Chronicles of Narnia Currently Planned as a Trilogy Only
We all know that movie studios are going trilogy-crazy right now, greenlighting just about any project that has a possibility of multiple installments if the first does well. But what about franchises that have more than three parts to draw from? Does that translate to an even bigger potential cash cow, or is three the magic number beyond which public interest tends to decline?
If you look at the Harry Potter franchise, they don’t seem to be showing any signs of dropping off, as the fifth installment Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is still one of the highest grossing in the series (although I will say that I personally am growing a bit tired of them). However, there’s also the issue of signing on a cast for a long period of time; many actors don’t want to commit to anything more than a trilogy. Perhaps this explains why the Chronicles of Narnia series, as it stands right now, is being planned strictly as a trilogy.
After Prince Caspian is released next month, they will conclude with Voyage of the Dawn Treader, potentially leaving the other four books without big screen adaptations of their own. Of course, it stands to reason that if there’s money to be made, the other books will find their way to theatres anyway. Since many of them involve different characters, they could end up being done after the fact (like The Hobbit), with only a few overlapping characters and probably a different director at the helm. What do you think, do these other books deserve to be made, or would you be happy with only three Narnia flicks?
Comments (6)
I’m a fan of the books and the first movie, but I’m happy with this approach. “Dawn Treader” is really the one I’m most looking forward to, since it seems to have the best cinematic potential. I’m worried Prince Caspian might be a bit samey with the first one, but I’ll still go see it. The remaining books would all be pretty tricky to make workable movies out of, with the possible exception of The Silver Chair.
Posted by Bunyip on April 22nd, 2008I read these books as a kid and can’t really remember, but is there really that much of a quality story/thread throughout all of the installments that demands they make feature films of all seven of them? I’m with the studios on this one. I enjoyed the first movie as a throwaway popcorn flick, but as with the Harry Potter movies, it’s just too much of the same kiddie “chosen one” type story to justify 7 movies. (8 in the case of Harry Potter)
Posted by Joel on April 22nd, 2008I thought the first film was good enough. I don’t think this series has quite the draw of a lord of the rings type franchise, so I don’t see it going anywhere beyond the three films. In fact, I’m not convinced Prince Caspian is going to do much box office– The first film kind of came and went without making too much of a splash, so I don’t know if people will feel compelled to see the next one.
Posted by Jon Rocks on April 22nd, 2008I thought the Lion/witch/wardrobe was pretty good as fantasy novel adaptions come. And it makes sense for them to make these 3 a definitive ‘trilogy’ as they’re the ones with the Pevensie kids as main characters (although only edmond and lucy in Voyage Dawn Treader). Plus, these 3 are the most accessible and marketable of the Narnia novels. The subsequent novels are in a world of their own, with almost entirely new sets of main human characters.
Posted by stevie_boy on April 23rd, 2008If anything I was hoping for a Silver Chair and Last Battle film….damn!
Posted by Baychuk on April 24th, 2008The Last Battle seems crucial.
Posted by Slingshot Hammer on June 28th, 2008Leave a Reply