@courtenay I mean, a guy and a girl can still like each other, that's totally fine. They don't have to like each other in a romantic way. I know it's hard to see a movie or TV series without one. Though I think it's getting less and less nowadays.. like what I've mentioned about the TV show Sherlock, it focused more on the friendship of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. I think other adaptions of Sherlock Holmes had some kind of romance in there with Sherlock and a nurse.

Taking on a lighter note, it would seem that Netflix will give Narnia a different look. I sometimes wonder if the logo will look different. I don't know if Netflix has rights to the logo that Walden used or will they make their own. I imagine that Cair Paravel would look different. Yet, of course, Cair Paravel would obviously look different in The Silver Chair than it does in The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, because it was rebuilt between Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

On a slightly different note....

I'd like to see some details from the books that have never made it into a previous adaptation before.  An example would be the Professor's house.  There were some specific rooms besides the spare room with the wardrobe, that CS described in vivid detail. I'd love to see some of those make it into Netflix's depiction of the house, instead of just random rooms in a random mansion like we've gotten before. 

And we need to finally get Rumblebuffin smashing through the castle wall like Kool-aid Man.  That is all.

Posted by: @glenwit

I'd like to see some details from the books that have never made it into a previous adaptation before.  An example would be the Professor's house.  There were some specific rooms besides the spare room with the wardrobe, that CS described in vivid detail. I'd love to see some of those make it into Netflix's depiction of the house, instead of just random rooms in a random mansion like we've gotten before. 

That is hard to do in movies. I guess it could work if it was an episodic series, though. It's hard to include crucial parts in movies. For instance, Walden cut out the freeing of the school children in Prince Caspian. It would be nice if Netflix could include that. Caspian's resurrection is a crucial part in The Silver Chair, and it could easily get cut out. Even as what I've said about Emeth's encounter with Aslan in The Last Battle. I even have it on my wish list for Netflix to do.

Yes, we could still throw out things that would be easy commercial thing to do. We certainly don't want the White Witch and Green Lady to be played by the same actress. BBC had limited casting, and I'm sure it was for budgetary reasons. And it's no wonder we were so worried that Walden was trending in the direction of setting up the White Witch to become the Green Lady in Voyage of the Dawn Treader. So we don't want Netflix, which ever actress they get to play the White Witch, to cast her as the Lady of the Green Kirtle in The Silver Chair.

It would be like if they cast the same actor to play Prince Rabadash in The Horse and His Boy and Rishda Tarkaan in The Last Battle, which I don't want either. I'm sure you would all agree with me on that. I would actually like Rishda to be his own villain, much like the Green Lady to be her own villain. Now maybe there could still be implications, "Oh, the White Witch and the Green Lady are somehow related" or "Oh, Rishda Tarkaan... you know he's in direct descent from the Tisroc Rabadash or whatever". I think I would much rather implicate that there is a relationship between the two witches or a relationship between the two Calormenes.

Posted by: @jasmine_tarkheena

That is hard to do in movies. I guess it could work if it was an episodic series, though. It's hard to include crucial parts in movies. For instance, Walden cut out the freeing of the school children in Prince Caspian. It would be nice if Netflix could include that. Caspian's resurrection is a crucial part in The Silver Chair, and it could easily get cut out. Even as what I've said about Emeth's encounter with Aslan in The Last Battle. I even have it on my wish list for Netflix to do.

You've actually nailed why I would much prefer it to be an episodic series instead of films.  Nothing would need to be cut for time, and we might get to expand on some aspects (in a way that's respectful of CS Lewis' original vision, of course) if each book gets 6-8 (or even 9-10) episodes instead of a 2-hour film. I know that there is a risk of the pace being too slow if they go that route, but there are ways around that.  

Posted by: @glenwit

 You've actually nailed why I would much prefer it to be an episodic series instead of films.  Nothing would need to be cut for time, and we might get to expand on some aspects (in a way that's respectful of CS Lewis' original vision, of course) if each book gets 6-8 (or even 9-10) episodes instead of a 2-hour film. I know that there is a risk of the pace being too slow if they go that route, but there are ways around that.  

