The filmakers problem with PC was not that it was too dark. It was given a horrible release date. Yes, some families didnt like the darker tone, but that isnt what prevented them from seeing the movie (cause after all, PC wasnt as intense as Iron Man or Indiana Jones).

I think the marketing placed too much emphasise on the battles and not the story, but that reflects more on the film's story rather then it's tone.

And it wasnt necessarily "The Magic" that people loved about LWW. People loved that LWW stayed true to the book and the book happened to be magical. Prince Caspian wasnt magical (like the book), but the movie strayed so far from the book that it angered the fans. Fans arent upset that a movie has battles. They are upset when a movie has battles that werent in the book.

I'm worried too with the filmakers bashing the "return to magic" over our heads, that they will be afraid to show the darker elements of the books. The Last Battle, if done correctly, would not even be a PG movie (With Tash, the slaughter of the Narnians, Shift being eaten, Jill being dragged by her hair into the stable, and the train wreck that killed the Pevensies). And certain scenes in the Silver Chair, such as Lilliadil's murder, the entire stay in the Underworld, and the decapatation of the Lady of the Green Kirtle may be significantly altered or watered down if they try to keep it "magical" and "more for the family".

This is part of the reason why I want a new director for the Silver Chair. VDT was good, but it tried too hard to be "magical", "cute", and "fun".

By all means, the Silver Chair should have plenty of magical moments. But the tone does need to shift once they hit Underland.

Well, Adamson did a wonderful job making two Narnia films with different "tones". Maybe Apted would be the same way. Good directors don't have to stick to one "feel".

I'd also be somewhat concerned about Silver Chair in that regard, since as you say, it does somewhat require a return to the "darkness" of Prince Caspian which i can see the studio being reluctant to do.

It's not just in some of the themes present within the story - the central idea of Caspian's son being enslaved by magic and held prisoner underground for 10 years is a fairly sinister concept really - but also in the general look and design of the story:

In VDT it seems they chose to present the film with a very bright colour palette, lots of very strong vivid colours, which i'll admit is something i would have preferred they not do as i rather enjoyed the more realistic earthy-tones of Prince Caspian, as they fit with my imagined Narnia much better, but its something i can deal with there.

However, for Silver Chair i really don't think they can get away with going for the bright colours they used for VDT - from pretty much the Parliament of Owls scene onwards you are looking at most of your scenes being set either at night, on bleak marsh and moorland, in a snowstorm, or underground. The typical colours you will be looking at for that are your greys, browns, dull greens, and other earthen colours - basically kind of drab really.

I think they just about got away with the cinematography choices in VDT, i am however very doubtful they could make a similar look work for SC. However, assuming VDT is successful, i could very much see the studio insisting on them maintaining the bright and cheerful look of VDT as a means of keeping the younger audiences.

I didn't think PC was a dark book. I was pretty surprised to see them make it into a dark movie.

I don't think it will be a problem. They are making VDT lighter and more magical, because the book was lighter and magical. I don't see why it would mean they would continue that on in SC and LB. Especially considering each movie will have a different director, if I remember right...

Most likely SC and LB will be very dark, and the audience will embrace the darkness. I mean, look at all the popular franchises -- Twilight, Harry Potter... all dark.

~Riella

I think the darkness of PC was fine. The key to making it work is to remember it's a family movie. Don't ratchet the violence up a notch just so you can say it's darker and grittier.

Dark themes are fine, such as the ones in SC and LB, but they really don't have to get more violent to make it work. PC could have stayed at LWW level and worked better.

Also, PC to me doesn't work because the script is just awful. The characters always say exactly what they think, right straight out, and none of them really have unique voices. From what I've seen of VDT, Michael Apted has fixed that. So that's another thing they need to remember for the future.

I think that it is VERY possible to be both Dark and Magical. I think that many of the LotR movies managed to capture that.

In the Silver Chair I think that they can "enchant up" the story a bit with some magic. I think that there is lots of room to do this (without compromising plot/credibility). I think this can be done by making the LofGK a bigger character. Audiences really liked the WW in LWW and I think that having a strong magical female villian could work again.
In VDT they "fleshed out" the parts of Eustace being a dragon (by keeping him a dragon longers) and by making "deathwater" a bigger part of the movie. I think that this can be done with SC by making travel times shorter and making the parts where they are actually in the underworld longer and the parts at Harfang longer.

