After Prince Caspian failed to get anywhere near what The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe brought in...
...Still, Walden Media's partnership with Fox has lead to a couple of hits and a couple of flops. They may or may not be interested in this.
Oh, well. If it happens, I'll be pleased. If not, we still have the books. Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
It cost $200M to shoot Prince Caspian?!?
One of these days I have to have a look at these movie budgets, 'cause I still don't understand where all that money goes.
Posted by Occasional (Member # 5860) on :
This is horrible news. I don't care what other movie of the series gets made, this is a disaster. Voyage of the Dawn Treader is one of the best books and perhaps my favorite beyond the first. My excitement level was at a high point. Just seeing Reepacheep in Prince Caspian got me worked up for the Dawn Treader installment.
Very sad.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
It's potentially horrible news, if Walden can't find a new partner. They may be able to.
They may not. We'll see.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nighthawk: It cost $200M to shoot Prince Caspian?!?
Lengthy shoots all over the world, a third of the cast in non-human, massive battle sequences...pretty pricey stuff.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nighthawk: It cost $200M to shoot Prince Caspian?!?
One of these days I have to have a look at these movie budgets, 'cause I still don't understand where all that money goes.
:taps nostril:
That and a hugely overindulgent studio with patience for hijinks that didn't contribute to the end product on film. See travel to exotic locations, elaborate visual stylizations of scenes that were originally written with none such flair, etc. They added that whole scene with the white witch that wasn't even in the book- why?
Posted by BannaOj (Member # 3206) on :
Yeah, and an entire battle sequence invading that castle.
Posted by FlyingCow (Member # 2150) on :
Really? Dawn Treader is your favorite? I felt that after the dragon island, it went precipitously downhill.
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
I can understand how it cost $200 million to make Caspian, but really, someone should have reined that in a bit.
I enjoyed the movie, a few snickers aside (Your opponent favors bashing you with his shield- better get that helmet off!), but I have to imagine you could have cut the budget by a quarter with some judicious use of sound stages, without harming the overall visual spectacle excessively.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
On the one hand, it's silly they would gauge the project based on what happened with The Golden Compass. On the other hand, it's possible that whole situation kind of divided the fantasy audience.
Also, that's funny that they are even contemplating a film adaptation of the Screwtape letters. I could maybe see it with Ricky Gervais as Screwtape.
Posted by EmpSquared (Member # 10890) on :
quote:Granted, Pullman’s series isn’t a household name, at least in the states… nor should it be. It’s no Lord of the Rings caliber writing, nor even Harry Potter. It’s certainly not Narnia.
Hmmmmmm.
Posted by Armoth (Member # 4752) on :
Oh MAN! I LOVED Caspian! It was so great.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
Someone refresh my memory because I haven't read Voyage in awhile but...
quote:The key players of the second installment, “Prince Caspian” — Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, William Moseley and Anna Popplewell — were to return for the third film.
Okay, Ben Barnes and Georgia Henley I understand, but why are William Moseley and Anna Popplewell returning when they aren't in the book? And for that matter, what about Skandar Keynes?
That's either some bad reporting, or a hideous rewrite of the book.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Remember, when Lucy looks at the spell that would make her more beautiful than a mortal could possibly be, the Magician's book tempts her with a vision of her life in London with the unearthly beauty...including Susan's reaction to such.
It's a very interesting section in VDT...among other things, we learn that pure, sweet Lucy is jealous of Susan and insecure about whether her friends at school really like her.
Posted by Shmuel (Member # 7586) on :
quote:Originally posted by pooka: Also, that's funny that they are even contemplating a film adaptation of the Screwtape letters. I could maybe see it with Ricky Gervais as Screwtape.
A film adaptation of The Screwtape Letters?! What? How?!
(The audiobook with John Cleese was a perfect match, though.)
Posted by JennaDean (Member # 8816) on :
Dawn Treader was my favorite, too, after LWW. I'm disappointed if it won't get made. I love Reep. And the whole island of the Dufflepuds bit. I could really just picture that whole book in my head, more so than some of the others. (Maybe then it's a good thing - I never like it when movies don't look like the book in my head. Like Remus Lupin - a fine actor, but he just doesn't look like the Lupin in my head and I've never been able to get over that.)
OTOH, I'm not really sure I wanted to see all 7 Narnia books on film - I don't know how they would handle Susan at the end. She's so likable in the first movies, I don't think the audience would accept her not being there. In fact I don't know how they would handle the last book at all.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
I'm disappointed that they're not doing Dawn Treader, only because it'd make a far, far better movie than Caspian. Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
quote:Also, that's funny that they are even contemplating a film adaptation of the Screwtape letters.
It would be funny if it weren't horrible.
quote:The audiobook with John Cleese was a perfect match, though.
Perfect. Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: I'm disappointed that they're not doing Dawn Treader, only because it'd make a far, far better movie than Caspian.
