Douglas Gresham on Future Narnia Films
C.S. Lewis’ stepson (and co-producer of the films) Douglas Gresham appeared on Middle-earth Radio today and said a few words about the possibility of future Narnia films. He confirmed that “Walden’s contract with the company has expired,” but he hopes to be able to start production on another film in “three or four years time.” When asked which of the remaining books he is most excited about seeing on screen, he simply answered “all of them.” Listen to a couple short clips below:
Paul Martin from NarniaFans.com also appeared on the program!
UPDATE: The full discussion is on iTunes. (Select the first option)
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Tooo long!!!! 🙁
I agree with Charlote, it's a long way until we get a chance to have other Narnia movie. Waiting for this to happen sooner.
Too long is absolutely right! with the public's short attention span they will have completely forgotten the existing films by then-and the longer it goes the less likely there will be any future films-sad state of affairs…
It's too far off for my taste! Though- that will be perfect for my little one as he'll be able to enjoy them. I only hope once they do resume they can stay closer to the books than the last film.
That might not be such a bad thing. Maybe this series needs a good, clean-slate, fresh start.
I Agree, too long. 🙁
I hope, if they do have to wait three or four years, that they keep the same cast. I can't imagine anyone else playing Peter, Susan, Lucy, Edmund, Aslan, and Eustace. And at least when they do create the next film I'll be older so I may have a better chance at least at auditioning for the role of Jill Pole though that's not likely. I just hope, like everyone said, that people don't forget about Narnia in that time span.
Well said, glumPuddle! I agree with the clean slate, the fresh start.
I believe God has let the franchise die "in the flesh" so he can bring it back "in the spirit." This is just the end of one thing and the beginning of another. Was the day of Jesus's death sad? Yes, but look what he accomplished! Think of this as Friday night. We'll have to endure Saturday. But then will come resurrection Sunday for Narnia in X years.
I'm convinced they'll do SC next. This is what Gresham wants, not MN. Walden's Micheal Flaherty is the one who wanted MN next. I don't think Will Poulter will be too old either. Don't worry. Leave God with the timing and casting. 🙂
I keep saying on Facebook that I want Sherwood Pictures to do Narnia 4 – because I pray they'll the best in film-making when it's time, not just because they're Christian! Is this impossible? Yes, but only with man. Nothing is impossible with God. We must believe God for the miracle of the impossible, what man cannot do but only what God can do – with ease.
God bless you all! 🙂
noooo im gonna die by then without the narnia movies!!!!!he needs to fight harder to get them to be made now,besides Will is gonna be way too old by then and i cant stand the idea of eustace being played by somebody else!!!!!!!!!!
Wow. Well, now we know. Now we know Will Poulter will be too old for SC. Sad day. Well, who would like to pop over to my house for a fresh apple pie to console us?
Hang in there, Christ might come back before then, and then we won't have to see the terrible Eustace etc.
that's what im worried about, the end times will come before the nania series! arggghhhhh
hate to say it, but walden was right , MN for business reasons needed to come first, gresham should bow to their moviemaking expertise, not put his personal fave first. why did perry stone have to die NOW????
only if you have a nice boiled egg, and buttered toast, and tea first. plus sardines.
this is crazy, a series this beloved and famous is stalling like this!!!! 4 years?/ are you kidding me????????????? ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
lucy will be forty before they are done..ok i exaggerated
3-4 years is a lot less that the 12 years I have and still have to wait for JP4… it's not so bad, and at least now we have answers!
See? Let's not ever give up hope that we won't see anymore Narnia films. 🙂
3-4 years isn't that bad of a wait for production to begin again. It's better than 20 years at least. I think this would be an excellent time to re-read the books and take note of things that we would like to see different than what Walden has given us for the first three movies. I certainly have my things already. Let's pretend that this is 2001, and Walden had just gotten the rights to the Narnia series. This can be a time for a newer generation to the books to find their thoughts on what they think should happen. (I'm a newer fan to the books.)
I think the series, with Walden, had the potential to be something beyond ordinary, kind of like the next LotR or something, but different and epic in its own sense. Walden to me was playing it too safe at times. Maybe now we can find a company that will take the books and make them into something so special, it will be a truly remembered film series.
Narnia is very special in my heart. When I read the books, while learning to know Aslan a little there, I got to know Him better here. I bet many fans feel the same way.
