Michael Apted Voices Concern Over Narnia’s Future
Michael Apted made a statement which is sure to prove controversial amongst Narnia fans. He says:
“I would be surprised if they did all seven books. I suppose the fourth one might work better now after the changes we made in the third… but after that it goes haywire.
“With a franchise, the continuity of characters is actually quite crucial and I don’t know how they are going get beyond book four. I think it is a problem.”
(The full interview is available here)
On one hand, I understand where he’s coming from. Unlike Harry Potter, Twilight, Lord of the Rings, and essentially every other popular book series out there except Narnia, there is a common set of characters that is carried throughout the whole story. That doesn’t happen with Narnia. In every book, there are different characters. Even from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to The Silver Chair, while a few main characters carry over, almost all of the secondary characters are new.
I would suspect from a movie marketing standpoint this is a nightmare to have to remind people who aren’t familiar with the series that “Hey! This is Narnia again!” And I suspect that’s why we keep seeing the White Witch, Peter, and Susan popping up on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader ads.
That being said, in this Narnia fan’s opinion the uniqueness of each book is precisely one of the strengths of the series and sets it apart from any other franchise. Sure we say goodbye to the Pevensies for a while, but we get Jill Pole and Puddleglum, Shasta and Aravis, Digory and Polly, Tirian and Jewel!
I would like to offer one piece of advice to the filmmakers (not that I have any sort of credentials in which to do so). Do not look at The Chronicles of Narnia as a series or franchise per se because then you will spend all of your time trying to come up with ways to tie them together. Rather, look at them as seven individual chronicles that just happen to take place in the same world, and embrace each story for their individual strengths! No other fantasy series out there that I know of can do that.
Thanks to Kate and aslanismyman for the link!
UPDATE: The link above now has the full story instead of highlights. Thanks Sammie!
Hey, you ever read "His Dark Materials"? It's a bit rougher than Narnia (more blood and gore) but some people actually call it a re-take on Narnia without the pro higher-power themes.
I've read most of them (haven't finished the third yet) and they're not as good as narnia, but pretty interesting and fun to read anyway.
I understand where he's coming from. He's right. If another film gets made, I hope it'll be Silver Chair.
Thanks Elyon's Daughter–I have no doubt at all…Those books will never die, and there will always be people wanting to share them on the big screen.
I say if the movies don't get made they OWE it to us to make a tv show centred around the lives of the Pevensies either during their Non-Narnia time in england or else during the golden age when they were ruling! If they're going to say our favorite books aren't good enough for the cinema, then they can give us that much. Who agrees with me?!
I think one of the main problems, is that this is all being done during difficult economic times. If it was not, people would be thinking a little less about the money , and aim at a specific audience, rather than what they are doing now.
Lets not forget, though, that a while back, Adamson said he would very much like to direct The Magician's Nephew. This must not happen !
My appreciation for Apted drops a little everyday. I just hope he didn't completely butcher VDT. I hope they find a new director for The Silver Chair.
Well. He's rather narrow minded. And what do you mean, you wrote a true-to-the-book-version and then discarded it?! That would have been awesome!
And in my opinion, if people have watched the other movies, they should be fine with all the other books. True, it might be a little difficult to istablish who Digory is at the beginning of MN, but they could have a Prologue where he and Polly are old, just to remind everyone who they are! And the others all have a character link from the books and the films before!
They HAVE to make all the books into films, I'll be so heartbroken if they don't! who cares if it's not "commercial" and doesn't fit what you think every storyline should be? That's the beauty of Narnia!
But remember the Lewis Estate wasn't a fan of the Green Mist plot either. But after reading the pure adaption script the producers had, the Estate didn't really mind the changes added to the script ended up being used. As fans of the book I don't think we would have minded the pure adaption but for everyone else maybe the Green Mist needed to be added.
>.> It wouldn't go "haywire" if those people would stick to the plots C.S. Lewis had in the books.
