Official: Netflix Developing New Narnia Movies and Series!
It’s official! C.S. Lewis’s beloved classic series The Chronicles of Narnia is headed to Netflix, according to a post shared on the official Narnia Facebook page.
Series and Feature Films
Netflix will develop “new series and film projects” based on The Chronicles of Narnia.
Producer Mark Gordon says this collaboration has “the capacity to translate the Narnia universe into both stellar feature-length and episodic programming.”
Deal Includes All 7 Books
It is the first time the rights to all seven books of The Chronicles of Narnia have been held by the same company. Mark Gordon, Vincent Sieber, and Douglas Gresham will serve as executive producers for series and as producers for feature films. All of the series and films will be Netflix productions, in collaboration with The C.S. Lewis Company and eOne.
What About The Silver Chair Movie?
There has been no word on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair movie since director Joe Johnston said he hoped to begin filming Winter 2018. Here is everything we know about that project.
What do you think about this news? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Related:
This IS The Silver Chair… i think. It's evolved into an entire new thing. SC was originally going to re-boot the series afresh from the 3 previous movies by "reinvigorating" the franchise with Sony distributing, but now it seems like Sony lost out, with Mark Gordon and Douglas Gresham have taken Narnia away from them and given it to netflix.I don't know about netflix, but its probably a better choice than a big studio. SC will still definitely get made, i'm sure, with eONE producing as planned.
@"There's no truth to it." – Joe Johnston
I made it up. 😉
It's only an idea. I doubt that's what Gordon and Gresham have in mind. 😉
Man, did this thing get everyone's attention or what? I was the 9th or 10th person to comment on this post this morning. Now we're up to 62 comments and climbing!!!
Could not wait to tell my brother about this!(We're the two biggest Narnia fans in our family, I think.) This is really earth-shaking news!(sort of.)At any rate, my hands were shaking when I saw the post this morning!
this looks interesting to see
and no im not jumping into conditions
Word of advice: Dont assume too easily over something new
i mean seriously this is Narnia we are talking about
and im interest to see this
My take on the whole “both film and series” thing… I think maybe they are just being smart and leaving their options open as to how to beat adapt each book. Some (like LWW) may make better films, while others may work better TV series (I’ve personally always thought VDT would work better as a TV series). I think having both as options may be the best way to provide faithful adaptations of the books. On the whole, I am very excited about this.
I have strongly mixed feelings. Narnia deserves the big screen.
Buut I will still watch the Netflix programming.
Sigh. “Netflix Original” just has a certain undesirable ring to it. I can’t quite explain, other than to say that it makes me think of failed projects that wouldn’t work anywhere else. To me, this is as if the producers are admitting that audiences wouldn’t be very interested in seeing The Silver Chair on the big screen.
I know what you mean and I agree.
Wow. I am so excited I am literally shaking.
I read the news in The Daily Telegraph newsapaper with the headline:
'Netflix to chronicle Narnia for a new generation with film and tv deal'
The article claims, 'Multiple television and film projects are planned, with stories developed from across the Narnia universe.'
I don't know what that means exactly, but boy, am I excited!
The article also quotes Douglas Gresham as saying: 'It is wonderful to know that folks are looking forward to seeing more of Narnia, and that the advances in production technology have made it possible for us to make Narnia adventures come to life all over the world. Netflix seems to be the very best medium with which to achieve this aim.'
IM REALLY EXCITED❤ I LOVE NARNIA
Mr. Gresham involvement is very important. It makes me think the film and series could be a great idea! The whole world is waiting for something AMAZING,faithfully adapted to the books by C.S Lewis.(Narnia fans are more interested about this because for us the adaptation should be 100% right. We need the films and series become in the books. It would be amazing. the more faithful to the books, the more we'll love the series and films.
GO BIG OR GO HOME! Is it too much to ask?
PLEASE DONT LET US DOWN!
Yeah, and i hope they stay true to the book don't remove or tone down any christian messages from the books. It would be great if Netflix uses the main theme score (battle song) from the previously-made movies.
Movie Aristotle, I have no idea how familiar you are with Netflix, but "Netflix Original " is their production name they put on all the programming they've released for themselves.
https://goo.gl/images/HT6xvp
Just like starting off LWW you have the Walden Media and Walt Disney logos.
Otherwise Netflix is just the host of uploaded movies.
I misread your comment MA, so you can ignore my above comment. 😛
I see what you're saying and I suspect there's a lot of truth to it, but on the other hand, I can think of multiple stories throughout history where some enterprising person tried to sell their product to multiple big-name companies, was rejected, and found the right tiny company to go into business with, and turned out to be a success. Hopefully that's what will happen here.
