Why is Walden Making ‘Magician’s Nephew’ Next?
The Christian Post caught up with Micheal Flaherty to talk to him about the future of the Narnia films. Flaherty confirmed that Walden plans to make The Magician’s Nephew as the fourth Narnia movie (which we already knew) and that they’re currently in talks with Fox and the C.S. Lewis Estate about it.
But what was interesting was one of the reasons he listed as to why they were making The Magician’s Nephew next instead of The Silver Chair.
Looking ahead, Walden Media believes The Magician’s Nephew has the potential to be a blockbuster hit like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe because it is the second most popular book in the Narnia series.
Flaherty explained that box office performance for Narnia films appears to mimic the amount of people’s interest in the books.
“What’s interesting is that the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe over this period of time sold twice as many books as Prince Caspian and it did twice as much at the box office. Prince Caspian sold a third of the books as Dawn Treader and did a third at the box office,” he noted.
“So while it’s not always a correlation between books to film, so far with these first three films, it has been.”
The full story is available here.
Thoughts on the Magician's Nephew:
*Doing a prequel now and going back to "Silver Chair" can actually work out. If you think of another franchise, the "Underworld" franchise, they went back and did a prequel, and now are doing a sequel. If it can work for it, or say, for the X-Men franchise with sequels and prequels and fans still on board, then it can work for Narnia.
*Be honest and realize that "Magician's Nephew" will never be word for word. But outside of Aslan singing, nothing in it is hard to visualize or adapt. Nobody would not enjoy Jadis' attempt to conquer London.
*Some of it should be done in a little more detail. Much about what she does is told but not shown, such as what she does when away from Digory in London, or her actual battle/war with her sister, should be shown. This is where "action" can be intersected. The only other thing I can see making sense on screen would be an actual battle between Jadis and Aslan later in the story, and neither really winning. It would fall into LWW more that way. I love Magician's Nephew; the fact she is just sor tof around and we see nothing done about it is the only little fault I see in the story.
*But, it will be painfully obvious that The Silver Chair should be first.
Bad Idea..Eustace already looks like he's eighteen…and Silver Chair would wrap up the trilogy…they need to start over with the films..the problem is nothing happens in the Magician's nephew that couldn't be done in 30 to 45 minutes of screentime..big problem ..thats why Magcians Nephew and Last Battle should be one film..but that will be when I remake them in 10 years.
Oh well there was press confirmation for the starting of The Hobbit.
I am guessing that whichever Narnia book they choose to do it will get a press release to confirm their decision and put to rest all the rumours.
My pick is for the Silver Chair.
agree there *blush* also Will will be a man by then, now he still can look like a kid
Yeah me too!! I mean I would prefer for them to do Silver Chair next. But only because otherwise Will Poulter is going to grow up too much! But as lont as they're doing one I'm happy 😀
i would like that silver chair is the next film
Right, so you're telling me that C.S. Lewis LIED when he said he "prefered the order"?
But if he was trying to be nice to the kid, he didn't have to flat out tell an untruth, and honestly I don't think he would have. He could have KINDLY told the kid, "While I don't see anything wrong with your order, I prefer your mothers." if he really wantd his books read the publication way. Unless you're Douglas Grishem and actually KNEW the man, I don't think you (or anyone else) has a right to falsely accuse Jack of being "patronizing" or "lying to be kind" There's nothing wrong with Publication Order, Lewis didn't even publish them in the order he wrote them so he wouldn't particlarly care if someone read them in whatever order they personally liked, probably, but this argument against chronligical (yeah I spelled it wrong, again, sorry) order isn't an excuse to say Publication is the ONLY real order.
PS: I'm sorry by the way if my "read a book" comment hurt anyone's feelings. I didn't mean to.
That's … an interesting perspective …
The thing about these books is that they are pretty much self-contained stories–pretty much. So technically it shouldn't matter what order they are filmed in. Once you have all the movies, you can put the "Magician's Nephew" DVD in first on your shelf and "Silver Chair" can be placed fourth after VDT. Make your own chronological order of DVDs if you wish. I imagine Fox/Walden will probably do this in a box set anyway.