I fail to see why they can't make all seven of the books into movies, assuming they get enough money for them. Apted's being dumb…if he doesn't want to do it get a Narnia fan to direct. THAT would make good movies.
I do, sort of. They can make the other four films for television at the scale of the books: The Narnian "army" in the Last Battle had two dozen faithful Narnians, Prince Rabadash had two hundred horsemen.
I don't think we can shame them into doing it, but I do think they could be successful, relying on the power of the stories rather than CGI dazzle.
Anyway, Fox hasn't dropped TCON yet. All we can do is buy our tickets and support VDT the best we can.
We all should get together and sign a petition or something to get them to finish the series. I would be so disapointed if they didn't. Narnia does deserve better than this.
I think they should make SC next (maybe briefly telling HHB), then at least make MN (maybe have the the professor and polly tell the story to the kids), and then do LB.
I have read all 3 books more than once & I saw the stage production at the National Theatre as well. I have also read Lyras's Oxford and Once upon a time in the North the short sequels he wrote. I have very different attitudes to the 2 series & in fact the 2 authors as I 1st read the Narnia books as a child while I read His dark materials as an adult. Intellectually I am closer to Pullman but I have an emotional attachment to Lewis that cannot be denied, despite my disagreements with his views
Huh…I'm not sure I agree with this. There are characters in each of the remaining three books that carry over.
Think about it.
MN–Jadis (The White Witch), yes, Apted, you can include her without having the fans slaughter you
HHB–Susan and Edmund, albeit much older.
LB–Eustace, Jill, Peter, Lucy, Edmund, etc. Plus all the characters in Aslan's country.
Totally agree. They're separate stories, and if the makers spend their time trying to connect them all together for marketing purposes, it is going to stink. Like the VDT trailers are stinking with the random clips of Susan and WW.
oh yeah! it does make it unique and wonderful! I love the characters– but for people who haven't read the books, it might be hard to watch films with 'new characters' 🙂
I love the way the Narnia books are though! 😀 I love them to death! 🙂
That's the uniqueness of the book among the others. The Pevensies like a real humans, they learned and moved on. Everyone has their own time. If I only I am rich, I'll get a director and produce all those books, doesn't matter If I dont get much in return (just for the love of narnia) like some of the filmmakers worries about and rather show the distinctiveness of it from the others. I've got a lot to say about this but it started to clutter in my head. C'mon take risk!
that comment at the end is so very true and very wise. of all the books i am excited to see what Horse and His Boy would look like as a movie because that's my second favorite after VDT (alongside LWW) and i love the talking horses they are one of my favorite narnia characters, and they would just be amazing (and i bet very funny) on screen.
unfortunately if they make the MN they're just going to have to ad some sort of climax… at least they think they'll have to ad a 'battle' climax. And none of us would want that. It'd ruin the innocence of Narnia's creation 🙁
Or at least, I'm very afraid they would think they'd have to do that 🙁 Unfortunately for Hollywood, Digory's dilema/emotional/thought climax between him and Jadis wouldn't be 'good enough' for Hollywood. But good enough for us. I'm afraid that's one I might not want to see made if they did that to it 🙁
M. Johnson, producers, please take notice–am I the only one who has noticed that practically all of the bad reviews ( the deeper ones ) say it should have been more like the book ?
This is , of course a very relative term, but clearly older, more complex.
Do you remember Adamson saying that ( for PC) it was silly to think of half the movie being told by a dwarf by the fireside ?
Have we ever heard of 'The Princess Bride' ?
The filmakers need to remember that Aslan and Narnia are the stars of the franchise and that they are the glue that holds everything together
I agree HHB is probably the easiest to adapt (and it also happens to be my favorite!)
true!!!