I know there's just as much of a possibility that I'll hate whatever eOne and Netflix turns out as if they went through Sony, but I'm far more optimistic that as Netflix has more to lose here, they're more likely to turn out a decent set of films with their hands-off approach. 🙂
I agree with your comment on the Facebook Live video, GlumPuddle. The comment is that we want our voices to be heard because the Chronicles are so special to us.
For me, Narnia makes me feel very nostalgic about my childhood. I have recently re-read 5 of the Chronicles and Lewis still teaches me about Life through his expert handling of real themes. The characters mean a lot and the values of victory, joy and kindness are epic to me.
Oh my word! So at first I didn’t like the idea of a Narnia Netflix deal and voted no on the poll but after listening to Glumpuddle and Gymfan’s podcast I decided it would be cool and wished I could change my vote. Now it’s true yay!! But I wonder what they mean by series and film hmmmm.
It's such a relief to know an Netflix original series won't interfere with the films! (At least from what I can read) Looking forward to it!
I wonder if you (and I) would feel better if we hadn't known about The Silver Chair movie they were trying to make. If we assumed that eOne and the C.S. Lewis estate wanted to make a Netflix series from the beginning, it would feel more exciting and not like they're scraping the bottom of the barrel. I hate to encourage people not to follow Narniaweb though. LOL.
I don't know what makes me happier… the news that we are FINALLY getting something Narnia after what feels like 100 years of winter (with no Christmas) or that there's still so many people here on NarniaWeb who still care and love Narnia as much as I do!!
It has been over a decade since I have sensed this much potential for Narnia adaptations.
I thought there was a chance The Silver Chair movie could be good, but I had very little hope it would be GREAT.
With these Netflix productions, my hopes are very high. *crosses fingers*
My feelings exactly!
I don’t mean to be a negative Nancy but I’m not very optimistic about this turn of events. I feel like this series is regressing and I’m very concerned about the production quality of whatever series or films come out of this. Have any of you seen the Netflix series “A series of unfortunate events”? The production quality is just not up to par with a feature-length fantasy film. If you were to take that series and release it on the box office it would receive criticism for looking lower budget and not as realistic which unfortunately would be correct. Netflix is not going to invest $100 million and a feature-length film and unfortunately that is what it’s going to take for a Narnia film to look as beautiful as the previous ones. And to spend $100 million on a film would warrant it being released in theaters. Let’s hope I’m wrong but it is the worst news I’ve heard in a very long time about Narnia
I too am concerned about the production quality. Now, I love the BBC series from my childhood. But the effects and production values were not the greatest. I can overlook it because it means so much to me.
But are we basically headed for a situation like that? A BBC-type series that, while true to Narnia's spirit, perhaps, just doesn't look like the best finished product. I can't say for sure, of course. But all I'm saying is, small-screen can be very different from big-screen. Especially if you're talking about streaming service providers.
I have the same feeling. I have higher hopes that we will get an excellent adaption of Narnia than I ever have.
Here are a few of the reasons:
1) Netflix have a history and a reputation for creating high quality content.
2) Netflix has a history of getting people on board their projects who are real fans of the original sources and understand the spirit of those sources. People who want to create an adaption for that more niche market, i.e. the fans. Us. People who love the books and the world and not just your average popcorn-munching cinema goer.
3) Douglas Gresham has apparently given his blessing and will be on board.
4) Since they have purchased the rights to all the books, they obviously aren't doing this thing by halves. They have fully committed, and that suggests that the films will have a pretty high budget, high production value, stellar cast etc.
My guess is that this is bit of a retaliation to Amazon Prime's Lord of the Rings acquisition, and so it will have to compete with that in terms of scope and scale. Hopefully they still stay true to the spirit of the books though.
5) Since Netflix isn't the cinema, they can fit the format to the books rather than the books to the format. So they don't have to cram each book into a 2-and-a-half-hour time frame with a clear beginning, middle and end, they can do whatever does justice to the source material.
As you can see, I'm pretty chuffed!
Good point. I was looking forward to the Joe Johnston/David Magee project. I think I would be much more excited about the Netflix projects if this news came after 10 years of dead air.
After having a day to think it over, I’m more optimistic towards the possibilities that Netflix can provide. Still, I wonder over what could have been.
Wow, 85 comments! You can tell what gets people excited around here; we've been hearing from Narniawebbers I never knew were there! When was the last time that a post got this many comments in just 2 days??
