Posted by: @narnian78

The IMAX CEO may not have even read the Narnia books, or maybe he forgot that there are only seven.  It may have been just a slip of the tongue.

100%. It would be like an interviewer asking me how many James Bond novels there are, or how many Wizard of Oz stories there are - I could probably make a stab in the right ballpark, but I wouldn't want anyone holding me to account if I wasn't spot on.

I would hope that he would take the time to read them and at least have a basic understanding of them.  I guess we can forgive people’s mistakes as long as they are corrected before any harm is done

Does he need to read them though?

He's not part of the production team, he doesn't work for the distributor (i.e. Netflix), he doesn't even work for the primary exhibitors (i.e. the theatre chains)... He's the CEO of a company that licenses it's camera, projector and screen technology for third party use.

He's so far removed from anything actually going on with this movie that I really don't think anyone needs to worry one way or the other.

@icarus 

I think he should read the Narnia books so that he knows something about the stories that the movies are based on. If he is the CEO of IMAX it would be better to have that knowledge than to be ignorant of the source for the movies.  The president of a company should know something about the films and their original stories since the investment is about more than just money. Anyone who is involved in making or showing Narnia films should read all of the books.

@coracle: So, in fact the 8th movie will be the Rock N Roll story?? Ah, it's also about Susan, who at this stage is in her later 20s, and becomes a rock n roll singer? She's got the nylons and lipstick already!

Oh dear! When we know from LWW she'd been in the WW2 evacuations, along with her two brothers and sister? By the time Susan was in her late 20's, roughly about 1959, she'd more likely to be married with children. What she most likely wouldn't be, is a Professor of Children's Literature, which is how Neil Gaiman portrayed Susan in his 2004 short story, the Problem of Susan. When the Susan in Voyage of the Dawn Treader, was supposed to be a high school dropout, being no good with academic work, I can't see how she could end up being a Professor of anything. 

@waggawerewolf27 We're going way off topic, but I''ll just mention that a friend online used to suggest that the character Jane in That Hideous Strength is quite similar to what Susan might have become. This needs its own thread.

Back to the eight-movie idea:

@coracle Seconding the idea of a Jane and Susan comparison thread. I've also heard the comparison of Orual and Pysche with Susan and Lucy and the idea that Lewis could have been playing with the idea of Susan's future in Till we Have Faces. 

But yes back to the point! It was an off hand comment because he isn't familiar enough with the books to know how many there are and nothing to be bothered about. 

I think cliffhangers should be avoided in most movies.  An eighth Narnia film would probably have one, and it would not be necessary.  Each film would work better as a complete story, which is the way the books were written.  There shouldn’t be any need for cliffhangers since the stories are not long enough to justify splitting them into two parts. It is best to view the complete story in one visit to the theater.

In my two-part adaptation of The Last Battle, rather than add a Susan narrative (as @hermit feared), I'd have Roonwit play a larger role. We’d follow him back to Cair Paravel, culminating in the siege on the castle. The film would end with a return to Tirian and his party, who have just been introduced to Tash, as they hear the devastating news from Farsight. Then, after a long silence, Tirian would say:

"So," said the King, "Narnia is no more."

This would perfectly set up Part 2, which could focus entirely on the events at Stable Hill, the Friends of Narnia, and—most importantly—getting to spend at least 30 minutes celebrating in Aslan’s Country. It's kind of dark, but if they were to add an eighth movie (which is painfully obvious Glenfold doesn't know what he's talking about), that's what I'd like them to expand on!

Posted by: @narnian78

I think cliffhangers should be avoided in most movies.  An eighth Narnia film would probably have one, and it would not be necessary.  Each film would work better as a complete story, which is the way the books were written.  There shouldn’t be any need for cliffhangers since the stories are not long enough to justify splitting them into two parts. It is best to view the complete story in one visit to the theater.

I don’t see an inherent issue with cliffhangers or waiting for a second part. After all, the BBC’s Narnia adaptations originally aired in weekly segments before being released on home video.

@impending-doom 

I could understand it with the BBC series since they were shown in short episodes with cliffhangers and had time slots to fill.  But I think in movies they should be avoided unless it is a very long story such The Lord of the Rings.  If one is viewing a movie in a theater and paying for a ticket it is better to have a complete story.  The time slots are longer, and it is definitely enough time for a movie based on a short book without splitting the story.  Each of the Narnia books could easily fit in a two or two and a half hour film. At least with that length you are getting your money’s worth. 🙂

The BBC series was made for children's "after school" TV viewing, a half an hour break, from 4.00 pm to 4.30 pm, before they would get on with their homework - hopefully. The cliffhanger was to keep viewers in suspense until next week at the same time. LWW was okay, and so was SC, but when put on tape or DVD, PC and VDT were combined.

PC was the shortest BBC film, but Walden's PC went into the opposite direction. Walden didn't get around to making SC, & I rather thought that whoever was in charge had wanted to use Tilda Swinton for Magician's Nephew, rather than as SC's Lady  of the Green Kirtle - something like that?

@waggawerewolf27 I was in England in November 1988 when the BBC LWW serial was played. It was not after school, but on a weekend afternoon, probably Sunday if I recall correctly. I watched it with a friend and her two children (8 and 3) and we all enjoyed it (nobody had any homework to avoid).
The second serial (screened in UK late 1989) was a combination of PC (episodes 1-2) and VDT (eps 3-6).
The third (screened in UK late 1990) was VDT, in 6 episodes.

@coracle 

And it was sometime in the 1980’s that the Wonderworks series began the first movie of the BBC series. It was broadcast on PBS in prime time from 8 to 11 PM.  I am glad that eight movies were not made of the series, but I wish that they had completed more than the first four books.  It doesn’t bother me that the series was shown here in America as movies and not as thirty minute episodes. I was happy enough to see it on my local PBS station. It was back when movies were more faithful to the books they were based on, and there was no talk of making more movies containing material that was not in the original stories.

Posted by: @narnian78

@coracle 

And it was sometime in the 1980’s that the Wonderworks series began the first movie of the BBC series. 

It would have been late 1988 at least !  Generally BBC shows its own work before it is shared, even just a few days in some cases. 

It's generally agreed on here that the other three stories were hard to produce and/or had more 'religious' issues than BBC could have coped with. 

@coracle: It would have been late 1988 at least !  Generally, BBC shows its own work before it is shared, even just a few days in some cases. 

That is also to do with the business of who has the film rights, when BBC has first dibs, you might say, of its own work. Australian Broadcasting Corporation is a national taxpayer-funded organization, but unlike BBC, it doesn't use Television licensing to finance its free-to-air broadcasting. I expect the BBC on-sells its films if similar overseas organisations are interested, when it was the early 1990's before we got to see all of them, including The Silver Chair. 

@waggawerewolf27 NZ screened each of the serials a year after UK did.

Posted by: @coracle

@waggawerewolf27 NZ screened each of the serials a year after UK did.

Very likely you were right, when by the early 1990's "Recession we had to have", I was trying to get whatever work I could, even if it involved cleaning, delivering pamphlets, a newspaper run, or packing eggs at a local egg factory. But in 1994, I was working full-time as a librarian again, & never looked back again, until I retired. I'm not sure when the BBC films were shown in NSW, in particular, when I'm under the distinct impression that it was in the afternoon TV slot, between 4:00 pm to 6.00 pm when most such films were shown, to distract children from getting into their homework before Dad came home & started sounding off about the homework he never had to do in UK, more's the pity.    However, when it came to the BBC Narnia films, I have to admit, that it was my fault, when I wanted to see them myself.