Just to clarify: Walden is looking for another studio to partner with and does still want to do Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It just won't be Disney as the studio.
It this point, Fox looks like the likeliest candidate, due to their deal with Walden. We'll see. If they don't find a partner, the series is effectively done.
Posted by DDDaysh (Member # 9499) on :
Since the absolutely butchered Prince Caspian, I'm not all that disappointed. Voyage of the Dawn Treader is my favorite book of the series, and if they screwed it up I may have had an annurism.
Posted by Fyfe (Member # 937) on :
Dawn Treader isn't my favorite, but it's my second favorite - I love the Dufflepuds.
Posted by Jim-Me (Member # 6426) on :
quote:The audiobook with John Cleese was a perfect match, though.
quote:Perfect.
thirded
Posted by sarcasticmuppet (Member # 5035) on :
I really liked the Horse and His Boy, and it occurred to me that it would make a great film -- it's a pretty straightforward adventure/romp, and it could be made later when the actresses for Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are a bit older.
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
Oh no! Of course Prince Caspian didn't do all that well. It was the most forgettable book. It wasn't even the worst (that was the last one). It was just forgettable.
The Dawn Treader is the second best, after A Horse and His Boy. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe is actually my third favorite of the series. So I was really hoping they'd film a few more.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
The problem with The Horse and His Boy is so much of the general public have faded, incomplete memories of what it actually contains.
(So many people tell me confidently that Tash is a woman, and that "her" worship was based on Islam. Neither is true, but that's what their garbled recollections say.)
I think Walden and Harper Collins' efforts to get modern audiences reading the books again will be the key to the film being made.
That, and another studio picking up VDT. At this point, it does seem possible. Posted by JennaDean (Member # 8816) on :
quote:I think Walden and Harper Collins' efforts to get modern audiences reading the books again will be the key to the film being made.
If only they could get the books published in the original order again. Correct a travesty that's been going on for a whole generation.
You know, if anyone has any influence over this, the movie people might - since they're making the films in the right order. People might want the books in the right order too and finally get them published that way.
Posted by T:man (Member # 11614) on :
I thought the golden compass movie was great, and the book was great as well.
I liked The Subtle Knife bettter tho...
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Unless Harper Collins goes through a regime change, I foresee the books still being published in the wrong order. They're dead set certain that a vague reference Lewis made in a couple of letters to the chronological order of the series meant that's the order he wanted them published in. Likewise, they deleted certain story revisions he made to the American version of Voyage of the Dawn Treader, revisions that in my opinion greatly improved the book.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
quote:Originally posted by T:man: I thought the golden compass movie was great, and the book was great as well.
I liked The Subtle Knife bettter tho...
The His Dark Materials film franchise is about as dead as dead can get by this point. Man, did New Line ever botch that one.
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
quote:She's so likable in the first movies
She's a nag in the first movie.
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
It's not just that I want to see the stories put onto screen. It's that they have been doing an AMAZING job with them. They are adding to the movies elements that were missing from the books. The movies are what the books should have been. I do not remember ever feeling so strongly that a movie was better than a book but in the case of the first two Narnia movies....I was so looking forward to seeing them unlock the potential in the rest of the series.
As for the books...I re-read the first 5 a couple of years ago so I've got a decent memory of them.
Posted by JennaDean (Member # 8816) on :
Point taken, Scott.
Christine, I felt that way about Caspian - I really enjoyed it a lot. Better than the book. And I didn't mind the additions to Lion, but I felt like something was missing. It was beautiful and all, but they left a few things out (that they obviously had time for, since they had time to add so many things), and the feeling just wasn't the same as the book. The story was there but the magic wasn't. Not for me. Of course, that's the book I remember best, so probably no movie would ever match what's in my head.
Puffy - what revisions did the publishers take out of Dawn Treader? Seems they want to have things both ways - they want to publish them without revisions, but they want to revise the order based on that long-after-the-fact letter.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
For the American version, Lewis revised the chapter about the Dark Island. He felt the original trivialized the very real terror and power nightmares have, so he altered it. That's the version I grew up with.
Harper Collins decided it was too intense and went back to the original UK version, which is far less dark and ends on a mega-super-ultra-omni happy note. A note that just doesn't ring true. I can see why Lewis changed it.
Posted by Reshpeckobiggle (Member # 8947) on :
I hope it gets made, with this new director. The first two books were my least favorite, so I didn't mind that Adamson was there to screw them up. I don't think Apted could do any worse.
I don't understand Disney's thinking on this. Prince Caspian only made a couple hundred million dollars in profit -not as much as the ridiculously huge profits of the first movie- so it's time to abandon ship? (Pun Lock key is still on, sorry) I think they'll be kicking themselves for dropping out of this. Dawn Treader has always been a fan favorite (books 4,5, and 6 are my favorites, but Dawn Treader is right up there) and I think it could do just as well as LWW.
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