Time has come to stop begging for "Silver Chair," ladies and gentlemen.
When you read quotes like:
"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,"
Be glad they are at least making another movie or thinking very hard about doing so.
If "Magician's Nephew" is the success they hope for, "Silver Chair" will come eventually. 😉
Even if they greenlit MN now it would take a couple of years. Pre-production can take six months to a year, production around six months, and then another six month for post-production: two years.
Less to do might actually work for Walden this time.
I imagine the running time will be 112 like VDT was, or perhaps they will cut it down to 100. I would prefer 2 hours though. Longer the better, really. It would be better to add things than to condense them. But if they have less to do, a shorter runtime wouldn't be as much an issue for them.
I am so beyond ready for The Magician's Nephew to be made, it's unreal! I love the beauty between it's pages and the truth throughout the tapestry of words!
Wow…..
just…wow.
So it's official….
I have mixed feelings about all of this, acutally, part of me is just glad Narnia isn't gone for good, and part of me is sad that they're messing up the "order" of Narnia. But I guess now it's all said and done….
I love MN, but I sure hope moviegoers do. I guess my whole issue with all this is that i won't get to see Will Poultler for another 4 years at this rate. 🙁
Other than that, I'm pretty open to MN as long as they think it will be sucessful and HARRY GREGSON WILLIAMS MAKES A GRAND RETURN!!!! 😀
People shouldn't really be wondering why.
The Magician gave them an explanation that works for the film.
"It can take any form. It can make your darkest dreams come true."
Done. If they were confused as to why she showed up, they were not paying attention.
Common sense says that Edmund would be traumatized by the evil woman that stabbed him in the stomach with a blunt instrument and left him for dead. He is afraid of her, likely had nightmares about her. The Dark Island knew this.
People saying "I thought she was dead" are just not paying attention.
She IS dead. But the Dark Island can take ANY form. It took the form of Caspian's dead father too.
And there is such a thing as the immortal soul….
I do not have a problem with them doing this one next, actually I prefer it. I just think it is going to be hard to get the word out that this is not in chronological order.
Yeah, there will be a lot of explaining to do. That's one of my main concerns, besides the fact that Will Poulter is growing up fast. :/
I wanted Silver Chair to be made next. Mainly because I am afraid that Will Poulter will be too old to play Eustace, but also because of the whole Jill name drop at the end of Dawn Treader. To me, it makes more since to keep it chronological. But I also understand their reasoning for making Magician's Nephew. *sigh*
SO practically they are just making it so they can get MONEY. Ooooof course.
Too late!
What you have written is a point that nobody I think has made yet, each of these books stand on their own. You do not actually have to read the one before or after to enjoy each one.
I think the reason we still have people crying and stomping their feet about SC not being made next, can be explained by the fact that if a person is old enough to write, they can comment on this site.
We can joke, but some of these guys may actually be 8 or 9…LOL
Beautifully said !
I wanna see who they cast for Digory and Polly. It's very exciting since Polly has never been seen on sceen (or even in the tv BBC versions) before. Nor, come to think of is, has YOUNG Digory.
Well. If an audience wants more films, money is the only thing that's going to provide them. Therefore, I think this is probably the more economical move for the creation of the entire series.
Well, OBVIOUSLY they want to make more money. Did you think film studios are some sort of charity that just give book fans whatever they want? Don't be naive.
I agree that I want to see MN and LB, but neither of them make sense without HHB and SC. LB needs SC and HBB to get us familiar with characters such as Jill, and Narnia characters who appear at the end of the book. I will be sad if MN ends up being the last one, but I think that if they have the chance, they need to do the other three books. 😀
Moonwood, it gives me great pleasure to know that you read everything I post here. At least SOME portion of your day is devoted to an enlightened perspective.
You're welcome.
I'm actually okay with it, as long as it helps keep interest in the series alive, and each movie is self-contained enough to be able to watch in chronological order.