It's hard to know what Netflix will do an episodic series or films. I have heard that there is a possibility that some of the books will be adapted into episodic series and some will be adapted into movies. It's hard to know what Netflix meant by "movies and series."

@jasmine_tarkheena I suspect that "movies and series" allows them to choose how to do them when they finally start work. 

Posted by: @coracle

@jasmine_tarkheena I suspect that "movies and series" allows them to choose how to do them when they finally start work. 

I guess the door is left wide open, as of now. I think it's a good thing we're having a discussion about what we hope to see and what we're afraid of what might happened. We know Netflix is adapting Narnia, but we still don't know much about it.

As I have mentioned about Emeth's encounter with Aslan, it could easily get cut out. I think the difficulty with that in The Last Battle, you deal with multiple endings, like Return of the King. It's a very hard thing to do in movies, and it's a common problem. I mean, (spoilers ahead), you have the Battle of Stable Hill, then you have Tirian throwing himself and Rishda into the stable, then you Tash showing up and taking Rishda, then you have Peter banishing Tash in the name of Aslan, then you have Tirian meeting with the five other friends of Narnia, then you have the address of Susan no longer being a friend of Narnia, then you have the five other Friends of Narnia telling Tirian, Eustace, and Jill of all that has happened, then you have Aslan rewarding Tirian for standing firm to "the darkest hour", then you have Aslan explaining he couldn't do anything for the dwarfs, then you have Father Time waking up and blowing his horn, then you have Narnians looking at Aslan through the doorway then turning either left or right, then you have the world of Narnia coming to an end, then you have Peter locking the door, then you have Lucy and Jill mourning for Narnia, then you have Emeth telling of his encounter with Aslan, then you have Digory explaining "a shadow or copy of the real Narnia", then you have the "go further up and go further in" then you have the reunion of the characters from Narnia's past (and there's a whole list of them), then you have Tumnus and Lucy talking about "Narnia within Narnia" then you have Aslan talking with Puzzle then you have Aslan explaining to the seven friends of Narnia that they've died in the railway accident, then you have "The Term is over, the holidays have begun" line. I can kind of see it would be hard to keep the scene with Emeth in there.

I would like to be included because it is one of my favorite passages in the series, perhaps my favorite in the whole series. There, we get to see Aslan from Emeth's perspective. This is someone who has been serving Tash since he was a child, but had no idea he was actually serving Aslan. It's like saying, "Hey, hope is offered not just for the Narnians, but for the Calormenes as well."

Yeah, I'm not putting too much stock into the "films and television series" comment. Even if the plan was to create both movies and series about Narnia at the time Mark Gordon made that statement, the plans have probably changed several times since then.

I think we should also address the climax of each movie. Walden had big epic climatic battles in each of their movies. The climatic battle with the sea serpent in Voyage of the Dawn Treader was totally different than the emotional climax in the book.

A big battle scene would work better for The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Horse and His Boy, and The Last Battle than Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Magician's Nephew.

In The Silver Chair, the climax should be where are Puddleglum, Eustace, and Jill going to trust Aslan and follow the signs to free Prince Rilian out of the chair or when the Green Lady walks in and tries to convince them, "Oh, everything you see here, this is all there is", are they going to fall for that? Puddleglum even gives this speech, "I am going to live like a Narnian even if there isn't any Narnia!" It's the punch line there. The real drama comes from what choices are the characters going to make.

In The Magician's Nephew, the climax should be where Digory is being tempted by Jadis at the Garden of Youth. It's like should he in to her temptation to steal the silver apple for himself or take it to back to his own world or should he obey Aslan's instructions to bring back the silver apple to plant a Tree of Protection? That's where the climax should be. The real drama comes from what decision is to made.