It really broke my heart back in December when NarniaWeb had many with broken hearts after seeing VDT. I'm a younger commenter on here than some, and newer to the books than most, so maybe I wasn't as affected by the "bad" things as some other fans, but I was on the old NW later reading some of the LWW reviews, and wow… You can't please everybody, and no Narnia film will ever do that, but seeing a person who gave a very positive review of LWW and giving the complete opposite to VDT really made me want to have somebody with heart and love for the books do something.
I am going to be as Lucy in Prince Caspian. Hope for Narnia had seemed to die, but Lucy persisted on in spite of her siblings' denial of Aslan, and hope came. Hope for Walden making more films has seemingly died, but hope will come. Keep Narnia in your prayers!
*waits for recording of interview to come to listen again*
Louloudi, I love you! Your true hope and faith in God, your PC analogy … great minds think alike! 🙂
Well considering that I had given the series up for lost, this is excellent. We still might be able to continue with the same cast! The 4+ year wait will be terrible but it better than 15-20 years.
Jesus will come back soon, but not before Narnia is resurrected on the screen. I am certain of this, absolutely certain. We're gonna have a Elijah-Elisha period of mentoring [1 Kings 19-2 Kings 2 fulfilling Malachi 4:5-6], then a worldwide end-times revival, then the rapture and Jesus's return! I think Narnia 4 might come at the end of the mentorship, or the beginning of the revival. It's just a guess. But this is how I think all this will play out. Read page 2 of this blog post.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/8038735/the_april_27_tornadoes_a_meditation.html?cat=9
PS. High Queen, why did you refer to Perry Stone?
I agree with Mr. Gresham! Narnia is in God's hands! (which is the best place it could possible be!!) We can wait however long He wants us to.
The actors that play the Pevensies won't get to do "Last Battle"! Aaaaaahhhhh! I was hoping against hope that they could at least do some filming of that, but alas, it looks like just wishful thinking. <sigh>
at least they arent ending the series. i think we should be grateful for that. plus, this will give more time for the ppl to thoroughly think about the story lines and character archs.
I don't mind the wait.
There is one thing though… I don't think we'll be seeing Will Poulter as Eustace anymore. 🙁
I think "Clean slate" means doing Magicians Nephew next. SC would not have a "Clean slate", given that it is a sequel to VDT. I say do MN.
"By the bucket load." 😉
You meant perry MOORE right?
He hopes that in 3 or 4 years they can start production. Does he mean that he hopes they can start developing a pitch to movie studios in hopes of a green-light in 3 or 4 years, or that he hopes to be green-lit, past pre-production, and into filming in 3 or 4 years?
All of you who left a comment in the past about "Experiment House" being "Experiment College" where right I guess IF Will Poulter is to play Eustace…sighs sadly…make that VERY sadly.Of the things in VDT I loved, his performance was the very best…If you're reading this Will know that in that film you ARE Eustace…and thanks( I laughed so hard!)
Well. The only optimistic thing I can add to this is "At least our kids will get to enjoy them in theaters". I mean, c'mon! It's been 6 years since LWW. Does it seem to anyone else like this is turning into a Star Wars-esque franchise?
MN would be a good place to start if they make them over again. And HHB would WIN. It just would.
Poor NarniaWeb. Keep fighting the good fight, until those blasted three/four years are up, and we can hope for Narnia to come to the big screen again.
May the Lion be with you all.
Well said. Or well quoted. God will take good care of Narnia, I've no doubt.
I completely agree, that is way too long to be waiting for another Narnia or any movie for that matter. Besides I am worried that Andrew Adamson or Micheal Apted might not want to direct the next movie.
That's a terrible long time!
The worst part is that with the next film at LEAST 3-4 years away the actors will have aged too much for any continuation of the series. So the options are:
1. Do MN and see how it goes. (this makes any further movies difficult because of the actors age)
2. Complete reboot of the entire franchise
Either way, Narnia as we know it in film now is dead.
I will miss Will Poulter. 🙁 I'd have loved to have seen him in the Silver Chair. What a pity.
But at least Douglas Gresham is still on board for more films. That's something.
Time for a podcast?
Personally… Though I wish it would be sooner, I don't really see the actor age problem… After all, it never says how long it is between VDT and SC, so Will Poulter could still to the job in three years, I think.
