It’s funny. The other day I mentioned to a friend of mine that “With the huge success of Lord of the Rings, and now The Passion of Christ, I bet it won’t be long before we see The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe turned into a movie”. Little did I know just how quickly my prediction would come true. The following is from CNN:
Budgeted at more than $100 million, according to sources, the film is scheduled to begin shooting in the summer, with “Shrek” director Andrew Adamson at the helm. The film, the first installment of Walden’s “Chronicles of Narnia” franchise based on the series of children’s fantasy books by C.S. Lewis, will be released at Christmas 2005 by Walt Disney Pictures. Under the deal, which includes worldwide distribution rights, merchandising and all ancillary rights, Disney retains the option to release future films in the series, Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook said.
The story of Narnia revolves around the Pevensie siblings — Lucy, Susan, Edmund and Peter — who go through a magic wardrobe and enter the world of Narnia, a once peaceful land of talking beasts, dwarfs and giants that has since become frozen by the evil White Witch. The four children then help the lion Aslan break the witch’s spell.
I don’t know how good of an idea this is. Most people know that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a faith based piece of literature. The Passion of Christ was done by Mel Gibson, a devote Catholic, but Disney doing Wardrobe? I have a feeling this could be a PR disaster of monumental perportions. Someone is going to get ticked off.
To Rab:
Nothin’ wrong with us Americans.
However, these books are just about my very favorites of all time…I was introduced to the fantasy when I read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe as a child.
If Disney messes with these books the way they did with other classics (I’ll never forgive them for the Hunchback…ye gods and little fishes! who told them Victor Hugo was for kids?!) I’ll be seriously PO’d.
BTW, the way they hacked up the first Harry Potter for the American audience was dreadful. What the devil IS the Sorceror’s Stone, anyway?? It was always the Philosopher’s Stone in what I read…gotta love publishers.
Yes, I am of the opinion that depending on how it is made, this movie will either rule or suck. I’m hoping for the former. The special effects I’m sure will be fantastic, with WETA behind them (the Mo-Cap innovations made during the filming of LotR will really come in handy), and Douglas Gresham helping to push people in the right direction. I’m glad to see that Disney isn’t too involved, what with their long history of mangling stories beyond recognition. They seem to have quite the cast lineup, with quite a pleasant blend of new people and seasoned actors. I’m also glad that the experienced movie actors here are not as universally known. It tends to distract people from the character and the story when they’re thinking, “Hey! That’s Eddie Murphy!” or whatnot. So yeah, I have confidence that this movie will be good, and I dearly hope that I am right with my prediction.
The relative with creative control is Douglas Gresham. He is the son of Lewis’ wife Joy. Douglas is a devout Christian and loved the Narnia stories before he ever met Jack Lewis. If he has veto power, the script will be true. Also, the BBC versions are excellent – we have worn out two copies at our house! Buy the DVDs; they last longer! I hope the Walden people have watched those.
hmm, this sounds like it could either be extremely good, or extremely bad. I think that the book was excellent, and it truly had my imagination working for a while there!(in fact, I think it went into overtime while reading that book) Unfortunately, when books are left to the reader’s imagination, I almost always disagree with the directors version of the book. It really is like some kind of disease with me! I mean, everyone else in the theater will be happy, and having a wonderful time, while I am internally groaning the entire time! I spend the entire movie thinking about how much money was wasted making this cruddy movie, and how I wasted $12 on a movie ticket. Most likely I’ll go and see this movie. I absolutely ADORED the movie Shrek, so I’m actually looking forward to this, and hopefully it will not disappoint!
I was SO excited when I heard that they were making a Narnia film, I was always a fan of the books. But when i heard Disney was involved i was quite disappointed. But now im happy seeing as disney doesnt have creative power. i agree with twitch about the relative with veto powers.
A letter by Pippa Hall has been posted on http://www.narniaweb.com that says the 4 children have been cast. Also supposedly the script has been completed.
i am really excited and optomistic about this project. i think its going to be a great series of films. disney have a lot to prove and im sure theyll be anious to get it right. they have to stay relatively close to lewis’ version of the story because his stepson is one of the producers. i think, provided they pick the irght cast and have a good script, this movie will be awesome!
i hope they dont ruin it like they ruined the chronicles of prydane i want someone to make a good version both series(get peter jackson to do them all) not gonna happen but it would be nice
Ok so i’m over at http://www.comingsoon.net checking it out and i see a post about narnia casting, so i get all excited and then i start to cry, because i see that disney is involved in it, and then some of the comments in this post make me deliriously happy! Hooray for a relative that has vetoe power, let’s just hope that he isn’t afraid to use it and that he’s not a complete idiot. News that i think many of you know that probably just hasn’t been written here yet is that it’s looking like the movie is going to be live action instead of animated. Casting was done in Aukland, New Zealand recently and those in charge commented on how people wouldn’t be able to survive a movie set if they couldn’t put up with some rain (it happened to be raining that day). Check out this site for an article on it http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/entertainmentstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3564058&thesection=entertainment&thesubsection=film&thesecondsubsection=general sorry about the ridiculous length of that link.
