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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" will have to sail without Disney.
The studio said Tuesday that for budgetary and logistical reasons it will not exercise its option to co-produce and co-finance the next "Narnia" movie with producer Walden Media.
The third entry in the series, based on the classic books by C.S. Lewis, was in preproduction and set for a spring shoot for a planned May 2010 release. The development puts the participation of the talent attached in doubt. Michael Apted was on board to direct a script by Steven Knight. 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.
It is rare for a studio to pull out of a planned trilogy in midstream, but the number-crunching showed a franchise on a downward trend. "Lion" roared to $745 million worldwide. This year, "Prince Caspian" grossed just $419 million. Walden has a strong relationship with the Lewis estate and will shop "Treader" in hopes of finding a new partner. The most likely candidate at this stage is Fox, which markets and distributes Walden fare under the Fox Walden banner.
Any partnership on a "Narnia" movie will require a substantial investment. "Caspian," which filmed in the Czech Republic, Mexico and New Zealand, cost $200 million. The first film, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," was shot mostly in New Zealand for $180 million.
Further challenging "Treader" may be a waning of the pricey children's fantasy genre. When the "Harry Potter" series topped the book charts and then filled movie theaters, studios began snapping up fantasy manuscripts as quickly as they could. When "The Lord of the Rings" showed it was possible for adults to enjoy the fare as well -- and produced the box-office results to prove it -- Hollywood's fascination with the genre intensified.
But no other fantasy adventure films have shown that kind of box office punch. Earlier this year, Warners and New Line hoped they were launching a franchise with "The Golden Compass," but the adaptation of the Philip Pullman trilogy tanked domestically. The film grossed just $70 million domestically and the co-production partners declined to go forward with a second installment despite the fact the film did take in more than $300 million overseas.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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Why Narnia Fell What made Disney dump the franchise? by Jim Vejvoda
January 21, 2009 - Although the less than stellar box office returns for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (at least compared to what the previous installment, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, earned), has been the most widely touted reason why Walt Disney Pictures dumped the Narnia franchise last month, a new report suggests that a rift between Disney and production company Walden Media may have been to blame.
According to The Los Angeles Times, "what really derailed Disney's involvement with Narnia was a nasty feud between the studio and [Walden Media owner] Phil Anschutz, the real estate baron and supporter of Christian conservative causes who seems to own half of America."
The paper added that "the once-close relationship between Disney and Walden began to unravel when, after the first Narnia film cleaned up at the box office, Anschutz essentially put a gun to Disney's head and demanded that the studio renegotiate its deal with Walden. Anschutz insisted that Disney either gave back a sizable chunk of the studio's lucrative distribution fee or Anschutz would distribute the Narnia series on his own. Believing the franchise was too good to give up, Disney reluctantly changed the terms of its Walden deal, but the renegotiation poisoned relations between the two behemoths. When the second film faltered, there was so little good will left over that Disney had far less qualms about cutting its ties with the franchise."
The fate of the series' oft-delayed third installment, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, has been another lingering question ever since the Disney-Walden divorce was announced. The Times reports that Walden Media could announce a deal with a new distributor "as early as later this week."
Among the reported Narnia suitors are 20th Century Fox (the likeliest contender considering its past relationship with Walden Media), Warner Bros., and Sony Pictures.
That's all for now.
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