Gresham Shares Plans for Next Narnia Film
It has been over six months since we last heard any kind of update on the Narnia films. Now, we finally have something to report.
Kristi from The Lion’s Call has posted a brief report on Douglas Gresham’s (co-producer, Lewis’ stepson) comments at Oxford earlier this week. He revealed his hopes for the future of the Chronicles of Narnia films:
- There is a seven-year moratorium on producing any Narnia films outside of Walden Media.
- He might have future films made independently.
- The Silver Chair is the film he would like to make next.
- He would like to see Andrew Adamson return, but thinks he would be too expensive.
- In the meantime, he will focus on a film adaptation of Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters.”
We previously believed the moratorium period was 3-4 years, and that the next film would very likely be The Magician’s Nephew. Now it appears the wait will be longer than we thought, and Gresham will maintain the original published order and continue with The Silver Chair.
To clarify the issue: By law, no Narnia films can be released by anyone without Walden Media until the moratorium ends, and it appears that Gresham would prefer to make the films independently. Assuming the moratorium began just after Dawn Treader‘s release, the earliest we could see the next Narnia film is probably 2018.
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the Discussion Forum!
Wow! 😮
Cool<3
:(((
Dear Please Don't,
Focus on the family adapted the Screwtape Letters to a full dramatized audiobook. It was amazing and very helpful. People said that that TLotR couldn't be made into a movie because the world was far to big. Well that was proven wrong, yes Hollywood could ruin it but then there is a chance that the Screwtape movie might become something extraordinary. A classic that would expand the story around the world to reach people who DON'T read but really NEED to hear the message of it. There is a reason why non of the spiritual books from Christian authors haven't been made into movies thus far. There are forces that that are afraid of the ramifications those stories would spread in movie form.
I'm interested to see how they plan on adapting the Screwtape Letters. That's a pretty difficult undertaking to accomplish cinematically. It's not a story that lends itself well to a movie.
stopped breathing for a moment. so excited
im all for greshams idea i just want to know why it has to take so long. i would just wait on making the screwtape letters and finish the narnia series first. there are tons of narnia fans waiting for the next movie to come out and they dont want to wait 8 years. i also agree he should get andrew adamson back. he made the movies alot more realistic and better.
also i want to see disney and walden media make the movie again cause if they dont make it it wont be as good
also gresham should have lots of say in what goes in the movie cause he can probably make the books really come to life alot better then where walden media was going with it
actually i dont wanna see walden media any part of this like gresham is saying but i still want disney involved
Gresham needs to find somebody to make the movie who is as passionate about Narnia and all it stands for as Peter Jackson is for LotR and Hobbit. Though Dawn Treader was a good movie in and of itself, it had no connection to Narnia in my mind.
i find this sad 7 years , with potter gone narnia would be #1 , i love the books and the films , there is nothing better in my mind . I still push c s lewis read these lol just sad 7 year
The last thing we need is a seven years hiatus. Douglas Gresham and Hollywood need to stay vigilant with the production of the Narnia films.
With Narnia's buddies Snow White and The Huntsman, Jack The Giant Killer, Gods and Kings, The Seventh Son and The Hobbit all releasing now is the perfect time more than ever for them to be eager to put another Narnia film into production.
Hear hear!:D 😉
This time: I would suppose that Douglas Gresham should really be the master or the boss(together with the right director) of the fourth Narnia film. Showing the 'real' scenes, essence, theme of the book in the movie will really do. What help I can only do for now is to pray to Jesus that there will still be Narnia 4 and it will be a blockbuster movie!
Further Up and Further In!
Okay, let's take a little recap of 'year gap'
from LWW-PC, 3 year gap
from PC-VDT, 2 year gap
from VDT-SC, 7 year gap
just want to see Narnia again in the big screen!
I am definitely of the mindset that I would rather not see another Narnia film be made ever, then see have another VotDT happen. I am all for more movies being made, and have long desired to experience Tash on the big screen, but it either a good adaptation or nothing.
As far as who should make the film, my opinion would be to wait the seven years (or longer) and have a complete reboot of the series, starting with LWW, and continuing on in publication order with a new company.