*sobs* this is so not fair. Narnia is way better than LoTR, twilight, and HP combined (in my opinon 😉 )
this really stinks. oh well, i won't let that ruin my excitement for VDT to come out. 😀 😀 😀
Although I do respect Apted, I fail to see the logic behind his point. If this was a problem, then why do the books themselves succeed? Why would there be several Star Trek spin-offs? Why is Dragonriders of Pern so popular? None of those carry the same characters throughout it's entirety. It maybe more difficult, but it's not impossible, and it's been done before with great success…
I agree with FK focus more on Narnia the place, and the individual stories and you'll have a greater chance of success. Besides if you actually look at the books, it doesn't matter which order you go in, there are always returning characters outside of Aslan. It's really not as "sporadic" (for lack of a better word) as one might think. Just make sure that the audience bonds with them as soon as they first appear, and your one step closer to success.
Perhaps you should learn from your own character, "No fear! No retreat!" Don't worry about it so much, you'll find some things are easier than they first appear 😉
Just some friendly advice from a Narnia fan. I wish you all luck and wisdom in making these movies. But if you remember to have the latter, you shan't need much of the earlier.
But the Will Poulter (Eustace) will be too old to play him in SC!
I hope he does. I personally liked his adaptations, and they're a lot closer than some that I've seen especially LWW. I haven't lost faith in him, I think if given another chance he could make Narnia come to life like nothing we've seen yet. As for Apted, I've got to see VDT first… then I'll decide. More than anything the I want the director of each book, to really love that book, and to have a vision as to how to make it- while respecting, and staying true to it's source.
I just want to see that Last Battle as a movie.
I agree. The Princess Bride was a movie that could be taken seriously at some moments, but still was clearly told in a Fairy-tale esque fashion for children. The Narnia books are quite similar in that way.
Yes, AND the dryads won't just be leaves swirling around. Lewis said several times that they look like people, just treeish people.
Here's what I think – if it is God's will that the entire Chronicles of Narnia should be adapted into films, it WILL happen. People can say anything they want to, but in the end, God's will reigns supreme and if He wants these movies to be made, they will be! So take heart! And if He doesn't, then that's just part of His plan. But if they are made, rest assured, He WILL use the Narnia movies, always, for His glory! Woohoo!
glumPuddle, how do you almost always manage to hit the nail on the head? 😀
And wouldn't the Last Battle be the most AWESOME movie ever!? To see the Old Narnia being washed away and the New Narnia coming into being! It's hard to imagine something so heavenly!
Oh there are ways around this though. 😉
They don't have to add a big battle (as I agree with you–bad idea for that story). Instead, they could make Digory's choice more suspenseful, more dramatic. They could pay homage ot the Witch's promises in "Prince Caspian." I loved the tension in that scene. Will Peter make the wrong descision? There was such suspense in those final moments.
They could do this with Digory, but instead, Jadis would be offering the apple to him instead of beckoning with her hand. 😉
Fantasia Kitty said in her excellent article at the beginning, "And I suspect that’s why we keep seeing the White Witch, Peter, and Susan popping up on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader ads." Guess what! The White Witch is in MN, Susan is in HHB (and then some), whilst everyone else including Peter is in LB. And Edmund, in particular, is in HHB as well.
I agree that it is a strength of the Narnia series that there are different people coming in and out of each tale. Is anyone saying that there weren't such characters in Harry Potter as well?
And I agree that it is Aslan, in particular, that holds the series together, more than any other character.
There are two main problems the filmmakers made. And it started from the get-go.
1) They didn't make Aslan powerful enough. The movies have him as a slightly glorified Simba.
2) They have no idea what the word "chronicles" connotes, and therefore no clue as to why the books are so different and often disconnected from eachother. They didn't embrace these differences. Instead, they sought (and seek) to connect them in order to make Narnia a "franchise." They love franchises. They can't stand individuality for a movie.
Okay, so did anyone else see the clip on Yahoo with the ship painting? Eustace was making up a rhyme to annoy Lucy and Edmund. And it started: There once were two orphans…
The kids are orphans now? Where'd that come from?