It's like I've said before: it won't look good to have a Narnian movie about magic rings coming out the same time as "The Hobbit." People will just say, "Narnia is a copycat."
the magician's nephew is my favorite,but i would really rather them make the silver chair next.
marisa sera jill pole en la silla de plata
Well you know how it is, Nonney, you may know the milk's gone bad, but you just gotta smell it anyway before you throw it in the trash… 😮
Great! This gives me the opportunity to do concept art for SC when I'm out of art school! 🙂 Just a little dream of mine.
Personally, I'm thrilled that they want to continue making the films, but I do hope that they get more serious about the next one. Dawn Treader was a bit of a let down in many ways.
But I will definitely see MN if it comes out!
Personally I could be happier. I like all the books but this is my favourite and since the film have been coming out I read it again just recently and thought “I hope the make this movie” all we need now is Tilda Swinton to reprise her role as the white which and Jim Broadbent for the end scene as professor Kirke, which will of course lead us in to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
I dont think it will be that much of a problem, not being in order. Star Wars seemed to do ok as I'm sure The Hobbit will.
Hmmm…. I'm not sure it's safe to say that the money made off of a movie is directly proportional to the popularity of the book in question. Ah well… although I personally would rather see SC, HHB, THEN MN, I'm very thankful that they're continuing the series at all 🙂 Praise God!! I hope that they will stay true to the themes of this one!!
Further up and further in!
Aslan's Girl <3
I think with the visual effects ability we have these days this will be AMAZING! and because it will focus on the 2 characters audiences love the most The W.Witch & Aslan! I think it was people's biggest quam with VDT lack of Aslan. I think if they get Tilda it will just be AMAZING!
Actually, if you're convinced it's bad, it's pretty stupid to sniff it.
That explains a great deal.
Regardless, I thank you for the admission that I annoy you. Because, that's definitely going to stop me from doing so in the future! Well played, friend!
Ah I want Silver Chair! If they make MN my friends won't go watch it :/
nobody believes that someone who takes the time to comment on this site won't see MN. not only will you see it several times, but you will buy the DVD ( if only to complain about it more ) and all of your FRIEND'S friends will see it as well.
Your come-backs are usually much wittier, more 'zing' in them…
Don't give in to your anger, stay focused.
Please try again.
If SC were next I think it might be a shorter wait as they probably did some preproduction on it. But maybe they've now trashed the continuation of the green mist and have to start from scratch again? So sad.
If SC were next I think it might be a shorter wait as they probably did some preproduction on it. But maybe they've now trashed the continuation of the green mist and have to start from scratch again?
NOOOOOOOO. 🙁 🙁 🙁 Will SC ever get made, then??? I SMELL A PETITION BREWING
I'll be there.
I don't know about that, at least with star wars it was publicly known that the "first three" was actually the "last three" chronologically, also with them making all of the LOTR's and then 2 movies out of the "prequel" doesn't seem as drastic as doing 3 movie chronologically, jumping back in time to do a prequel, jumping back into the chronology to do SC and LB and then jumping back into the midst of the first story to do HHB… on the other hand, C.S. did write them as separate stories without a preconceived "order," so maybe if they treat each story individually, it might work out better
Well, I don't think it was so much my friends not paying attention as it was that they thought the mist /was/ the witch, just in a freaky green mist form. The whole movie was too fast-paced, and therefore confusing at times (I found Lucy's dream more confusing than Inception… I don't know about anyone else…).
I guess I should admit that I am utterly sick of the White Witch. Not Tilda, I have nothing against her, but the filmmakers shoving the white witch into the film where she was never mentioned in the book just made me snap, and I really want to see a fresh bad guy in Narnia. However, my friends think so too, as do many critics.
You said the Telmarines were weak compared to the WW, but the LotGK is just as powerful, just in a different way. Jadis was powerful in a very icy, forceful way, whereas the LotGK was powerful in a very sly, deceitful way, and I think audiences will like that. 😉
The longer they fool around the less interest the movie public will have. it should definitely be out in 2012. How long does it take to read a 200 page book and turn into a script? All they need to do is detail the Jadis vs. her sister part for the big screen, and show every part of Jadis' running around London. The rest is already written. I could do this in 2 months easily without trouble.
