I would like to echo fantasia kitty's thoughts. I'm honored by the amount of time Joe spent answering questions. While a few comments made me want to jump to conclusions, after further reflection I don't see anything to be alarmed about in the Q&A. His openness was very appealing and his honesty quite generous.

Overall, I think Joe has shown himself to be rather winsome.

Joe Johnston's Q&A video was very refreshing to me. He quite honestly tells us that he won't shy away from reworking scenes and dialogue when he feels it necessary, that the film will maintain Christian themes but not in an overbearing manner (like the books themselves), that his goal is to make a commercial film (not an overly dark or artsy one), that the special effects techniques will ultimately need to be cost-effective, and that he won't be pidgeon-holed into including any previous actors, design elements or creative choices in the previous films.

All of these answers, I think, are delivered very transparently to the concerned fanbase. I know not all of it will be received with excited approval, but the truth is he doesn't need our approval. I do think Johnston is wise for being so open with the fans so early, purely from a marketing standpoint. Who better to promote a film adaptation than the already dedicated fans? I have no idea if he will successfully preserve the novel's "essence", but this attempt to be forthright with us is deserving of respect.

If we have to go with someone who's well known, I'd have to say Johnston is one of the better choices. His previous works seem to suggest he is good at doing big fantasy films, but he can dig deep and tell a character story as well.

I, personally, am very content, even cautiously optomistic, with this choice as there isn't a movie I've seen by him that I don't like.

In fact, I'm wondering how many of his movies have NWers, and how many have they enjoyed vs disliked?

I have seen both Jumanji and Honey I Shrunk the Kids when I was very young, and though I don't remember them well, I remember enjoying them a lot.

Since then I've seen October Sky which I found very endearing and I thought it was very well told. It's a good example of a more character based story, that I feel was done right. The Rocketeer was a more comedic, but equally enjoyable tale that's a bit outside his normal slate of films.

Jurassic Park III gets a lot of hate from fans of the franchise, but of the first three it was my personal favorite. It moved faster than the first one, but I felt more invested in the character's lives than I did in the second one. (Plus I loved how they set up the raptors in the movie as intelligent, social animals, as opposed to the flesh-eating movie monsters they were before).

Captain America I feel is one of the best movies in the MCU. The characters feel very real, and I don't feel any jarringly delivered character lines like I do with some of the others. Sometimes it feels more like a period film than a superhero one, but only in the best of ways.

Finally, Hidalgo occupies a well earned spot on my favorite movies shelf. I feel it is highly underrated (though historical accuracy of the source material is questionable). It's another great piece that demonstrates how well he can do character based movies... admittedly with action scenes, but I've always felt the focus was more on the characters than the action.

Basically, as I stated, there's really not a movie by him that I watched which I didn't enjoy So I have a good feeling that even if it's not my dream adaptation, I will at least enjoy the Silver Chair as a movie.

As long as David Magee is attached to write The Silver Chair I will be excited and first in line to see the film.

You don't need a Spike Jonze when you have a script from a two time Academy Award nominee. It would be nice but at the same time an experienced, talented, flexible, director (Joe Johnston) is more than able to translate that on the big screen and make it something special.

I don't quite understand what you meant above - the script has been finished for months, so unless Joe is going to make lots of changes, I assume it's all going ahead, script-wise!
Can anyone else clarify?

As long as David Magee is attached to write The Silver Chair I will be excited and first in line to see the film.

You don't need a Spike Jonze when you have a script from a two time Academy Award nominee. It would be nice but at the same time an experienced, talented, flexible, director (Joe Johnston) is more than able to translate that on the big screen and make it something special.

I don't quite understand what you meant above - the script has been finished for months, so unless Joe is going to make lots of changes, I assume it's all going ahead, script-wise!
Can anyone else clarify?

That's what I was (trying) to say. Joe Johnston has a leg up Andrew Adamson and Micheal Apted because he has a David Magee script to start with. I know most of the heavy lifting with the script has already happened.

What I meant by the first comment is that as long as David Magee remains the sole writer of The Silver Chair, I will be excited.