P.S.- I'm feeling better and better about this Netflix idea as more people continue to leave optimistic comments. Hopefully Narniawebbers and other Narnia fans can have a stronger voice in these productions! Any petition ideas, anyone? (Example: Don't change the English setting or the time periods!)
Yes! Please don't change the setting or time period.
I'm sure we all remember that scrapped idea of the modern-day Narnia, and the White Witch tempting Edmund with cheeseburgers. *Cringe*
But also, I'd like them to use more book dialogue. Stuff that is taken right from the text.
Hey everyone. Just want to congratulate you all! I've been checking this website every few months for 6 years and am so thankful to see this type of development. I could have lived with just the audio theater version, but yeah, this is pretty awesome. Take it all in my friends, take it all in
This is fantastic news!!!
A BBC style mini-series? YES! And movies? A hundred times yes! As long as everything is "by the book", I'll be watching.
And that's really all any of us want; a true to the books story.
It will be interesting to see what exactly they mean by both, however as long as it's good, it shall mean more adventures in Narnia.
If they want to start fresh with their own LWW, that's fine by me. But if they chose to leave the trilogy as the beginning of the story, I'll go along with it (except VDT).
Telemarine, I understand your point and yes I have seen A Series of Unfortunate Events. However, I think the choice for the bad green screen (like when they're on the trolley with Justice Strauss or at Dr. Montgomery's house) is to hint that their sense of safety and happiness is going to be short-lived.
Their costumes (especially Olaf and his troop's) are great and I don't think I'd classify it as a fantasy. More like noir comedy where the absurdity of their desperate situations is emphasized with unbelievable settings and Snicket (sometimes Olaf) breaking the 4th wall.
However, since I grew up a giant fan of the books but despise the movie adaptation, I might be biased:)
Guys, about Netflix doing Narnia:
I agree Netflix’s big-budget ASOUE production feels cheeper than the 2004 movie (The Oscar-nominated production, costumes, make-up and music still hold up 14 years later).
But Netflix’s version is closer to the bleak, morbid aesthetic of the books.
The movie obviously had the best in Hollywood making it, and has great production values (I love Thomas Newman’s moody score) but it’s not quite Lemeny Snicket.
Similar to how Narnia (2005) has great production values, but doesn’t quite feel like CS Lewis’s Narnia. A really cool version of Narnia, but not quite NARNIA. No adaptation has cracked that code yet.
Netflix needs to find really talented filmmakers who understand and love Narnia, then it might work very well, regardless of the budget.
Hear, hear.
CHEESEBURGERS?!?!?!? Seriously? That's exactly why I do not want to see a modernized/Americanized Narnia adaptation.
Cleander wrote, "we’ve been hearing from Narniawebbers I never knew were there!" Well, that was enough of a prompt for me to comment here as well, because I've been reading Narnia Web for some time with my kid-now-turned-teen.
We have both been extremely eager and excited for production of The Silver Chair to take place. My wonderful and talented teen who also has a big heart for Narnia would like to fly to NZ to take part in filming –even as an extra– if it were possible.
It is exciting to envision resources, finances, and energy being invested in Narnia, and presumably this will most-likely actually take place with Netflix involvement.
But we are concerned about what will happen with The Silver Chair movie…. we've been waiting for Silver Chair as soon as having finished watching Dawn Treader (in spite of some disappointment with DT).
We would have liked to see the feature-length Silver Chair released and continue into more movies for the big screen, eventually to cover all of the books. There may be inadequate popularity but for our part we regularly talk about how much we'd like to see Narnia merchandise routinely available in our local retail stores. (We'd like many more people to share our enthusiasm for the Chronicles!, and we recognize that exposure plays a very big part in eventual popularity.)
We're hoping for the best outcome with Netflix (when is the casting call??) but like most everyone I suppose, we'd like to learn more about The Silver Chair … and we kinda hope that somehow it wouldn't be abandoned or "supplanted" by the Netflix agreement.
I haven't seen the Netflix Unfortune Events series but I don't remember the commercials looking bad.
(I don't really like the Series of Unfortunate Events books much. I feel that the author comes across as a bit of a snob. Like he thinks people who like morbid things, like his books, are smart and sophisticated while people who like cheerful things are dumb. I suspect he's kind of a jerk in real life. But I understand why those books are popular. They can be fun in small doses.)
I was going to mind modernizing the parts of the stories that take place in "our world." Modernizing the Narnian parts would be terrible but changing the time period for say, the professor's house or Experiment House, would be a little disappointing but not that big of a deal.