You are so right.
There are several reasons I can think of why Prince Caspian didn't make as much as Lion, Witch, Wardrobe that have nothing to do with the quality of the story:
1. It was released in a very crowded summer, coming out around times with movies like Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Hellboy2, The Dark Knight, etc. Too many at once in the summer.
2. The $225 mil budget was pushing it. In order to be a "financial sucess" it would've had to hit somewhere around 700mil, which was a big expectancy.
Dawn Threader not hitting 500mil just says to me "too many changes upset the fans" but way more "this movie had terrible advertisting in the USA."
Hopefully Magicians Nephew won't kill the series with too much confusion to general audiences or plugged too close to Hobbit (2?). Silver Chair should be released first.
What a big great news for us NARNIA FANS! but when this film will be released? and they will start to make this film?
You forgot the emoticon at the end of your post that so deftly deflects your lack of anything remotely interesting to say. You invented that clever tactic, right? Punctuating sheer ignorance and painfully illogical demeaning analogies (that sour milk thing is CLASSIC) with a smilie face, I mean. I'm pretty sure no one in the fabled history of the internet has EVER thought of that before! But, don't tell me you're learning to communicate without pictures, Moonwood! Progress at last! Surely logic and reason are bound to appear as two specks on the horizon at any moment now. Far, far on the horizon…
Regardless of the slings and arrows you send my way, I will continue to reach out to you in Christian fellowship, as I will continue to voice my passionate opposition to ranting lunacy, uninformed opinions, and crimes against mathematics. This is my mission. Why it should irritate you, I think is self-explanatory.
You can keep saying that, but it doesn't make it true. There are narniawebbers who didn't go to see VDT, for various reasons.
CoN is a very uneven series both in the fundamental quality of the books, and in their cinematic potential. While there are some NWers who have an unquestioning love for all things Narnia, there are others who love some of the books but not others. Others absolutely love the books, but hate some of the movies.
Well, just about everything Peter Jackson does is liked, so I don't have any doubt The Hobbit is going to do well, which may create a problem for Narnia…
Yeah, see that's the problem, they already took long enough trying to decide what to do next!
you are TOTALLY right, Pepper, Will Poultler was PERFECT for the role, people were excited to see what he would do in SC and then suddenly they got this startling revelation "Oh, well, Magicians Nephew is pretty cool, we'll do that next instead. Oh, wait, what number in the series is it? Oh. The First One? Ah, well, who cares, it'll just totally mess up the order that was applied to Narnia. It's not like we respected that anyways."
Yes, I am done now. 🙂
But I certainly hope Will's gonna get a shot at other things too, and that Narnia wasn't his ONLY chance to become Britan's next major hearthrob 😉
Well, see, MN could also make Narnia more sucessful too, if we try to be optimistic, which is so darn HARD because…well, it's just hard! But if it's done right, it might be a very artistic film, and artistic is always something people look for in a movie. It always scores big points in my book when the producers actually took the time to make the film a visual feast for the moviegoers, and not just a big moneymaker for them.
I think they're just really keen on using Tilda Swinton. Again. She managed to get into PC and VotDT… don't remember that in the books.
This is in response to an earlier comment. I thought I'd post it here so that more folks could read it. Understand I am not suggesting this was the point the movie was trying to make. What I'm doing is simply taking what they've given us, and interpreting it in my own way. Maybe I'm off base. But this is how I interpret the Green Mist.
The Green Mist is not actually The White Witch. From my point of view, VDT had a new villain. And perhaps the most powerful and terrible villain of all. But we never actually saw him physically (thank goodness–that would be too horrible to think of anyway).
The Green Mist is probably The Devil, or at least, a visual symbol of his presence.
Just a theory. Douglas Gresham said that the mist was a visual symbol of the nature of Narnia reacting to the evil. Evil is so foreign to Narnia that the world makes it visible so you can see that the evil is there. Well, the Devil would probably be so foreign to Narnia that he causes his presence there to ooze out a green mist. So that Narnians can see they are in danger of being tempted.
