Posted by: @impending-doom

I don’t think we’ll worry as much about additional battle scenes & filmmakers trying to match the serious tone of Tolkien with these upcoming adaptations. Of course, there’s new risks involved but maybe now Narnia will have a fighting chance to feel more distinctly Narnian. At least that's my hope.

I think a major risk is the possibility of unwelcomed ideology being injected into Narnia. For this reason, I'm neutral on the Greta Gerwig rumor. I haven't seen the films she's directed, but from the reviews I've read, the way she's handled religion and faith in Lady Bird and Little Women seems to be respectful.

But on the other hand, Lady Bird doesn't shy away from pretty objectionable content that would turn off a lot of people. And as already mentioned, her upcoming Barbie adaptation is rumored to be more "progressive."

So, it can go either way.

@impending-doom Gerwig will differentiate Narnia from other properties.

Netflix handled ‘Wednesday’ very well to reinvent The Addams Family. 

If my optimism for Netflix was rekindled by the Greta Gerwig rumour (given that she is a big-name prestige director with a serious awards pedigree) my enthusiasm was promptly brought right back down to Earth after watching the recent Netflix Witcher spin-off series "The Witcher: Blood Origin" over the Christmas period.

To say it was bad it would be an understatement. In fact, it pretty much embodied everything wrong with Netflix as a company over the last few years - the budget of the show had clearly been slashed during production, and the episode count cut from 6 episodes to 4. As a result the character development and plotting felt entirely rushed, and huge reshoots had clearly been imposed to try and salvage something from it, including a new framing device, and a narrator who only served to state the blindingly obvious. I assume some executive thought adding it in was the only way to make the plot comprehensible, but the entire thing was pretty much a catastrophe anyway, so I'm not sure it made the slightest bit of difference.

The acting was poor, the editing and direction all over the place, and the whole thing just looked incredibly cheap. It was as if Netflix's entire corporate Penny Pinching policy was on full display.

I was a big fan of The Witcher Season 1 and 2, but if this is anything to go by, the recent rumblings of behind-the-scenes discontent at the company which accompanied Henry Cavill's departure from the show probably have a lot of truth to them.

Overall I think "Blood Origin" probably represented my absolute worst nightmare for what a Narnia adaptation at Netflix might look like. A cheap looking, incomprehensible mess, made with zero care or attention, whose only purpose seemed to be to pad-out the franchise.

Tomorrow, June 12th, will make it exactly four years since Matthew Aldrich was announced as Netflix's "Creative Architect" for Narnia (and just over 4 years and 8 months since the initial Netflix announcement).

I know that I literally wrote an entire article explaining what's gone on behind the scenes at Netflix over the last 4 years, but the one thing I cant seem to find any info on is Matthew Aldrich.

Did he ever start work on writing? Is he still writing? Did he finish? Did he get fired? If the project never really got off the ground, why hasn't he taken on any other projects? If he's still hard at work, why haven't we heard anything from him? Is Greta Gerwig being eyed to replace him, or to execute the vision he's been crafting all these years?

So many unanswered questions... 

So if Netflix were to drop the Narnia project, it raises the question what other company could pick it up. I don't really see BBC or Walden trying again. I wouldn't expect a religious studio to do it, even though Narnia has some Christian elements. I suppose an independent Narnia film could be possible. Even a smaller studio, that no one has ever heard of, instead of some big Hollywood studio would be nice.

As for Matthew Aldrich, now there's question whether he got to writing or not. If he did, then why is he taking so long? Did something happen a long the way? If he didn't, why he hasn't he got around to it?

This is all going to get interesting. As far as we know, Netflix hasn't dropped the Narnia project. They could still be on the fences unless we hear otherwise.

I'm a bit hesitant about Netflix making Narnia.  Interestingly though, the Logos Theatre has the full approval of Doug Gresham for their excellent stage productions.

If a good filming could be made of a stage production, then I wonder if this might become an option if Netflix doesn't go ahead. So far they have staged LWW, PC and HHB. They have plans for SC as well. 
Their organisation, The Academy of Arts Ministries, also has a film training department, which grows every year.

https://radio.foxnews.com/2023/04/30/the-logos-theater-a-disney-alternative-raised-for-such-a-time-as-this/?fbclid=IwAR2_OYOhmb5tbftbMJwa2ze-2hYqVe5G5c4JgPB-3NXja1OG0tRzkQ7PzwY

@fantasia I don't think that I'll ever feel optimistic about Netflix adapting Narnia. I've never had Netflix because I've heard about some serious moral issues with the content they have. Even the Netflix versions of Veggietales were very poorly done. It almost seems as if Bob and Larry became a moral-ish spoof of Sponge Bob Squarepants.

I don't have Netflix either, and for me over this side of "the pond", one of my biggest objections to their content was/is The Crown. Making a highly sensationalised and heavily fictionalised biopic about people who are still living or only fairly recently deceased, without their or their descendants' permission and agreement, is just not on. Even if they ARE the British Royal Family.  