Then I remembered The Magician's Nephew which has more parts that take place in this world than any of the other books. I definitely wouldn't want the time period changed for those. (Especially since they'd have to change Fledge from a cabhorse who accidentally came to Narnia to a native Narnian.)
Imagine how stoked I was when I read the Narnia report from 2017 that said Thomas Newman would be composing the music for The Silver Chair: I nearly cried. 😉 An hour later I realized it was all a fake 🙁
I must confess i don’t get this level of excitment on this stage. Like seriously TV show? This needs to go in theaters.This is precisely why i hate Netflix and streaming. Lotr, Witcher, Narnia, Barbar those properies are made for IMAX not on computer. I am very excited for Johnson’s Silver Chair, because that is feature lenght movie.There is massive difference between watching movie home or in IMAX.So far i am out of this overly excited train and facing the truth that Narnia sadly will never get Hary Potter treatment on big screen.
I'm glad to hear the news, of course, I worry that Netflix tends to produce things that are generally for a different audience than Narnia and I worry because I know that in order to make a television series they will have to add content in to lengthen the stories.
As long as the right people are working on this, and try to keep it Narnian rather than simply modernizing the story, maybe it will be good.
But even a mediocre Narnia series is better than none at all in my opinion.
Hi everyone. I just read this news, and my first reaction was to be extremely worried, not because of the quality (Netflix has put out very high visual quality), but what they might do to the story if they have creative control. I was extremely disappointed in what they did to Anne of Green Gables (ruining the hope, innocence and values with seemingly endless anx, adding liberal idiology directly or indirectly, etc), as well as the awful effects 13 Reasons Why has had. I don't know what you think about this, but I'm rather concerned. A possitive thing is that perhaps the greater involvement of Douglas Greshom might prevent that, and Netflix seems to be willing to put up things from across the board, both good and bad. What do you all think?
While I’m extremely excited for this, I must admit it’s going to be hard for them to win me over with a new set of Pevensies (in contrast to Walden’s cast). Especially in regards to Lucy and a close second with Edmund.
All the same, I’m ready to see Digory and Polly come to life 😀
I hear you. But because Gresham and the C.S. Lewis estate are so involved, I would not worry too much. Besides, Netflix has had some clean content lately (Lost in Space) without heavy-handed ideaology one may disagree with. And I think Gresham regrets the freedom he gave the filmmakers the first time around, especially in regards to VDT. He was very pressured to allow certain changes to take place and I’ll bet he’s very adamant on not allowing it to happen again.
What do you think about having Horse and his Boy as part of an overarching story that begins with LWW. For example, bringing in Archenland after the coronarions, which everything that happens there.
Oops, sorry, I menat coronations. Also, this would mean starting with Magician's Nephew as Season 1, which I would personally prefer. What do you think?
Good of you to join us, sir! I share your sentiments about the Silver Chair film, but I think that if Netflix is taking it over it may simply serve to hasten the production (it needs all the hastening it can get!) Perhaps if the order JFGII suggested for the films is followed, we can see the Silver Chair come out soon. (And hopefully on DVD.)
I was hoping to see another Narnia film on the big screen, as well. But that is looking less likely, and if it does happen, it could be years from now.
If Netflix keeps to the books, I'll be satisfied.
If they ruin it, there will be a huge backlash.
I hope Mr. Gresham, first of all, wants a true to the books story, and that he keeps them on track.
Follow the books is all we ask. Small variances like the final battle in LWW, which we only see the end of in the book, is fine. It didn't really (IMHO) take away from the movie and gave it more action for those that like that sort of thing.
I have waited a few days to see what others think and to get my thoughts together. This does blow my mind. Many good ideas here. This is good news.
I agree with The Rose-Tree Dryad that LWW/PC/VDT/SC and LB could make a great series. I assume that this would be on the small screen. Remember that LWW was the only movie to make a profit. We all need to think smaller if this is going to continue. The movies so far have fallen short. They were about epic battles or epic good-vs-evil. The story took a back seat. LWW was good but it had problems. They had huge visual effects. These cost a lot of money and, IMHO, only Disney does visual effects consistently well. Disney also has very deep pockets. Hopefully Netflix will concentrate on the story and look at the whole series.