Good and bad news for me: The Silver Chair will be next, but 2018?? Wow…
ha! same here! I just couldn't believe when I read the interview that another Narnia movie would be coming out! I actually stopped breathing, then realised… in seven YEARS?! I'm going to be old then! haha, just can't wait though. I really want to see The Last Battle. Love Jewel the most. (Unicorns have a special place in my heart! Guess I'll never grow up 🙂
When he says "independently," do you suppose he means that he's going to produce them on his own, or co-produce them with a smaller film company? Not sure if that would be a good thing or a bad thing.
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT! I'll be over twenty before another Narnia comes out! Well, I hope they use the same actors as before, I can't stand it when they change them! That's a real blow. My dad's going to be so, depressed.
Heads up. someone who has no idea what they are doing decided to release les mis the same day as the hobbit!
I'm glad! I very much disliked The Voyage of the Green Mist except for the very VERY end. But seven years is a long time =(
Oh my gosh, 6 years from now!? That's insane! As much as I love The Silver Chair will be next as I personally think it should (just to be in the correct order being after Dawn Treader), gotta think, Will Poulter will still look WAY much older than his character in the book. Thank you for this update though!
@ Child of Aslan
Same here! I'll be like in college! So not fair! Oh well, at least here's SOME news. I thought Walden let their contract expire? Somebody explain this to me!
YAY! GlimGlum, you probably just saved my sanity, LOL.
I know Harry Potter was stealing the box office, but Narnia and Potter are not even comprable!
OH no! No, Andrew Adamson no! Why it can not be made by better director?
OH MY GOSH HI LUCIA!!! LONG TIME NO SEE <3 miss you so much!
So ive been workIng so hard to become an actress for nothing!
and when 2018 they maybe will say 2020 and still never have done the movie…
Errr… I think I can accept Andrew Adamson, but I hope too they will have better director, I always suggest Matthew Vaughn, I'm also thinking The Avengers' director.
Overall, it sounds like negotiations broke down between Walden and Gresham with Walden wanting to do "Magician's Nephew" next and Gresham wanting "The Sliver Chair". It also appeared that Gresham felt he had to compromise too much and, because of that, wants more control over the finished product.
After Dawn Treader was released I got to thinking about how the films perhaps should be marketed differently. Rather than marketing each film as a continuation of a series, perhaps they should be marketed individually. Although they are a series of books , they are not as closely connected as Lord of the Rings or even Star Wars. Each book is it's own individual story and can stand apart as such. I sort of felt that, because each move was being marketed as part of "The Chronicles of Narnia", that there was great effort placed in not only putting characters in stories where they didn't belong (The white witch was in all three movies, and Peter and Susan were on posters for Dawn Treader), but with audiences expecting to see further development of characters who had only cameo appearances in subsequent films. Perhaps if each film was marketed by itself they would each stand a better chance of doing well as well as having the story of each one come through more clearly. Just some food for thought…
Go ahead and keep learning acting. There are so many roles out there that you could play. It's a lot of fun no matter who you get cast as. 🙂
Joss Whedon as the next Narnia director…heheheh… okay, that could be brilliant. But I think Joss should write & direct everything now… XD
I'm really not surprised. The source material isn't really suited for Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings fame, but requires a high budget.
I'd be more interested to see a stage musical production of the entire Narnia series at this point. I'm also questioning whether Gresham ought to stay involved – I feel that he's thinking with his heart and not his mind when it comes to the storytelling of the Narnia series. The tug of war between getting in key Christian scenes and telling a coherent story is what ultimately ruined VoDT.
(As a side note, I think that what happened with VoDT is that they wanted to make it more like the other Walden flicks. They're decent on the nose family pictures – they're not good art by any means.)
Waaahhh!!!
Yes and no. I think it would do SC and HHB a gross injustice to market them as continuations of the "Narnia story" rather than stand-alone stories that happen to be set in Narnia. Both books have a lot going for them if you just appreciate them on their own merits. You miss a lot if you're preoccupied with looking for LWW connections.
PC and MN, on the other hand, have little value except for their connection to LWW. PC-the book- is essentially LWW2 (same central characters, same basic plot structure), and MN is "LWW Begins."
VDT could theoretically go either way, but I think it would have been better if they had focused on the drama, fantasy, and adventure, rather than trying to say "Look! It's LWW without the second W!"
