Walden Media, which produced the first three Narnia films – “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” (2005), “Prince Caspian” (2008) and “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” (2010), apparently no longer hold the rights to the movies. What is more, the C.S. Lewis Estate must wait a number of years before they can resell them to Walden or another studio, NarniaWeb.com revealed.
Douglas Gresham, the stepson of C. S. Lewis, confirmed the news in a radio interview to Middle-Earth radio back in October. ChristianCinema posted an excerpt from the conversation:
“If you’re aware Walden’s contract with the [C S Lewis] Company has expired, that’s true. And that leaves us in a situation that, for a variety of reasons, we cannot immediately produce another Narnian Chronicle movie. But it is my hope that the Lord will spare me and keep me fit and healthy enough so that in three or four years time we can start production on the next one,” Gresham said.
The exact length of time that the estate has to wait has not been reported, but if Gresham’s hopes that production can only begin with within the next three or four years come true, fans may have to wait another six or seven years before the movie is finalized and ready for the big screen.
Michael Flaherty, co-founder and president of Walden Media, shared in an interview with The Christian Post back in March that the company was planning to make The Magician’s Nephew, and not The Silver Chair, as the next Narnia movie, which is a prequel to the very first book in the series. However, now it is unclear whether Walden will be able to reclaim the rights, or which movie a new production company would like to do.
1 comment:
Who had the bright idea to let Disney get involved with the original Narnia movies. The music in those movies was much too loud and obnoxious. The music tended to drown out the voices of the actors. Turn down the volume, and you cannot hear the actors speaking; Turn up the volume to hear the actors, and the music becomes too loud.
The whole affair regarding the Narnia films is asinine. What the C.S. Lewis estate should have done, but didn't, was to give the rights to New Zealand film director Peter Jackson. Recall that Jackson filmed all three Lord of the Rings movies back to back. Not just some, but all rights were worked out prior to Jackson filming Tolkien's three books.
The speed at which the sequels were filmed was done in part to keep the actors from aging too much between followup movies. Now it is too late. The children from the original Narnia movies have all aged too much. By the time another Narnia movie could be made, the same child actors will have grown up and could not be used.
If I could talk to Peter Jackson, I would ask him to make tasteful movies out of all of the Thornton Burgess stories, and out of all fairy tale stories and fantasy novels that he could find from the 1700 - 1800s. I would also ask him to make a tasteful movie about the life of Martin Luther.
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