For example, imagine how you would react if you came face-to-face with Aslan for the first time. I would become a babbling idiot hardly able to talk. I think this is illustrated by a BBC documentary filmed nine years ago celebrating the fortieth anniversary of men first landing on the moon. The 12 people that walked on the moon were never the same afterward. BBC sent their presenter James May to Beale Air Force Base outside Sacramento, California to ride a U-2 aircraft to 70,000 feet. A space suit is required for this ride or you die. From there he could see the blackness of space and the curvature of the earth. Aslan's Country in SC would be very similar to this except one could breathe without a space suit, and there is no curvature of Narnia, and it would be much warmer, but the view would be very similar. Look at this video from the documentary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-COlil4tos
Notice how his attitude changes during the ride. Listen to him. He becomes quiet at the end. He was obviously strongly affected by his ride. I would react that way if I met Aslan. The movies never got this right. They were more concerned about effects, battles and getting that great shot more than about the story and real emotions. They took the subtleties out of the stories. This is mostly about good acting and directing and a faithful script and minimal visual effects. The religious aspects of the stories will take care of themselves if you tell the story right. No green mist please.
The name of this documentary is: "James May On The Moon". Amazon.co.uk has a few copies in stock. If you look closely you can see how going to another planet or moon can change someone.
We would all be changed by going to Narnia. I can understand more why Susan was not in LB. Many other details to argue but at another time.
I don't really "get" why people say that the story is more important than the visual effects when it comes to Narnia. The visuals kind of are Narnia to me. When I was a kid, I was initially drawn to Narnia by things like the statues slowly coming to life (like a piece of paper catching fire only in reverse), trees eating dirt that looks like chocolate, a woman turning into a giant snake and a broken cross bar growing into a new lamppost. Those are the reasons I think these are the reasons that a visual adaptation of Narnia intrigues me.
I really like what you said about how people should react to meeting Aslan though. It'd be cool if the director or the actors read your comment and were really inspired. (It'd also be really unlikely 🙁 but a nice thought.)
Crazy "coincidence" or not, this news comes out the same day as the podcast lamp post listener releases their "Deeper magic from before the dawn of time" summary. A symbol of resurrection?
Well that depends if you are child or not. If you are,naturally you are attracted to visuals, fantasy, creatures, magic and the story is on second place.If you are adult with some literature background, you understand that there is more to this story than meets the eye and that that this is basically reteling of Bible, which is huge.Every single big movie is not about visuals or creatures but simple human emotions and Narnia has plenty of it. Proof: Final battle in LWW takes place on one page in book instead Lewis writes about Lucy and Susan playing with resurected Aslan. Most important is story, characters, emotions and message. If you don’t have these things, you don’t have good story. Can’t get behind idea of Narnia being on TV but there will be plenty of time to go slowly so that is good thing. At this point this could go eithet way, need more info.
Any showrunner/ director comes to mind?What about Wes Anderson??
I particularly enjoyed was the author's random tangents and commentary but it isn't for everyone:) incidentally he referenced Narnia in one of his books albeit insultingly. (the book was automatically interesting because of the kidnapping but was ruined by the arrival of Santa Clause)
Excellent thoughts, Roger! And thanks for sharing that video… what a great way to illustrate the kind of effect that Aslan should have on people! I really hope the filmmakers understand this about the character.
I quite agree about Aslan. It always bugged me that he was normal size in the movies, and would often be looking up at people. In the books, Aslan never looked UP at people (Except the giant in the witch's castle). By the lion's mane, he is THE lion!
If Netflix fixes this one error, they will score huge points with me.
I know a lot of people love visual effects, but my point was that because of money and the smaller audiences, we need to tone down our expectations a little on the expensive part of a movie, visual effects, or there will not be any more Narnia movies. Spend the money on really good actors. I love seeing great acting. I am probably much older than you, I am retired, and, therefore, I love story. The Narnia books are among my all-time favorites. I have been an engineer all my life, and technology does not impress me. Good stories do impress me. This is our last shot.
I'm really not sure what to think about this. I'm disappointed, confused, and worried about faithful adaptation. I suppose some of this could come from only having a vague knowledge of how Netflix works. I've come to realize that I don't trust anyone to make a good adaptation. I've learned that what I think is important in the books other might not. I don't doubt that Mr. Gresham and the estate love the books. I do wonder if what they think are the essential parts of the books align with what I think are very important.
Does this mean that Sony/TriStar is out?
I think this is great news!
While I was excited to see what would become of Narnia on the big screen, I also feared for its success as some people were connected to the Walden movies and possibly not respond well to a new look. With Netflix, we don't need to worry as much about it and while I'm sad I won't get to see more Narnia in theaters, Netflix at least gives their shows some good budgets. I'm excited to see the stories retold at a decent budget level, hoping we'll finally get to the later stories.