Consider the following:
* The Green Mist knew both Lucy and Edmund's fears/temptations/inner-most desires almost as well as Aslan (even on earth).
* The Green Mist is raw evil. It isn't even a living thing, it's pure darkness. There's only one being in scripture that could possibly match such a thing. Further, The Green Mist could not understand good emotion, nor could it grasp when the heroes didn't give in. This is evident when the White Witch said "Just give in" with some irritation. It could not understand why the temptations didn't work.
* Think of color psychology. In the Middle Ages, green was considered the color of calamity and evil, and was associated with the Devil himself.
* Taking souls. A lot of people here say that The Green Mist taking the slaves from the Lone Island makes no sense. In my view, they are right. But only because it makes no LOGICAL sense. The assumption is that there was a concrete reason to take these lost souls away. You would be wrong. There is no concrete reason that would make sense to humanity.
The Green Mist was taking the souls from the Lone Island slave traders and terrorizing the Lone Islands because it could. Simply because it was evil. There's no other reason. I know that might sound odd, but pure evil needs no logical reason to commit evil acts. Purely evil things likely do evil for evil's sake. To me, that kind of evil you can't understand is very frightening. The Devil is sometimes depicted as a collector of innocent souls. Souls are collected mostly for the sake of collecting.
* As the White Witch is Satan's "Lawful prey," he uses her image to personify Edmund's temptation. This is in keeping with what Douglas Gresham told us about the witch's character. The Devil isn't stupid. He's not gonna tempt you with ugly things. The Devil dresses up his temptations in beauty. So Jadis is a visual symbol of Satan's favorite temptations. This would explain why he used her image. To put it in simple, fun language, Satan "Owns the rights" to the soul of The White Witch. He can use her whenever he wants. This is probably why he used her shape the most often.
* Free will. We are given the free will to chose between good and evil. Never once was The Green Mist able to force any of the characters into evil. It had to tempt them. Satan's ability to do evil on earth and in Narnia seems to be dependent on the free choice of the world's creatures.
* "That old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world."
Interesting that a sea serpent attacked the ship. And what was the serpent made up of? When Lucy shot her arrow into it, you could see Green Mist coming off of it. When Caspian chopped off part of its jaws, the piece evaporated into Green Mist. The serpent was the physical form of the mist. The serpent has long been considered one of the most common shapes of the devil. What color was the serpent? Green.
* Aslan's power smote the serpent down.— I think that's enough said. The devil remains no match for God.
So basically, in my own view, The Green Mist is a visual indicator of Satan's presence in Narnia. He is not shown, but he uses representatives. We see his temptations personified as The White Witch (likely one of his most favorite evildoers in Narnia) and we see the raw, ugly terror of his wrath personified in The Sea Serpent. However, the serpent is bested through the faith and honor of the crew. And ultimately it is cast down by Aslan's good magic and the holiness of his table.
However…. I believe that the evil is not done. It will do its work through another witch. And I don't have to tell you who that is. But to me, The Green Mist is perhaps the most terrifying and most powerful of all the films villains thus far.
These films are expensive!!!
The cheapest of them was VDT, which I believe cost somewhere in the neighborhood of 155 Million Dollars. 155. That was the cheapest. Money is necessary to keep this machine going. They can't just make the films to make them. They also need to think about the profit. They have bills and people to pay. They have family's to feed. It's a fun business, sure. But it is a business.
The order of these stories does not matter as much as "Star Wars" or "LOTR."
Explaining that it is a prequel can be done very easily in the trailers.
BEFORE the Lion
BEFORE the Wardrobe
There was…. "The Magician's Nephew."
If they emphasize that it came BEFORE LWW in the trailers, the problem is solved.
Also phrases like "See how Narnia began" or "Witness the creation of a magical world." List goes on and on. It really shouldn't be that hard.
The challenge will be going back to "SC" and explaining that that ISN"T a prequel.
Don't be too sure…