Posted by: @courtenay

It's getting to be a bit of a bore, honestly, especially when it's already been so many years since Netflix originally announced they were going to do a Narnia series. I mean — I don't know much at all about how film and TV productions work, but is it actually normal for there to be this level of secrecy about a new movie or series, for this long? Couldn't they at least tell us which book(s) Gerwig is planning to adapt, or hint at even a vague timeline?

To some.extent, this is very typical of Netflix for two reasons:

1. Netflix has a very chaotic and dysfunctional approach to movie development. Most of the articles and quotes I sourced in this article for NarniaWeb are still highly relevant:

https://www.narniaweb.com/2022/11/opinion-netflix-has-changed-since-obtaining-the-rights-to-narnia/

There's a reason why Netflix still struggles to out-do the traditional film studios when it comes to making blockbuster and award winning movies - and it's not because they don't hire the right talent in terms of acting or directing - in my opinion it's because they don't know how to produce. The value that the producer brings to a film project often goes unheralded, but they are vital to ensuring a high quality output.

Anyway, all that is a long way of saying that one of the main reasons we are probably not hearing a lot is because not a lot is probably happening. They are a very inefficient beast.

2. Netflix doesn't like to promote it's work ahead of time. The traditional film studio model is to aggressively promote your film ahead of time, because you are tying to get people to book time out of their calendar years in advance to go see the movie in theatres on opening weekend.

By comparison Netflix considers all that to be wasted effort, because they aren't reliant on "appointment viewing". They want you to hear about a film,.go search for it on Netflix, and watch it instantaneously. Anything less than that is deemed to damage the brand. As such, that's why they tend to rely on viral marketing in the week of release, and generating buzz in social media and some traditional media channels.

Netflix rarely does more than one trailer, hardly (if ever) does traditional film posters, and doesn't tend to engage with the big Comic-Com style events either.

As such, if there is anything going on with the Narnia project behind closed doors, Netflix probably perceive that they have no financial incentive to tell anyone right now.

(For what it's worth, I think Netflix's approach is wrong in both regards, but that's where they are currently at, as far as I'm aware)

If anyone is interested in further information, here are two articles on why Netflix doesn't tend to promote it's own movies very much prior to release:

https://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/04/10/the-movie-marketing-blog-how-netflix-does-or-doesn-t-market-its-original-movies

https://movieweb.com/netflix-movies-shows-marketing-problem/

That said, we do have Netflix's "Geeked Week" coming up soon, so maybe that's their chance to do something different.

...

In terms of Netflix's problems with making movies in general, there are an even greater tonne of articles and video essays online about that. Mostly because it's self-evident to anyone who's ever had to sit through Netflix Original Movies like "Red Notice", "The Grey Man" or "Extraction 2" that they really struggle to stick the landing when it comes to the cinematic format. 

Though, to be fair, I think all of the streaming services struggle when it comes to making original movies. They've all nailed the art of perfecting the 10-part miniseries format, but for some reason when it comes to movies, they all struggle. Sure, some of them have had the odd award winner here or there, but those are the exception, not the rule.

I think that's partly why the only thing that really gives me much confidence in the Narnia Netflix project at the moment is Greta Gerwig's involvement, since it at least offers up the potential that Narnia ends up in that "exception" category when it comes to being a good streaming movie.

https://collider.com/netflix-movies-bad/

https://www.wildaboutfilm.io/p/why-most-netflix-movies-are-so-bad

https://www.tomsguide.com/opinion/why-are-netflixs-top-movies-so-bad

https://nofilmschool.com/netflix-creating-a-cinematic-hell-we-cant-escape

https://screenrant.com/netflix-original-movies-content-good-bad-not-matter/

https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-netflix-sucks-at-making-hits-that-last

https://www.techradar.com/streaming/netflix/netflix-finally-admits-its-made-too-many-bad-movies-we-made-a-lot-of-things-that-werent-ready

https://www.vg247.com/netflix-new-head-of-film-doesnt-think-past-output-is-very-good

https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/does-netflix-have-a-quantity-vs-quality-problem/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/08/30/netflixs-quality-control-problem-is-getting-worse-not-better/

https://www.thestreet.com/investing/netflixs-cant-keep-throwing-everything-against-the-wall

It's such a long and depressing string of the same old story, but it's far from undeserved. Their two recent flagship "Rebel Moon" movies by Zach Snyder might just be two of the most egregiously bad movies I've ever seen.... and I actually like a lot of Zach Snyder's other films.

There is just something about the Netflix studio production process which seems engineered to produce duds.... Maybe it's too much interference, maybe it's too little direction or control. Maybe it's both.

Either way, nothing about the erratic stop-start nature of the last 6 years surprises me.

@icarus Thanks for sharing all those articles. I don't have time to read them all now, but I'll definitely read at least some of them sometime. 

@icarus That's disheartening to hear. I assumed the radio silence was just because the first Narnia movie is too early in pre-production for there to be much news, but if Netflix doesn't do much marketing for their movies, we may have to get used to it.

The anticipation for the Walden movies was a large part of the fun back in the day - heck, I still remember the release date of the PC trailer off the top of my head (December 4, 2007), where I was when I saw it etc. - so I hope there's still some news trickling in while we wait.