And when it comes to the Pevencies, it doesn't specify thier ages in LB, except that Lucy had "Grown into a young lady" (At least, I think I remember it saying that somewhere…). In 3-4 years, Georgie will be 18-19, which seems like the perfect LB age to me…
Maybe that's just me, though…
I missed it. The podcast will have the part with Paul Martin in it, right?
"All of them" is a code word for a series reboot. I'll bet Gresham wants a future contract that will give him and the estate greater control over the process to keep it from straying so far from the original books. With the way it was going, it was safer to let the contract die than the keep going and completely butcher the rest of the stories.
3-4 Years?!? Sadness, much sadness. Was renewing the contract now an option in this whole thing?
I guess a reboot is better than nothing, though. It's just that LWW was SOOO good I wasn't ready to give up on the series yet. And the actors were PERFECT for their parts. Even if the movie plots strayed some (which they did), I always felt that the characters were true to the text. It will be hard to think of other people playing the parts.
I agree
The 'style ' of this franchise was becoming more important than the feel of the original books.
Hopefully with a fresh start, they could treat these stories with as much respect as others did with the H.P. series. Producers need to understand that the stories must appeal to adults, as well as children because of the cleverness. This is Lewis' success. Clever children did not feel their intelligence insulted, and adults did not find it lame. Remember, lewis said -a children's tale that only children like, is a badly written children's tale.- They need script writers that respect C S Lewis' style much closer than they have up to now. I blame D. Gresham entirely for failure in this,. He is the 'watchdog' he is responsible ( especially now ) to find a GOOD script writer. The scene in the VDT movie on the Lone Islands was disgraceful. this is why I only watched the movie twice, even if there are some great scenes ( between Eustace and Reep.) that scene is lame, cliché, and predictable. It is like elevator music. It's like, some generic 'no name' bargain script. FOLLOW THE ORIGINAL STORIES CLOSER, IT'S WHAT EVERYONE WANTS !!!
I guess it's nice to know that there WILL be something coming in the future… we will just have to wait a while.. we can pass the time by watching the other movies, i guess. (;
Nah, I think you're reading into that way to much. The question was "Of the remaining books, which one are you most excited to see on screen?" Gresham replied "All of them." Meaning: "All of the remaining books."
Moonwood, I know what you mean about style over substance being an increasingly objectionable issue with the films, and I am in total agreement with you regarding the necessity of the films to appeal to adults. Absolutely. But, I think you have to throw the Harry Potter comparisons out the window. There are two things that that franchise has that Narnia does not:
1) A living author who is very concerned about quality control
2) Relevance. I believe that the producers of the Potter franchise are much more conscious of (and responsible to) the opinions of that particular fanbase, simply because it's so large, so identifiable (demographically), and so much more vocal (visibly active) than Narnia's fanbase. Those films are an extension of a contemporary cultural phenomenon, still very much in the collective consciousness of the public. There is a lot more pressure to make those films FAN-friendly, simply because, well… they have so many fans. With The Chronicles, I believe these books are considered more "classic" literature, with an infinitely more "niche" market. So, instead of being FAN-friendly, the producers are desperately concerned about being AUDIENCE-friendly. With "Potter' those two terms are pretty much interchangeable. With Narnia, they aren't, at all. That's not to say that it's impossible to make a Narnia film that both the general public and fans will find appealing and worthwhile. Clearly, they achieved this with the first film. My point is, it's so much harder to find that balance with the Narnia franchise than it is with "Potter". At least with the six books NOT called "The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe". Clearly, Walden were not up to that challenge, for a variety of reasons.
It's just becoming more and more apparent to me, how HARD the Narnia films have been, and will be, to make. Unless some team of super-committed, passionate, visionary filmmakers, with some track record of success, who understand, respect, and love the material is assembled, I don't see how any studio is going to trust the source material enough to represent the remaining books in an even remotely satisfying manner. I love the books, I believe in the books. I just don't have any faith that anyone will ever be allowed to adapt them in a respectful, authentic manner.
Mr. Gresham, ultimately, is a non-factor in how good or bad these films are. I believe he gets too much credit for what success the franchise has had, but, conversely, I don't think he's personally responsible for the current, dire, state of things. He's a spokesman and a consultant. He has some influence, in the sense that he is in a position for his opinions to be heard. But no one is obligated to act upon them. He has no control, at all, over the films, other than to enforce the general guidelines laid down by his employers, the C.S. Lewis Estate, in the terms of use of the material. In the mainstream film industry, you either receive a lot of money, or a lot of control. It's extremely rare to be in a position to exercise both. It's pretty obvious, at this point, which of those the Estate has. And that's not a condemnation, or a judgement. It's just the way things work. Once that cheque clears, they have to live with the consequences. Unfortunately, so do we.