I honestly don't see a problem, and will be extremely disappointed if we only get 4 out of 7 movies. If they stopped after VDT, i wouldn't blame them, as they'd have not even made half of the movies, but stopping after SC is like stopping the Harry Potter series after Goblet of Fire. (which might be a little different, as its Voldemort's return and all, but you hopefully get my point!)
The film makers have already expressed many times that they want to do MN. Heck, they even considered doing it before SC. We see three familiar characters that we might have forgotten about in VDT and SC (well, not anymore in the White Witch's case). Finally, I don't have any problem with showing flashbacks or finding a way of doing so as they did with Coriakin's map showing flashbacks of the centaur blowing the horn, and the Battle of Beruna. What's the problem with doing things like that? It all just doesn't make sense to me..
think outside the box is it exactly!! jeesh, these people get these ideas in their heads- JUST MAKE THEM!!! you have millions of book fans! millions of families!! stop thinking with the traditional paradigm. they are classics for a reason!! we'd love to see the cretion of narnia and the last battle! the special effects would be awesome!!!
no, but i think i will now! : )
Furthermore, (just thought of a few more points), if Aslan represents Jesus, then, umm, hello, Jesus helped and healed a lot of people in a lot of different situations, and he was the only thing in common with them all (as Aslan is with Narnia). That's like questioning someone for reading the Bible. Hardly any of the stories build on one another, yet they are all rewarding and inspiring.
ecxellent= and have the creation of narnia's effect be really mind blowing
I wouldn't say it was NEEDED for a generic audience to enjoy it, however, you have a good point. And we don't really know exactly how pure of an adaption it really was. Though, these filmmakers can always rationalize and talk their way around things so their ideas sound "necessary". It's about implementation. It's not really that the book's story needed something added, it simply needed to be implemented well. So, the pure adaption must not have been that.
What gets me is the estate didn't care for the added plot line, yet they agreed to it? It sounds like one of those compromises Douglas Gresham has talked about before, where you pick and choose your battles. In the end, either this stuff is added or the film doesn't get made at all. Which is sad to think Hollywood would shun a famous book series because it's not commercial enough, or not cliche enough to fit their usual movie formulas.
I'm still looking forward to the movie though. Though the added stuff may be annoying at times, I'm sure it won't ruin the film in its entirety.
same here, I wanted more pevensies, but liked going on meeting more narnians, it was great to see them ll togehher for last battle!
Hollywood always messes up great literary works. The Chronicles Of Narnia is not a conventional sequel driven story. Its unconventional main character(s) really are Aslan and Narnia itself. If you look at it from a spiritual standpoint, God is the main character and how he shapes us (as Aslan did with every Son of Adam and Daughter of Eve, etc. in the series) then there would be no qualms. It's all about God (Aslan) and his relationship with others not really anything else. I would think the way the stories are set up, it would be a good thing for Hollywood; they wouldn't have to worry about the children getting too old or looking to old to play their roles because the main characters are changed out every so new book and it is a kind of new way to refresh the series and not get bored. Just follow the greatness that Lewis has already provided in the books and do some research at the Lewis estate on the series if you want otake creative license but don't change/add to a stellar piece of work. I am officially worried now.
But don't the film-makers realize that some of the best movies and stories have emotional climaxes? Maybe they don't turn out to be enormous blockbusters, but in the end people think of them as classics, and love them. Why can't they figure out that people like movies that are different from the run-of-the-mill Hollywood stuff? And I know these movies are geared at kids (just like the books) but why can't they include the deep, meaningful messages that adults appreciate too? Why do they always mash up the plot and dumb it down? Even if kids don't understand something the first time, they'll get it as they grow older. That's what's so cool about the Narnia series!
Don't get me wrong–I like the movies. I think they're great. But I think they could have been better, and that's what bothers me. However, I'm still hoping for great things from the movies to come (if they come), and I won't stop hoping until there's no reason to hope any more. 🙂 Oh, and thumbs up to the film-makers for getting many things right in the movies, even if they didn't nail everything. 🙂
To me, of the film itself, there were only really 2 mistakes about the Prince Caspian adaption, which was other wise ‘really’ good.
