for Narnia films appears to mimic the amount of people’s interest in the books.
“What’s interesting is that the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe over this period of time sold twice as many books as Prince Caspian and it did twice as much at the box office. Prince Caspian sold a third of the books as Dawn Treader and did a third at the box office,” he noted.
“So while it’s not always a correlation between books to film, so far with these first three films, it has been.”
The full story is available here.
Im all for The Magicians Nephew next!
I think its a smart move to make The Magician's Nephew next. It will give Will some time to grow up and portray the older wiser Eustace in The Silver Chair!! 🙂
But The Magician's Nephew is the beginning of the series. If you are going to start reading a series it stands to reason that you would begin at the beginning, thus the first book would sell more copies. That doesn't mean people like it more. It just means they had to start somewhere. I hope it does make a ton of money. I WANT TO SEE THE SILVER CHAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (And I want to see Will Poulter and Ben Barnes return) *calms and ends rant.*
Why can't they just admit that the reason the films have done poorly is because they keep messing with them? Clearly their is not a correlation between which books are the most popular and which films are. If that was the case then VDT should have done MUCH MUCH better than PC at the box office, as it's 10x more popular.
Non fans are going to be so confused as to the order. There are already 2 different schools of thought on which order to read the books and this won't help.
alright, MN here we come! I really don't care what movie is made next..I just want another well made Narnian movie.
I think it is great to do this now. How many times do you see them wait to do a prequel later in the series. This is the beginning…alot of people who have only saw the movies don't even know this is the beginning…so lets show them.
Eustace is only a few months older in Silver Chair than he is in Dawn Treader. Or were you thinking of the 16 year old he is in Last Battle? Will could play either of those yesterday.
I want to see Tilda throw that piece of the lamppost on the big screen!
wait – have they greenlit MN?
DITTO! SC ftw!
completely agree..especially with the Poulter and Barnes comment!
If they think that the popularity of the books is affecting which films do better, then they should realize that their ridiculous changes are behind the low income.
Interesting that they decided to do a prequel right about the same time as The Hobbit…
@AslanoIsOnTheMove – Technically The Magician's Nephew is NOT the first book in the series. CS Lewis released the books differently than the way they are being released today. LW&W is considered the first book in the series. Publishing companies feel they need to reorder the books in chronological order which is NOT what C.S. Lewis intended.
As for doing The Magician's Nephew next is an insult to the Lewis Estate. The movies should be done in the correct order with the next being Silver Chair. Would a singer like it if another artist changed the order of their lyrics? Moving around the stanzas and chorus to make sense in their eyes?
All the movie production companies care about is how much money they can milk out of this. Screw them. I've enjoy the movies for the most part but feel the higher ups want to micromanage how the movies are being made.
I don't mind MN being next. People who don't know it's a 'prequel' to LWW will realise and it's better doing it now than later. But SC is the next in publication order so it would make sense that one being next.
However, the production teams only care about the money they're making & have changed the movies so much in places which does get annoying at times. I know that movies can't be EXACTLY the same as the books but they don't really need to stray that far away. It's no wonder the series nearly ended after PC. But at least with MN it's another Narnia movie. Rant over. 🙂
I am fine with them making it but it seems to be random. By the time they get around to doing the Silver Chair they will have to find a new Eustace. The MN is not one of my favorite books and that could have something to do with it.
It's only the most popular with people who have read all seven books. Micheal Flaherty is talking about book sales, which is a completely different thing. LWW wins hands down in that category.
Though I do agree with you that the movie adaptation and quality played a much larger role in box office sales than they're willing to admit.
I'm a bit concerned about this particular sentence.
[quote]"If we can all agree to move forward, then what we would do is find someone to write the script. So, it could still be a couple of years."[/qoute]
A couple of years. So let's say 2 years minimum, that makes already 2013. It takes forever to make these movies. Wich is really sad.
No.
""If we can all agree to move forward, then what we would do is find someone to write the script. So, it could still be a couple of years.""