I would also love to see Narnia taken up by a company that has a Christian ethos but knows how to make productions that appeal to a wide audience, not just preaching to the proverbial choir. That's what Lewis himself was aiming for with the original stories, after all...

Netflix may not always be around and it may even disappear like some of the cable TV networks have.  I wonder what would happen to the Narnia rights if the streaming service would be gone. It would be surprising if someone would try to make another Narnia movie when The Silver Chair was cancelled.  Someone else might decide to attempt making the series, but it would probably be years before that could became a reality. Still, there is hope for it as long as people are reading Lewis’ books and enjoying them.  🙂

@narnian78 Netflix just canceled their rental DVD mailing service. I guess now no one is renting movies anymore, because streaming has become so popular.

I don't have Netflix either. I must have a good reason not to get it, as with all things they've put out I've heard were not that good. Netflix may have started out decent, but so much has changed. I guess it wouldn't surprise me if Netflix got shut down or if for some reason they drop the Narnia project.

I wouldn't want some big Hollywood studio to produce or distribute Narnia, that's for sure. If Narnia was going to be a movie, perhaps a smaller studio that no one has ever heard of before. I haven't heard of Walden Media before LWW movie came out, though most have obviously heard of Disney and 20th Century Fox. So perhaps a small studio is idea to produce Narnia. We could have a whole discussion about what our proposal to produce or distribute Narnia films or series.

Posted by: @courtenay

I don't have Netflix either, and for me over this side of "the pond", one of my biggest objections to their content was/is The Crown. Making a highly sensationalised and heavily fictionalised biopic about people who are still living or only fairly recently deceased, without their or their descendants' permission and agreement, is just not on. Even if they ARE the British Royal Family.  

Not to take the conversation too far off topic, but I feel that The Crown is probably the best thing to happen to the British Royal Family in decades. Not only has it helped to humanise them, but it's also helped people understand the immense pressure and difficulty of being born into a system that on the one hand grants you enormous wealth and privilege, but simultaneously binds you into a highly controlled living-breathing manifestation of the political state. Overall The Crown is both an ardent love letter to the monarchy as an institution, and an attempt to make the royals themselves seem more relatable - a huge win on both as I would see it.

Anyway, back to Netflix as a company, as discussed previously, their self-financed content has gone terribly down hill in the last 4 years, but I think The Crown is probably one of the few high-end prestige pieces they have left 

I do not really have high hopes that they will do anything with the rights since we haven't heard anything for years. If in two years we still do not hear anything, I will definitely assume that they will never do anything with the rights. Do we know if their contract says a certain amount of years that they have use the property to keep the rights? I know with Walden it has to be seven years. I think I would rather see a crowd funded series if we do not get anything from Netflix. As much as I dislike the company of Netflix, I currently do not have high hopes for any other streaming services and dislike all the other streaming services even more than Netflix. As far as I can see, the rest of the streaming services would do an even worse job than Netflix. 

As for Greta Gerwig, I just saw the video of the set design of the Barbie movie, you can definitely tell this is a passion project of Greta's and she really cares about the project and set design. I would be fine with her as a director if she was really passionate about the movies she was directing. 

Posted by: @icarus

At the risk of opening up a whole can of worms, I am interested to explore in a bit more detail why some people have such strong objections towards Netflix in the comments so far.

As much as I understand it, Netflix is first and foremost a content provider, but not a content creator. The vast overwhelming majority of the content on their service is created by third parties, and then merely licensed to Netflix for a short term viewing window...I follow the TV and Movie businesses fairly religiously, and stories of studio interference and friction with creative directors happen all the time - but never to the best of my knowledge when it comes to Netflix. Therefore I would find it strange if people had an objection to Netflix as a platform if their fear is that they would interfere with the creative vision of the production studio.

Well, this might clear things up for you. According to this random Twitter post (I know, I know, not a great source ), when the news about two new Narnia movies from Netflix was announced a number of people reacted by saying they couldn't stand to watch them because of their "religious trauma." MasteroftheTDS on Twitter: "C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles Of Narnia are being rebooted via Netflix for at least two films which will be written and directed by Greta Gerwig. People had a variety of reactions to this news; however, there was a common trope in some of the tweets about it. It is reasonably… https://t.co/AfsdEByHs 6" / Twitter 

Those are the people who don't follow Narnia news online but do follow news about Netflix and screenwriter/director Greta Gerwig. I'm quite willing to believe they're just a vocal minority, but they do indicate that the fandom for Netflix and the fandom for the Narnia books do not overlap and that Gerwig can make an adaptation that pleases book fans or an adaptation that pleases her fans, but she can't do both. 

Greta Gerwig might be quite concerned about quality so it’s probably a good thing that she was selected as the director. I don’t know much about her, but it seems she is quite experienced at making films. It seems now like something will actually be made since she apparently has an agreement to direct two Narnia films. Let’s hope that Douglas Gresham will be involved too so that something of quality will be created. 🙂

Posted by: @col-klink

 

Well, this might clear things up for you....