It was dark, but i don't think it’s dark was as in being gratuitously violence ( & PC is the war/material glory chronicle after all), it's Dark was that people( me included) didn't fully get or 'see' the arc with Peter and how that resonated with other ‘war’ arcs in the film. The Lord of the Rings are widely thought of as being 'dark' done properly in fantasy cred, in comparison to say PC,. as there is alot of potentially gratuitous violence in those films. But the underlying plot throughout is kept straightforward and also is often made repetitive through out the films in case one forgets. In this sense it is very un-dark, although can be slightly transparent to the other extreme depending on what film you are wanting to watch, neither type being better or worse than the other as they are not meant to be created the same etc
To me, the other mistake of PC film adaption was maybe the underground surprise by collapsing the pillars of Aslan’s howl, being a bit hokey & also taking away abit from the momentum of PC’s climax of the Peter Maraz duel; Lucy finding Aslan; the trees awakening, and really only made the end of the film seem a little bit longer than it needed to be.
Even if above is vaguely accurate, & might be completely wrong, PC is still a great adaption & will be a favourite with many people of the Narnia chronicles as time goes on I would hope.
……………………….Hugh?……………..I hope they make the fourth………………..
See that's where you're wrong. They can make the other movies, but they need to be viewed as their own movies and not part of the series.
See what I think they should do is make Silver Chair and the Last Battle and make that the conclusion of the Chronicles of Narnia. Now before you freak out, listen to what I have to say next. Then they need to make Magician's Nephew and Horse and His Boy as two separate movies. Don't even put the chronicles of narnia on the cover or advertisements. Then people will view them as their own movies.
Yes, they have new main characters, but there's certainly still some major character continuity. Of the three stories Apted is talking about, the White Witch has a major part in The Magician's Nephew (and of course audiences will learn that Digory is the professor), the Pevensies are back for major secondary roles in A Horse and His Boy (and even Mr. Tumnus has a cameo), and The Last Battle really does just pick up from where The Silver Chair left off with Eustace and Jill (and has small parts for almost all the major characters in the series too including the Pevensies). There's enough continuity there (and with Aslan naturally) to hang their ad campaigns on. I doubt those stories would be too much bigger of a risk than Dawn Treader–after all, the beloved Pevensies are in two of the three and the infamous White Witch is in the other.
I was wondering, do any of the film makers or other people who control the making of these films EVER read all your comments. Does ANY of this make a difference. I HOPE SO!
For my part I think they need to make SC next. Time waits for no man and Will will be to old if another movie is made instead. If I remember correctly it is only a few months later that Eustace and Pole go to Narnia.
Oh gosh, I hope they make SC! That's my favorite book in the series, and one of my all-time favorite books. I think that they should make SC next because it really connects to VDT plus Will wil be too old if they don't. Then they should make Magician's Nephew because it explains how Narnia was created and it really reveals so much about Aslan too. For all the people who loved HHB, they could make that next, but it's so disconnected with all the rest of the books that they could almost (I said almost) not make that one. I will say that if they made HHB, I would go see it in a heartbeat, but I think it's the least…necessary. I hope they make all of them!
But the Pevensies will be back for A Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle. This is not the end of the road for them.
In the meanwhile, like Samuel said, try looking at these films as individual stories. If you do this, you may just find you will end up liking Eustace and Jill, Digory and Polly, or Shasta and Aravis just as well as the Pevensies. They're all great characters and should all be given a fair chance.
I must say I don't really understand how people can only be interested in the Pevensies in these films. I think the wondrously imaginative fantasy world of Narnia itself is far more interesting than any specific characters. I mean interesting film characters are all over the cinema, but there's no other place quite like Narnia.
I agree. All the Pevensie fans will love to see them all together again in Narnia I would think. A Horse and His Boy is really the only story that they can do this for. And I'm sure they will work Peter in. After all he *is* discussed in the book. They could simply show him briefly fighting giants in the North or they could enlarge his character and provide more context for the story if they begin the film in Narnia with Peter preparing to go north to battle the giants while Edmund and Susan are preparing to sail south to Calormen.