Also, it is clear that they made the time on the Island with the Dufflepuds longer and a bit more "artsy" and Magical. I think that this can definately be done with the Underworld! I am excited for their spin on it.

Although I am very open to getting a new director for SC....the more I am seeing of VDT the more I am thinking that Micheal Apted could pull off doing more Narnia films.
At one end of the Spectrum we have the dark SC storyline, at the other end we have Walden Media/Apted who want to take a magical more adventurous spin on things, and if the movie lands at the midpoint I think that would be both marketable and a good movie.

This is part of the reason why I want a new director for the Silver Chair. VDT was good, but it tried too hard to be "magical", "cute", and "fun".

And yet they still managed to throw in a sea serpent battle that is anything but cute and fun. It's scary enough to spook any little kid.

The Last Battle, if done correctly, would not even be a PG movie (With Tash, the slaughter of the Narnians, Shift being eaten, Jill being dragged by her hair into the stable, and the train wreck that killed the Pevensies). And certain scenes in the Silver Chair, such as Lilliadil's murder, the entire stay in the Underworld, and the decapatation of the Lady of the Green Kirtle may be significantly altered or watered down if they try to keep it "magical" and "more for the family".

But unfortunately I think they'll have to. Walden Media is a "family film" company, and I don't think they would even produce a film with a PG-13 rating (unless they make an exception like Disney did for the Pirates of the Caribbean films).

I also found this. http://www.narniafans.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27847 I think you've already seen that, though.

Here's what I think. Yes, the book is dark and violent, but it is only as GRAPHIC as the reader wants it to be. You can't do that with a movie, so you have to leave some things for the imagination. Who cares if there's no blood on the swords? I don't recall Sting ever having blood on it. Eustace and Jill don't die when they are thrown into the stable, they had done that before they ever came to Narnia. If LB MUST be a PG-13 film, let it be the lightest PG-13 film in the history of hollywood.

I do not think we will have to worry about SC. There's the decapitation, of the LOTGK, but there was a beheading in the PC movie, and SC has a much lower body count. The man pies. Seriously? Marlin and Dory were SWALLOWED in Finding Nemo, and that was a G movie. I do not think the mere threat of being eaten will drive many movie goers or film makers away.

Prince Caspian wasnt magical (like the book), but the movie strayed so far from the book that it angered the fans. Fans arent upset that a movie has battles. They are upset when a movie has battles that werent in the book.

In Devin Brown's book Inside Voyage of the Dawn Treader, he seems to be saying the battles were definitely alluded to in the book Prince Caspian, who prior to the arrival of Peter and Edmund, was getting the worst of it. The difference is the film actually showed one such defeat. And by the way, PC is being shown on television tonight (Channel 7), in the lead up to the release of VDT. I've noticed that it still remains a popular DVD entertainment, even for those who are unfamiliar with Narnia.

In VDT it seems they chose to present the film with a very bright colour palette, lots of very strong vivid colours, which i'll admit is something i would have preferred they not do as i rather enjoyed the more realistic earthy-tones of Prince Caspian, as they fit with my imagined Narnia much better, but its something i can deal with there.

This might be a disadvantage to filming in Australia, as the light here always seems to be much more vivid and clear, somehow, than anywhere else I've ever been in the world, especially in Queensland. Something to do with the subtropical climate there, in addition to the nature of Australia elsewhere, which has a distinct redness when seen from outer space. We've even a well-known poem about it, Dorothea Mackellar's 'My Country'.

Furthermore, the rising Sun is a popular symbol in this part of the world, including especially the Aborigines, who have the Sun on their flag. I'd also say that VDT, according to Michael Ward's ideas of Narnian cosmology, is the Narnian book of the Sun, just as PC was the Narnian book of Mars. Hence the battles and fighting.

I doubt that SC would be filmed in Australia, apart from the location of Aslan's country, which demands bright colours. We don't have enough of the same sort of barren-looking icy mountains that are more typical of New Zealand or better still, the Lakes District or Scotland, if the filmmakers want to keep filming locally. I'd imagine that any scenery would be taken from UK, itself, when it is time for SC, which according to Michael Ward's Narnian cosmology, is governed by the Moon.