If they change the title or do too much rewriting of the book they will loose a large U.S. fan base! For more discussion on the upcoming movie… http://www.narniaweb.com is a great site. As for the BBC release… It’s 4 books, but 3 videos. They combined Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader into one release.
I can imagine that the list was quiet extensive. The name of one of the Harry Potter films got changed completly in the States! Socerers Stone to Philisophers Stone (or it may have been the other way round!). I dread to think how they got on with Lock Stock and Two smoking barrels and Snatch!
The Americans surely couldn’t change The Narnia books could they? Subtle minor changes so the adaptation transfers from book to screen is acceptable, but changing the whole base of the Story from siblings to love interests would surely be the thin end of the wedge! Mind you Mel Gibson films like Brave Heart, We Were Soldiers and the Patriot basically re-wrote history to suit themselves so anything is possible. Not to mention the whole nationality change in U-571! Youve got to love American film makers, but then you got to hate them also!
Heh. I once saw a poster that was just a huge list of all the phrases that had been “Americanized” for the US release of the first Harry Potter book … there were a LOT of them. We got it unaltered here in Canada …
The BBC have adapted the following Narnia books The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair. You can buy them as a set in the UK for about £30.00. For America do you think they will change the title to the Lion, The Witch and The Walk in Closet so the youth of today understand?
Really? Which four? I’m pretty sure only three are available over here …
I’m not too worried about this being overly Disney-fied, by the way … Disney is only the distributor, not the production house, so they don’t have that much influence …
Actually the BBC did 4 of the books not three. They are also looking specifically for british children for the four Pevensies.
Let’s be honest. They’re gonna make it all sappy and happy. The children will probably be americanised and the effects and voices will make a laughing stock of the entire story. This one won’t survive unless they turn away from the norm of Disney films, and try to be serious and put a good story across without blatently trying to make it one for the kids, and in so doing, taking the soul away from the film
there are a couple earlier versions, actually … there’s an animated feature and there’s a live action adaptation that the BBC did of three of the books. The Beeb version is supposed to be pretty good and it’s available on DVD …
What’s funny is that there is a movie out there somewhere. I used to watch it when I was a kid, and I’ve said it was one of my all-time favorite movies for a long time. I haven’t seen it in years, but then again, movies often disappear into the face of the earth. *shrug*
I wouldn’t mind seeing it again, with what technology has to offer these days, but I’d be afraid that the movie might be “overdone.”
I’ll probably see it though, since I’m a huge fan of the books.
GRRRRRRR!!! If what RaeRae heard is correct, I can already feel my teeth grinding and fists clinching up. Again I say “GRRRRRRRR”
I must admit that I am rather sceptical about this film. The books have been my personal favorites since childhood. Done correctly I think that this is a wonderful idea, but all it takes is some changes to make it suck. There are certain things in the books that movie people don’t like. For instance the lack of any romantic involvement. I mean even Harry Potter has that, but in Wardrobe there are only siblings. I heard a rumor on the net a month ago when I first heard that the movie was going to be made that they are not going to make them brothers and sisters. That it was going to be two brothers and their friends two sisters so that they can make goo goo eyes at each other or something.
It should also be pointed out that Disney is the distributor and jas liscensing rights. They aren’t actually making the movie- Walden Media is.
This has been in the pipe for a year or two. If I remmeber correctly WETA is doing some of the effects and Lewis’ step-son has creative control, or at least vetoe power, over the storyline.
I think you nailed what the problem could be: Revisionism.
I think Disney is going to be tempted to mucker with the story far too much. They did it with the brothers Grim, the only difference is that audiences weren’t famiiliar with the original source material… with Narnia they are.
Who knows, maybe they’ll do it right… but I have serious reservations about Disney doing ANYTHING right these days.
The only way this doesn’t work is if Disney goes all revisionist, which would be a pretty silly thing to do …
The stories have an enormous built in audience, they’re VERY visual and should look amazing on screen and who really cares that Aslan’s a Christ figure? There are Christ’s o-plenty in films. It didn’t seem to hurt the Matrix films. And Tolkein’s well known Catholicism (which comes through very clearly in The Silmarillion, less so in the Lord) certainly didn’t hurt Lord of the Rings’ box office …
Now Disney is known for making their fair share of stupid moves, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they mess this up, but there’s really no reason not to do a straight up adaptation … done well it could easily match Harry Potter’s success …