That sounds great! PLEASE can Harry Gregson- Williams do the music for the rest fo the Narnia films? He did a wonderful job on the first two and in the third one the music just wasn't the same. If you did The Magician's Nephew first, wouldn't the actor for Eustice be too old by the time you got to making the Silver Chair?
Don't look now . . .
http://i763.photobucket.com/albums/xx272/willpoulterfans/Interviews%20and%20Photoshoots/Alisa%20Connan%20Photoshoot/IP7.jpg
Agreed about Harry Gregson-Williams, though.
they can make another one sooner i understand but it cannot be released until 2018
If Andrew Adamson came back Harry Gregson-Williams would also because they do all movies together
visit me on facebook,dear!
i am always there 🙂
Sure hope not 0_o
Okay, to bring the Narnia films back from the edge of destruction, (though it looks like they jumped into the gap, after VotDT,) Andrew Adamson HAS to come back! Please please please! Narnia can't go bad again! I mean, come one, everyone loves the books, but I think a good place to draw the line is: either stick to the storyline (with minor, MINOR differences) or don't make the movies at all!
Okay, ranting and raving over, please just keep us updated with more movie/review news. 🙂
Thanks! One grateful/heartbroken fan
This is good news… now all I have to do is somehow become rich, famous, and good friends with Douglas Gresham… then we can have Narnia films to be proud of… Rillian, Puddleglum, and Gymfan, you are all my advisory board.
i don't think there should be a reboot. LWW and PC in my opinion were pretty solid movies. I thought about possibly a reboot but i seriously hope not because we already have 3 narnia films and what if the reboot isn't received well or VDT messes things up? Then we'll never see an adaption of a narnia book past SC
I just hate the thought of having to wait 7 years. It would mean a whole new cast would be needed for the children and cousin.
So my question is, are they allowed to film the rest of the series, lock the product in a vault and release it in 2018??
I would like to see the series finished as they already started it but when the movie is done i'll be almost 40! Ahhhh!
Here's a short of Andrew Adamson's new Cirque du Soleil World's Away movie project in Japanese i'm guessing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSZgKgF9WlU
DO you think it's fair to say it's very Narnian isn't it? Or at least abit Narnian?
Or maybe, if being particularly extravagant…. even very easy to imagine as being abit Horse & His Boy exotic…ish? 🙂
Thanks for the response and your welcome, Christ's girl. I am sure we all want to see a new Narnia movie that is both good and faithful to the particular C.S. Lewis story. 🙂
Me too! I was worried that Voyage of the Dawn Treader would be the last. I'd be happy to see another movie come out, even if it's in the next 20 years. I can definitely wait 7!
I wish we didn't have to wait so long for the next Narnia film!!! Douglas Gresham pleeeease stay with Walden Media!
I think hope is so small, like a dust….
Why didn't anyone sort out the renewal of Narnia before it expired??
I want more Movies in NARNIA… nice movie film… good job to all cast of Narnia and the Director… more Power to all of you… i will pray… that more movies come to the NARNIA.
Oh, my….I'll be 68 🙂 I'm pleased to know that the Narnia Chronicles are alive and well among such recent generations (though I always considered them my very own).
I think Walden Media is losing interest making the films since last two box office was not the greatest for the type movie Narnia is. Making them independently however there is always that the films may never be pick up by a studio. Narnia needs special effects that expansive. Narnia may not be marketable anymore I mean movie market changing.
That another problem Will Poulter will be to old by then. They stand a better chance just rebooting now.
It's really weird…I wanted the Silver Chair so bad as well (and am disappointed because Will Poulter probably won't be Eustace) but now I think since they are waiting so long, the should do The Magician's Nephew. It would maybe get people re-interested in Narnia.
To quote Tasha from The Backyardigans: Ranch Hands From Outer Space, "Oh my, oh my!".
I was starting to look forward to The Magician's Nephew, partially because that was the first Narnia book I read, and also because it sets up the groundwork for the other six films. Tilda Swinton HAS to reprise her role as Jadis for that movie!
This wait may be tough, but I hope and pray that they'll go back to the way things were with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Prince Caspian. Walt Disney Pictures needs to team up with Walden Media again, and Andrew Adamson needs to direct the rest of the series. If this wait enables that, then it will definitely be worth it.