Fox Takes Over Chronicles of Narnia
Source: Variety, L.A. Times January 29, 2009
Variety and The L.A. Times are reporting that 20th Century Fox has picked up the option to co-finance Walden Media's The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader just a month after Disney decided to pass on helping to finance the third film in the series. Budgeting and script issues are being worked out although there's hope that the film will start shooting at the end of summer for a planned holiday 2010 release through the Fox Walden label.
Fox and Walden will split the production and P&A costs for "Dawn Treader," which is projected to have a $140 million budget, down from the $215 million spent on last year's The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. "Caspian" grossed $419 million worldwide, compared to the $745 million earned by its predecessor "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe."
As planned, the third film will be directed by Michael Apted with Mark Johnson and original director Andrew Adamson co-producing. Ben Barnes, Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley will be returning as Prince Caspian, Edmund and Lucy while Will Poulter from Garth Jennings' Son of Rambow will play Eustace Clarence Scrubb.
You can read more details about the production deal and the development of the script, which was penned by Richard LaGravanese over at Variety and at The L.A. Times.
TheMutt92 said:I'm not sure whether to be happy or saddened by this...
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=52379
So what does this mean for a future box set and distribution, w/ Disney having control over the first two and Fox w/ the rest?
Morning Bell said:That' too bad. I thought the first two films were pretty good adaptations and I was looking forward to another film. I would love to see all seven books get a film, although that's pretty wishful thinking, especially if the others don't perform better.
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" will indeed be among 2010 winter movies. Clarifying the circulating speculation about the film's possible Christmas release, 20th Century Fox and Walden Media announced that they have set the third "Narnia" film to arrive in U.S. theaters on December 10, 2010.
RedeemedChild said:
Captain Craig said:I really liked Voyage of the Dawn Treader and am glad that it has crossed $400m worldwide now!!!
It's now almost grossed as much as Caspian worldwide on a smaller budget plus it was Fox's only $100m film last year. Hard to believe but true that studio had a rough year in 2010.
There is talk of a sequel but the seemingly obvious choice of The Silver Chair seems to have competiton with The Magicians Nephew.
"We are starting to talk to Fox and talk to the C.S. Lewis estate now about the Magician's Nephew being our next film ... 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."
Flaherty then goes on to say that 'The Magician's Nephew' is the second most popular book in the series, so it's a guaranteed blockbuster hit, which sounds like slightly delusional wishful thinking, but if it helps him get his movie made, more power to him.