Walden would have 'Dawn Treaderized' 'The Last Battle' into a kiddie-friendly, bloodless, after-school special, complete with a nauseating Carrie Underwood song at the end, and plush Puzzle dolls on sale in the theatre lobby. If anything good is to come from their apparent exit from these films, it is, most certainly, that we are going to be spared that, at least.
Please find a way to keep the movies with the same characters as my granddaughter loves them – she is only 8 – a great testimony to the power of your films!
They're going to have to do MN+SC now
*facepalm* PERRY STONE???
Nonny, I quite agree. Interesting point about the author being alive, having an impact on the quality of the story line.
It's true the first one was much better, But Walt Disney has the reputation of taking classic stories, and making them their own, by changing them heavily ( Pinnochio, Snow White, The Jungle Book, Aladdin…..) and we all know hat D.G. sold the franchise to the only company that S C Lewis said he specifically would not want to get involved. Anyway, I think it is almost inevitable that within the next 20 years, there will be a re-boot, that will have less of a 'Lego-Land' feel to it, and will be awesome. In the meanwhile, we can hope that the rest of the movies ( I think they will be done within a few years ) will not be cheepo.
I am glad that we know something now 🙂 waiting will be a tiny tiny bit easier now that we have an estimate 🙂
I think when they start again, they should do either SC, HHB, or MN 🙂
Well i don't really see any other option other than making a reboot. All of the actors will be too old to play in SC & TLB if they continue to revisit the series, especially if they decide to do The Magician's Nephew first. I really liked the actors in all the Narnia movies and to see it go through hardships like this really does put a strain on my heart. I hope though that companies will decide to invest in the Narnia series when it is up for purchase again. I would hate to see the actors go. especially Eustace Scrubb's actor who i thought portrayed him very well. But who knows. Maybe starting with a reboot of all characters in the Narnia series with the MN would be a good thing. I just pray that its done right and for the sucess of the movies to follow. Who knows, maybe by the time the next one comes out i'll be a parent taking my child out to see Narnia just like my parents did with me 🙂
haha yeah. A movie a year huh?
OK, I feel it is necessary to say this. Of course what you are saying is pure speculation, and that is fine. But God mentioned that nobody knows the time or the date save Him, and that it (rapture, second coming, etc.) will come like a thief in the noght when nobody expects it, so I say this, let's not worry about it, it could happen right now, or in the next second, but I think we dont need to focus on it so much. As for Narnia 4 coming before the rapture, it could be that way. I dont know if we can really classify the time periods as the mentorship and the revival and all that, because there are many different theories as to how it will play out. But the end times are coming, they are almost here, and I think the weather circumstances coming about are proof of this. It seems almost as if every year the weather and natural catastrophies semm to be increasing, so it seems the the end times are eminent. I'll just say this, I know I'm ready, and I cant wait to see heaven!
I really dont know, if we look at it like this, every movie is taking least 3 years in between a movie and its sequel, so if we have 4 yrs left for SC/MN, 3 more for SC/HHB, then another 3 for probably HHB, then 3 for LB, which I think is what will be done as the last, and that is 13 yrs for those movies, and then add on 6 more for the last movies, and you have a 7 book series done in a span of NINETEEN YEARS!!!! This should have been done 7 like HP!!! So Lucy will be in her late 30s by the end of this series!!! YIKES!!
Moonwood, you said that DG gets the blame for not finding good script writers, I dont see it that way, like Non said DG is a non factor in this series. He doesnt deserve blame for what a script writer wrote, because he didnt write it himself.
Some say that the actors who played the Pevensies would be too old to play them in The Last Battle. I respectfully disagree. It takes place (Spare Oom time) about ten years after their first trip to Narnia, which means they're supposed to be adults. But, as Doug Greshem says, the balance of the movie series is in God’s hands, and there's no better place for it to be.
I've got to say, this might not be such a bad idea for Narnia films to slow down a bit. I mean, maybe computers will get even better and we can have awesome effects. Maybe by then we'll all have gray beards, I know, but what's the rush?
Maybe I'm wrong. Enlighten me if you wish, all you who are dying because of this slow down of Narnia 4's making.