While the Battle of Anvard is shown through the pool of the Hermit of the Southern March in the pool, I'd actually be fine if they'd show it. They can even cut the camera back and forth between the Battle of Anvard and the Hermit of the Southern March watching through the pool.

The Battle of Stable Hill is perhaps the most detailed battle of the seven books. Though I feel like the climax is where Rishda gives the threat to the Narnians, "The dogs will go to the Tisroc's kennels, the boar in a cage in the Tisroc's garden, and the unicorn will draw a cart. But the king, the kids, and the eagle will be offerings to Tash." And they don't go in. Sure, it's the final battle, but I think the real drama comes from where they loyalties lie. The real drama comes from are their loyalties with Aslan or Tash or do they only care about "their own profit", like Ginger says in the book?

I thin Netflix has real challenges ahead.

One is getting the character of Aslan right. I think he's the hardest character to get right. Since he is the Christ-figure in the series, Jesus is probably the hardest person to get right in movies. It's a real challenge to get a character like that right.

Another is touching on the relationship between a guy and girl (especially with Digory and Polly in The Magician's Nephew, Eustace and Jill in The Silver Chair, and Shasta and Aravis in The Horse and His Boy) and there is no romance. It's hard to do a movie or series without a romance, especially if there two main characters, and it happens that one is a guy and another is a girl. So that could be a real challenge there.

Another is getting the depiction of the Calormenes right. I think there is a challenge is how they depict Aravis from The Horse and His Boy and Emeth from The Last Battle, since they are the only Calormenes on the good side. I think a way to do that is perhaps make Emeth a sympathetic character. What I mean is that when Rishda is giving orders to cut down trees that are killing the dryads or to kill Narnians, Emeth could have a conscious look on his face like, "This isn't right." So there is a real challenge there.

Speaking strictly on the movies: 

The series needs to look towards the future instead of remaking movies that don't need to be. Not to say they are perfect and without fault, but for me they are done well enough to stand on their own. And there is always the big chance for remakes of popular movies to flop and that is a risk I don't think we should take. Would be sad honestly to spend all these years hoping for more Narnia content only to have a remake that flops and that to be the end of the resurrection of Narnia material. I hope they look to continue on with the story while adding in new and original content when it fits while staying true to Narnian themes. I can't say I wouldn't look forward to the return of original characters, that is something I'd definitely never complain about. For me the casting in the entire Narnia movie series was a little too excellent so now it is hard to imagine anyone else but the OG cast. I am pretty sure this been done before but they can bring in whoever of the old cast that wishes to join on again while introducing new characters. I think the newer Jumanji movies did this with great success. So we can have a bit of the beloved old movies back while bringing in fresh faces and room for new storylines, In short I just hope the old cast is given the opportunity to join once more as I know that is not always the case. I definitely had hoped to see a continuation of Eustace's storyline and if that happens however it may pan out I hope they consider bringing Will Poulter back as Eustace. 

@iwishiwasinnarnia 

When talking about what our hopes and fears are for Narnia movies, we're actually kind of hitting on things that are easily commercial thing to do.

Walden's Voyage of the Dawn Treader had the Green Mist because filmmakers thought there was a need for a villain. That's an easy commercial thing to do. I'm sorry, but if you're going to add a villain that it's going to take the plot so far from the original source, a formula like that is not going to work. So not every story has to have a villain.

Bringing back the old villain is kind of a easy commercial thing to do. Walden brought back the White Witch twice. I kind of saw what they were trying to do with her in Prince Caspian. It's actually a pretty impressive scene. I think they just had to throw her in Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  If Walden had continued with the franchise, they could have easily brought back the White Witch in the other movies. Even in The Last Battle, what if they've done her instead of Tash? Netflix better not repeat the mistake of bringing back the White Witch. I mean, don't be all like, "Oh, it was the White Witch that Rishda called on" or something dumb like that.

