He admits that documentaries are his specialty. His documentaries are widely respected, if not universally beloved, as are all of his films that are based on true stories.

Now, let's look at some of his completely fictional works:

Nell: I enjoyed this one. But honestly, I thought Jodie Foster carried the movie and made up for any short-comings in overall story-telling, and it gets a 52% on rotten tomatoes.

The World is Not Enough: haven't seen it, but it gets a 51% on RT, and an unimpressive 6.3 on imdb, especially when you consider that Bond films are geared toward male audiences and imdb raters are largely young adult males.

Enigma: I saw this, unfortunately. This film could be used as a study in how to take an interesting concept and turn it into a dull, pointless product.

Continental Divide: Unusual for an Apted fiction, it gets a 78% on RT. Then again, it's written by a 3-times Oscar-nominated screenwriter (which VDT was not). Also, it gets low ratings from all categories of raters on imdb.

For the most part, Apted needs real or realistic material in order to make a good movie.

My two recycled cents. I've seen Enigma and Amazing Grace. I thought Enigma was a good film but that's probably because of the script (Tom Stoppard) and the fact I liked the actors in it. Amazing Grace was also good because of the script (Steven Knight) and the production team including Terence Malick. And the installments of the 7Up documentary series that I've seen were well done. I do agree that he's a good director, but he wasn't solely responsible for making VDT a flop. And I do agree though that he doesn't really "get" fantasy films and that Narnia needs someone who truly does "get" them.

I thought that the world is not enough was a very good Bond film! When I saw how badly i did I was a bit shocked but it might be becuae it doesn't really have the same feel as other bond films had.
I prefered VDT, not that the two films are very comparable

The World Is Not Enough was ridiculous. James Bond movies have never been realistic but that one took the cake for silliness.
I enjoyed Nell too. Amazing Grace was very good as well and Apted's docos were great.

New podcast about this interview: http://www.narniaweb.com/2011/06/episod ... -narnia-4/

Okay, let me see if I'm understanding Flaherty correctly.

1. VDT's opening weekend was not all that great because families didn't have time to go to the movies.

2. Flaherty wants do MN next because it's not as "dark" as SC. And he doesn't want to do SC because the darkness in PC was considered a bad move.

I have a few issues with what he's saying. First, I really don't think it's fair to blame the slow opening weekend on families being busy at Christmastime. Families are busy all the time. Maybe, just maybe, the opening weekend was slow because families weren't interested in watching another Narnia movie. Or maybe a lot of people were like me and decided their final grades were more important than any movie. Or how about the marketing? If I hadn't been on Narniaweb, I would have seen a total of one billboard (that didn't have a release date on it ), and two TV spots.

Second, PC and SC aren't really all that much darker than any of the other Chronicles. Every single Narnia book has its moments that can be intense and frightening. In the LWW book, the White Witch is about to kill Edmund right before he gets rescued. Why did they cut that out of the movie? Aslan's sacrifice just doesn't have the same emotion behind it without Edmund nearly getting killed. When Digory and Polly first meet Uncle Andrew, he's terrifying. And then they meet Jadis and she's even worse. And Digory's mother is dying. I get that Flaherty doesn't want to make a "dark" film because PC was considered less than a success, but they're all dark. If the filmmakers don't want to have "darkness" in their films than they shouldn't be trying to adapt Narnia.

In one scene, Peter beheads a couple of people [laughs]. At the end they run into some Greek gods who give everybody wine and they get drunk.

I'm a little confused about this statement. Is he trying to be clever? Or is he intentionally making the book sound darker than it is? Sure, in real life Bacchus and Silenus are associated with drunkenness, but in the book everyone eats grapes. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the only person Bacchus gives wine to is Caspian's nurse.

As for Peter beheading a couple of people, it's different in the book than it is in the movie. In the movie, the beheading is the only thing that's happening at that exact moment. Whereas in the book a great many things are happening. In fact, it's in the middle of a very long paragraph about the start of the battle. I don't think I even really noticed it until the fourth or fifth time I read it. And he only beheads one person (that last one is of course just me being picky ).

Yes, PC feels darker than LWW. That's as it should be. But LWW is just as dark, just in a different way. The same is true for every single book. That's what makes them unique; and their uniqueness is what makes them special. C.S.Lewis used a very simplistic style of writing in the Chronicles. But that doesn't mean they're not deep. And I have felt a distinct lack of that deepness in the movies from the very first time I saw LWW. But that's a different topic all together.

I agree daughter of the King. Especially when you said that if they didn't want to make a dark film they shouldn't be trying to adapt the narnia books! That is exactly how i feel the interview he gave makes it sound like he is trying to put the audiences off wanting to see SC, which is stupid as if he wants to make LB then SC is going to have the be made to avoid confusion, or they could do a seemingly unrelated HHB where no one will recognise any of the characters. What happened to the time when they wantd to make all the Narnia books into films anyway? Surely before hand they had already assessed the "Darkness" of Narnia books and then said they would make them into films. Again, I agree with you that they don't want to make 'dark' films because pc was darker (in some opinions- not mine) than LWW and also didn't do as well.
Sorry, thats another rant from me over!

If they still haven't decided... and they do want the fans opinions... maybe they should consider putting a poll up on narnia.com for a month or two and go with whatever the movie-going fans decide. I'd prefer SC over MN, but if they take forever to pick one, we won't get either.

(Plus I'm really anxious for HHB, it's my favorite and if the skip it or stop now I'll be heartbroken... not to mention they'll be missing out on a great story.)

^ I agree, wolfloversk, they should do a poll! That would be the best thing ever... if it really would happen...
I think both SC and MN are a bit slower compared to some of the other books like LWW and HHB. After all, in SC a majority of their time is traveling. They have adventures, but when I read about them they just don't seem as epic as the other adventures. Don't hate, I don't know why I feel like that.

I actually disagree that MN is less dark then SC. I would actually think the opposite. I mean the entire planet of Charn has been completely destroyed. A world ending catastrophe is pretty disturbing i think. That alone i find scarier then anything in SC. As well as the fact that Digory's mother is dying. I guess the gnomes in the under world are a little scary, but not really. And only when you first meet them.

Agreed. MN is darker but there's no denying that there is a more sombre atmosphere across all of the events taking place in SC.

Now that I think about it, like somebody above mentioned, the idea of an entire world being destroyed is quite frightening, whereas just wanting to take over a world is not at bad by comparison.

Even though MN is one of my favorite books, I am still rooting for SC to be done next if another film even makes it to green lighting. I don't want my favorite book series to be turned into a happy clappy film series toned down from the books.( Yes, I know that's not really the main reason Walden wants to do MN next, but you get what I mean.)

I want SC to be done like a Narnia film, not a toddler's film, a Narnia film.