I just hope the film makers don't avoid the story because they think it's politically incorrect or some other stupid reason like that. What if Peter Jackson had decided not to make the Lord of the Rings because of the un-PC Haradrim?
They should have made the narnia chronicles before Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, that way it would have set the precedent… I think film makers need to have more imagination, I think the internet has proved that what's different, what's new, what hasn't been seen before… works, or can work. Just because narnia doesn't follow a singular storyline, doesn't mean it will necessarily be an advertising nightmare, and actually I think there are enough tie-ins already in the books (The White witch in the Magicians nephew, Eustace in SC and the LL, and Queen Susan in HHB, oh and how could I forget all of the characters do appear in the LB!) perhaps they could use all four pevensies in HHB and use cameos of the pevensies at the end of SC, as far as MN goes, using clips from LWW to Flash-forward in Narnia wouldn't be a bad thing, perhaps the professor narrates the tale of him as a boy… But this is basically following the pattern they are using now, I would prefer that each story really stand alone, but we'll see
Agreeing with Samnuel Nightingale completely. Do SC and LB next, and then do MN and HAHB as prequels, those two books could have their own continuity of characters. Hope the producers read this thread!
I don't understand why Apted would consider The Last Battle to be in any way "haywire." It really does just pick up essentially where The Silver Chair leaves off with Jill and Eustace, plus it has the Pevensies and a lot of other characters back too.
The Magician's Nephew is a pretty straightfoward prequel, the sort that is fairly common in Hollywood. It can be marketed as essential to understanding The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and I have no doubt the moviemakers will go crazy marketing Tilda Swinton, since they obviously love the White Witch. This is the story that, more than any other, they could tie into the LWW the most clearly.
The only real oddball is a Horse and His Boy, but even this is not totally out of place, what with the Pevensies, Tumnus, Aslan and all. The film makers could do some things to help HHB to fit in better. For one thing, they can leave a brief part of the scene in The Silver Chair where the blind old poet is telling the story of A Horse and His Boy. This would at least introduce audiences briefly to the idea of that story, the key characters, and that there is a country called Calormene to the south of Narnia. Next, they could end The Magician's Nephew by showing Lucy opening the wardrobe (from the first film) and then having a narrator tell about or show brief clips of the Pevensies as kings and queens of Narnia. That way A Horse and His Boy will simply pick up where that one leaves off.
Another possibility is to leave out the scene in The Silver Chair and just have the Pevensies tell the story to Eustace and Jill at the start of A Horse and His Boy as a framing device. This would of course also keep Eustace and Jill more present in the series until their return in The Last Battle.
We need to promote this film and see it with as many friends as many times as possible if we want the others made!
I agree with all of you. I would LOVE for all of the movies to be made! When The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe came out, I was SO excited and couldn't wait to see all of the other movies get made as well. (And am still very hopeful 🙂 ) It's like a tradition: every two or so years, our family rushes to the theater on opening night to watch the latest Chronicles of Narnia movie. We come home LOVING it and then anxiously wait another few months until we can rush to the store and buy the extended DVD version.
I think that they should make Silver Chair next, so that Will Poulter can still play Eustace, then the Horse and His Boy (with the same actors/actresses of course.) After HHB, The Magician's Nephew (Which I personally cannot wait to see, if they do make it into a movie.) Then Last Battle, again with the same actors/actresses. They will be all grown up by then, and I think it would work out great.
I still have hope that all of them will get made, and I hope they continue to be wonderful! (I also can't wait until this Friday when we will see the Voyage of the Dawn Treader for the first time!!) 🙂
guys, lets not get disappointed yet.. the future of the franchise is still in our hands…just go see the movie as much as you can and bring as many people as you can with you. and of course recommend it to as many people as possible (provided that you like the movie, of course)!