The Walden trilogy each had a big battle scene. I think it works better for The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Horse And His Boy, and The Last Battle than The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Magician's Nephew. The real drama comes from say like The Silver Chair what choices are the characters going to make. It is about Jill remembering the signs. That is until the Lady of the Green Kirtle sends Puddleglum, Eustace and Jill sends them off to the giant castle of Harfang. You know right then they're making a bad choice. You know right then they should be following the signs. There is a way to add tension there, making audiences to go like, "No, no. This is wrong."

Romance is also a easy commercial thing to do. While it is getting less and less these days, it's still hard to do a relationship between a guy and a girl without a romance in movies. It's like that's where a filmmaker's brain goes immediately. I think that if there was to be a romance in The Last Battle (I could just see a love triangle with Tirian, Eustace, and Jill happening), it would actually take away from what the relationship should be focused on. It's the deep friendship between Tirian and Jewel, because they love each other like brothers.

Posted by: @iwishiwasinnarnia

 

Speaking strictly on the movies: 

The series needs to look towards the future instead of remaking movies that don't need to be. Not to say they are perfect and without fault, but for me they are done well enough to stand on their own.

I feel very nostalgic about Walden's films, as I grew up with them the way some people here grew up with the BBC miniseries - so I can definitely relate with how you feel about this.  However, they did get a lot wrong.  Like, a LOT.  The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was alright, but the latter two films changed more and more to the point that the story (and the characters) are hard to recognize. 

     For example, having a lot of battle scenes in the Prince Caspian film was all well and good (seeing as it was also arguably the most battle-heavy of all the books).  But it came at the cost of the joy, the themes of restoration, and the development of the characters.  If they wanted Peter to be incredibly hard to like, they succeeded (and as discussed earlier in this thread, the romance between Caspian and Susan was highly out of place). 

     Will Poulter was absolutely wonderful in Voyage, I'll give you that.  But the entire storyline was changed to the point of being utterly unrecognizable (down to the green mist and the seven swords).  I want to actually see these books get an adaptation by writers who want to capture Lewis' ideas, instead of writers who think they can do better. 

    I do want to say that you made a really good point about looking to the future vs. retreading old ground.  The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe needs to be remade the least out of all of them, in my opinion.  It would be an absolute wasted opportunity to see the first three get remade (again) and the series get cancelled before they get to books 4-7 (again)!  I'm 100% with you there. But not only are there books that have yet to be adapted for the screen, I think there are a couple that have yet to be done justice by existing adaptations (BBC had technological and budgetary limitations during their run, and they mostly did their best with what they had...but they still had questionable production decisions and their Prince Caspian adaptation was just plain bad). 

@glenwit 

Having Will Poulter in Dawn Treader was one of the best things about the film. He was so good at being Eustace the brat.  The BBC’s Eustace wasn’t bad either, and I think he became even better as the reformed Eustace later in the film. The Silver Chair was actually one of the BBC’s better series (especially with Tom Baker’s acting as Puddleglum so the overly shortened Prince Caspian cannot be really blamed for the cancellation of the series. In fact many fans were disappointed by the cancellation when The Silver Chair was loved by many people.  Prince Caspian would have been much better if it was two or three hours long. Probably the BBC was trying too hard to save money by shortening the story to an hour.

@narnian78 

Oh I'm definitely not blaming the cancellation of the BBC series on Prince Caspian...just making the point that their adaptation doesn't do the book justice.  Combining PC and VDT into 6 episodes and giving PC only 2 is one of those questionable production decisions I was alluding to.

And for what it's worth, the Silver Chair was hands-down my favourite of the 4.  You're right, it's highly unlikely the series got discontinued because of the quality.  My guess is they cancelled the series because they wouldn't even have the capacity to attempt the remaining books or they got more overtly "Christian" than BBC was comfortable with. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I hope that Netflix will get around to adapting key scenes from the books that BBC didn't have the budget to pull off convincingly and that Walden cut because they'd rather have a battle scene (and of course, most importantly, WHOLE books that have never been adapted ).  Until that happens, there will always be room for improvement in future adaptations!