A couple years?!! I can't wait that long! Neither can the series… start on both of them so they can be released faster!
Me too! I do not care what order they do the Narnia movies in. I just hope that they eventually convert all of Narnia books to movies.
I want to hear Aslan's creation song!
This is good.
Now all we need is an official green light. 😉
And I want confirmation that Tilda Swinton will play Jadis in "The Magician's Nephew" film.
Tilda would be totally AWESOME in this movie. 😀
"Dog! Unhand our royal charger! We are the Empress Jadis!!"
Yeah baby! 😀
This makes me happy. Another Narnia movie! "The Magician's Nephew" is one of my favorite books. Here's hoping this helps other Narnia movies get made. Plus, maybe more people will be excited and go see it. Same with when they make "The Silver Chair", because they had to wait longer for it.
I don't mind waiting a couple of years, especially if they decide to get new screenwriters.
I am glad they are continuing… they better make ALL of them.
I think this makes sense- I don't think they are going to be able to make all seven, but they may be able to make Magician's Nephew and the Last Battle, which would give the films a beginning, a middle (i.e. the first three films) and then an end with the Last Battle. Let face it the Silver Chair is not the best of the stories and I always felt that the Horse and His Boy doesn't really fit in with the style of the other books, would be difficult to explain to people who hadn't read the books and also has a rather un-PC portrayal of an Arabic-style culture.
And I prefer the Magicians Nephew to the Silver Chair- if its the last film, I'm glad its this one!!!
Just glad they are even talking about making another one. Let's hope they do a great job on Magician's Nephew so that we get another one after that. 🙂
Magician's Nephew is the second most sold book??? I am sorry i find that hard to comprehend. Out of all my friends and people I know… maybe one or two like Magician's Nephew the best. Anyway, don't get me wrong, I am SOOOOO HAPPY they are even THINKING about making another one!!! And since they have never made this one before i am SOOOO EXCITED to see how they will do it!!! 😀 Though they HAVE to do Aslan's song and the creation right or I will not like the movie at all! That's the BEST part! 😀
Awesome !
And we need JOHN CLEESE as uncle Andrew.
And I want JOHN CLEESE !!!!! LOL
2013 is the year The Hobbit Pt. 2 is released. Not good.
It is an Indian style culture…very different…
New writers? PLEASE, LORD! PLEEEEAAASE!!!
I don't know anyone who likes MN the most. Frankly, the only reason it's so "popular" is because it's listed as the first in the series.
They've been dying to make Magician's Nephew since right after LWW – for them to try and retroactively justify it by implying some sort of correlation between book sales and boxoffice (a correlation which doesn't hold up to even the most basic mathematical scrutiny) is just ridiculous. Even the most casual fan could list you a dozen or so factors that have influenced box-office takings more than book popularity – the only thing you can really say about that is that LWW is the most well known book. Anything else pales into insignificance compared to the complex world of movie industry economics.
Haha… u mad?
As long as they make all the films, I'm happy. The only gutting thing is, little chance of the stars we know and love making an appearance in this one (apart from Tilda of course!)
Another reason is Jadis, because they LOVE to add Jadis everywhere. Is not that I dont like Jadis but that this people think Jadis is the evil one in all the books, which is not true.
me too! I love that book! I just wish they hadn't hinted about making SC next… and it seems more logical to do that instead of MN… But I'll love to see that book on the screen finally.
That was my thoughts exactly. I would think the average person would be like…seriously the same villain again?! We all know that Jadis is in the MN, LWW, and mentioned in PC, but seriously why did they put her into VotDT?
To be rather blunt, I don't think MN is going to do well in the Box Office. Everyone I know likes the MN book the least. I think the HBB would have been a better route IF they weren't going to continue with SC (which I think they should). The HBB is almost everyone's favorite and for the people who haven't read the book it is the perfect 'rags to riches' story.
I just don't understand this discourse with the MN. I am happy that they are thinking about another movie, but if they screw this one up at all (meaning if they don't follow the book) it's going to flop.