To my mind, SC demands autumn colours, descending to winter, for the twilight of King Caspian's reign, and for the grief and anxiety of his court. It also was the time of year when Jill and Eustace arrived there. As for LB I think we'll meet that one when and if we come to it. Right at the end, where it should be.

Dark themes are fine, such as the ones in SC and LB, but they really don't have to get more violent to make it work. PC could have stayed at LWW level and worked better.

Good point, Malfhok. That could be key.

I'm not really worried about The Silver Chair, but I am concerned about The Last Battle. I don't really consider any of the Narnia books to be dark except for The Last Battle (which is why it's so powerful actually). The Silver Chair is kind of gloomy with Puddleglum, the Underland, the Giants and Rilian's captivity, but there isn't a lot of violence at all. They can tone down the Lady of the Green Kirtle's death, that would be fine with me. I don't think the film-makers will having a problem with jumping to the tone of The Silver Chair. I could be wrong.

But, man, they have to get the tone of The Last Battle right. It's a good thing there is a good deal of time before they make The Last Battle because the "return to magic" mentality could, and probably will, change by then.

I do not think we will have to worry about SC. There's the decapitation, of the LOTGK, but there was a beheading in the PC movie, and SC has a much lower body count.

Remember that the LotGK turns into a snake before she is decapitated. The only other person I can think of who dies is Lilliandil and she just gets snake bit which can happen off-screen. The film makers might want to put a battle in somewhere with either giants or underworlders. As for colors, there are plenty of places for bright colors in Harfang and lots of greens in the LotGK's palace.

Well if they do decapitate the snake, they'd best not touch the body after...either that or else I'll just have to pretend that nature works differently in Narnia (won't go into details)

Anyway...the color of VDT might also have to do with them filming in digital...and also Marlin and Dory were fish, not human- that's why in PC all the telmarines wore masks, it was to help allieve-for lack of a better word-the fact that they're human.

I'm worried about this, too. But, if I recall correctly, the Silver Chair is fairly bloodless. The first half of the book is above ground, and not violent at all. The second part of the film is not "dark" but literally dark. It's just dreary, not necessarily that "dark". I mean, there is the decapitation of LotGK, but this wouldn't be all that violent, just kind of scary. PG is what will definitely, and should definitely, happen with that film.

The Last Battle is a different story completely, as this film is very violent and very dark. The end of the world should be taken seriously, and I am worried about that one. All the characters die, and I would want Tash to be very frightening. PG-13 is what should happen for this one, but I'm not sure that will happen.

SC has always felt darker on a character level for me because for a lot of the book there is no "bright spot" so to speak. Eustace starts out real excited and very much ready but Jill is a whole other sort of character the films have yet to see in Narnia. Her moods, feelings, actions, and faith change, going down hill almost the entire way. Everyone else has either started really bad and gone up or never really been that bad. I'm not trying to say that Jill is a bad person, she's human like the rest of us but reading about someone who acts like the world is against her without the counter balance of a faithful character always struck me as the most un-Narnian thing ever put in the chronicals.
Eventually Puddleglum becomes that bright Aslan follower that I longed for with every page of this book. He doesn't scold Jill about the blunders in the table land but takes the blame, always relys on Aslan, and as soon as they get to harfang and Jill and Eustace stop squabaling that part of him really starts to stand out. The Silver Chair is character driven. Yes there will be giants and underground, bism and it's people, and an evil witch (that should make producers happy ).
Someone, I don't know who, but someone who is helping to produce these films have a knack for getting characters just the way they should be. The roles of these movies have been played perfectly (yeah a few were over-played and taken out to and extream), I have no regrets with actors, voices, or preformances. I can't imagine that it will change now.
I don't think that the question is "will it be dark enough?" but rather whether or not they will hold true the seadfastness of standing by your beliefs. Let them continue with the themes they have. Discovering, following Aslan, Temptation, and then let it be Making a Stand.
Take a stand like the parliment of Owls against trumpkin stoping the children, take a stand like Rillian to avenge his mother, take a stand like Puddleglum against the witch... In the end it's just another movie adapted from another book, but what it means is worth more than all the world.