I completely agree!
Yep! 😉
I'm really into that casting choice for Uncle Andrew.
Can you imagine if that ACTUALLY happened? Oh duuuude.
I can just imagine Tilda and Cleese doing the following exchange:
"My Doom has come upon me!"
"Oh don't say that, Madam."
LOL. And I can also imagine John Cleese saying "You are a very impertinent little boy." Can't you just hear it?
He would be great. He's kind of a goofy, scientist type (at least he can play that) and to children, he'd at first seem kind of scary. But, put him next to the tall and imposing Tilda Swinton and he would just shrink back.
My friends, I believe you terribly underestimate how popular Tilda Swinton's White Witch is with the "average person." The average person who sees these movies LOVES Tilda Swinton. I remember sitting a few seats behind a bunch of younger kids once in the theatre and when Tilda's cameo came on, they said excitedly to each other:
"Ooh, the White Witch. 😀 "
I think that is the opinion of the "average person" right there.
Most of the comments I see are
"Oh, this was the only good scene in the movie."
"Why didn't the witch come back?"
"If only the witch came back."
"They cheated me in the second movie."
"Yay, the White Witch."
"They should have done more with her."
and it goes on and on…
A film explaining the origins of the White Witch should be quite popular.
Especially if the trailers show a very-much alive Tilda Swinton entering London and beating up cops, throwing an iron bar at Aslan's head, and so forth. I believe the reaction would actually be more like:
"The White Witch on Earth?! OMG!!"
Personally, I always thought The White Witch was the central evil of the series.
Even if she was physically dead, the spirit of evil never truly goes away. We have to be vigilant.
I always thought making MN was a 100% commercial decision, not an artistic one. But I never expected one of the producers to admit it, haha.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm very happy that they are looking to continue. Magician's Nephew definitely has some great potential. There are some really great scenes in The Magician's Nephew: Aslan's creation song, the white witch on earth, etc…
Obviously it is a made up culture, but much of the imagery of it comes from Turkish influences (they are armed with scimitars, and use the crescent symbol on their money etc) as well as other parts of middle eastern and Asian cultures. I was refering to the fact that the people of Calormen are generally seen as a 'bad' group of people, which could be seen as a rather dated and simplistic concept. However there are many parts of the Narnia novels that have become outdated and we have to read them in the context of the time they were written. They are now quite old!
Alright folks.
Here comes my feelings on this situation.
Watch out.
1. Related to money, this was a good decision. Everyone feels like Dawn Treader didn't feel as Narniaish as they wanted. Obviously, doing MN will bring back the magic and originality of Narnia. Plus, MN will be the unexpected choice to people who don't stalk narnia like us, and they will be more interested.
2. Related to actors, this was a bad decision. Will already looks way older, and it wasn't supposed to be that much of a gap between DT and SC. They are going to have to use a lot of makeup, hair, and styling techniques to get him to look young again.
There. I'm done.
It'll take two years at the minimun for MN to come out? If SC was being done instead, I wonder if that would be the same case as well…
Ok, Walden and Fox, I'm more than willing to see a fourth Narnia film. But promise to try your best to make it a faithful adaption (with small necessary changes that are needed), and one that can bring back the magic of the book itself, not any of the movies… 😉
I am sad. SC is my all time favorite book in the series, I have been waiting for it for so long, and I was so excited that they got VODT out, and it was looking good for another one. so now Im quite sad because now who knows when or if they will get to SC. LAME!
Not as mad as I am!
I'm with you here. I am truly excited to hear it. I think it is cool that both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien began their creations with songs.
Hast hit it!
Very true. Especially if the Hobbit part one goes well.
And I always thought you were right.
It would take just as long is they did SC.
What the…???
So Fox admits its because it has to do with MN making the most money, not to keep in the timeline of the films? This is why Fox is the worst in the business, making the worst decisions they possibly could and never thinking ahead, amen to greedy careless Fox and amen to this franchise. See you in 10 years when its all rebooted.