I loved all three movies as well. The one which stuck closest to the book did the best in theaters (of course, it was also the most popular book, though). The filmmakers probably had legitimate arguments about the difficulties in adapting PC and VDT to movies in terms of pacing and chronology of the source material, but I don't think that they will be able to argue that for many of the remaining books (and certainly not for SC or LB). I wasn't a big fan of the seven swords theme, but I can live with it. If they greenlight SC, they should be able to stick closer to the source. I doubt we'll have any concrete news on the greenlighting for at least another month, though, and probably not for another four or so.

They need to hurry up and greenlight it!!! Like yesterday!!! Will Poulter is not getting any younger... This waiting is making me crazy!!!!!
Ok... End of rant. I feel better now. I love The Silver Chair. It's my favorite of the books. I've liked all three movies so far, if not completely loved them. I think I will love it when they make The Silver Chair. I don't think they will mess it up to the point where I don't love it.

I love The Silver Chair. It's my favorite of the books. I've liked all three movies so far, if not completely loved them. I think I will love it when they make The Silver Chair. I don't think they will mess it up to the point where I don't love it.

Its my favouite book too and it seems like a fairly easy book to adapt. It is more of a traveling book with the mystery being unseen for most of it! some of the scenes will be beaustiful as well (Harfang, Underlands, Giant bridge) If they make good use of them.

I'm hoping it is Greenlight within a couple of months (Providing it does get made ) but I don't actually know precisely how long these processes take. I'd like too see it out by 2012 but I don't wasnt to jinx it so i'll hish up now

greenlighting- sometime this month
release- Nov/Dec 2012

Some people would thinkm I'm overly optomistic (sp?), but we'll see...

Just as long as it doesn't end up like JP4 I've been waiting ten years for that one! and still waiting... SC can't afford that, because as pointed out above, Will Poulter is growing, and fast!

do you think it's more realistic for them to make SC or MN at this point?

I could see how it would be easier to sell MN as "the prequel to that fantastic movie that made over 700 million), but i would be extremely disappointed if all of the movies were made except SC because the franchise at that point was in jeopardy.

SC is my favorite book in the Chronicles, and i really want to see it green-lit, preferably very very soon!

It's more realistic to greenlight Silver Chair now because Eustace is the "Pevensie-replacement" tie-in. But I'll admit I've got a very biased opinion. Most people just absolutely loved his character in VDT and wanted to see more of him. If they made MN, they would be going back to something along the lines of a reboot....a more 'unknown' product with no linkage to VDT (which could be both good and bad). Good in that it would a sort of fresh start, bad in that there would be no continuity from VDT.

There are several other reasons why SC might be the next one to be greenlit, which would give Fox and Walden pause.

1. When Douglas Gresham was interviewed in a NarniaWeb news item at the end of last year, he was told that an overwhelming amount of fans had voted for SC over MN. Debate on this site suggests that as well, and so does my forays into the matter elsewhere, such as on IMDb's still remaining Silver Chair site.

2. BBC completed the Narnia series up until Silver Chair, in its television series, and if Walden and Fox stop with VDT it will look like the BBC could manage something they couldn't.

3. It is the next logical film to do in the series, in whichever order it is done, and it follows on well from VDT. There is also the matter of Eustace, Caspian, and possibly Drinian being in both. Trumpkin who was in PC will also need to be in SC.

3. The VDT movie included some features which set up well for a sequel to VDT, SC, in particular.

The question remains, should Fox and Walden attempt a sequel at all? Leaving aside the money aspect, what sort of demand is there publicly for a sequel to VDT? Since I have been frequenting BOM, I decided to see what various movie viewers might think. Four movies which came out at Christmas were polled by BOM to see if viewers were interested in seeing a sequel to these movies. The first was VDT, and the results were as follows:

Do you want to see a sequel to 'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader?'
48.7% Yes.
27.1% No.
24.1% I don't care.
2,664 users polled. (This poll is now closed.)

Compare the results for Tron, with slightly higher yes and don't care results. Tron, which did well in USA, is closing the week's gap with VDT, but now it has been released in France, will have completed its run.

Do you want to see a sequel to 'Tron Legacy?'
49.6% Yes.
25.5% No.
24.9% I don't care.
2,220 users polled. (This poll is now closed.)

And then compare the Megamind results. Megamind was an animated film which at one time was considered a real threat to VDT. It is still lagging well below both VDT and Tron, and there are no new overseas releases, even though it did better than either Tron or VDT in Australia. Please note the lack of interest in those bothered to answer the survey in seeing any more sequels to Megamind.

Do you want to see a sequel to 'Megamind?'
39.7% I don't care.
35.3% No.
25.0% Yes.
1,602 users polled. (This poll is now closed.)

Just for interest I looked at other popular films at the time. Including Little Fockers, which did best of all of these four films in Australia and in the USA, is lagging well behind the other three, despite being one of BOM's alleged 'success' stories. Like Megamind, it, too, has completed its run overseas. And look at the results of the poll did on this movie:

Do you want to see a sequel to 'Little Fockers?'
68.7% No.
21.2% I don't care.
10.0% Yes.
1,446 users polled. (This poll is now closed.)

Now as mature visitors to NarniaWeb, which sequels of these movies, themselves all sequels, do you think any company should be serious about making? The ones that have most popular opening weekend viewings? The best money spinners overall, like Tangled, in which hardly anyone saw any need for a sequel? Or something like Little Fockers or Megamind, which could be wildly popular at the time, especially with boyfriends trying to woo the lasses they meet, which might look 'trendy', but which few are interested in seeing again?

On the whole, as I survey BOM results, I think that Fox would be doing well to stick to VDT, which not only has amassed Fox's best domestic (USA) total this year, but also has triumphed over the miserable Gulliver's Travels, released on Australia's prime Boxing Day slot, and which hasn't even made it into the $200,000,000 worldwide slots. I didn't include Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, since an overwhelming amount of those who did vote, 78%, obviously want to see the already made Part 2.

I am tempted to think that when the results of these polls are analysed, it isn't too much of a stretch to see that VDT has really done well, regardless of what has been said on this thread previously. What do other NarniaWeb number crunchers make of these survey results, and their implications for greenlighting SC?

Given the dismal box-office results (approx 375 million worldwide) compared to what it cost to make (155 million not counting promotional and distribution costs) I sadly fear the Franchise is doomed. (Having said that, VotDT is the first movie for Fox in 13 months to crack the $100 million mark).

Although it makes most sense to film The Silver Chair next, I was most looking forward to see to The Magician's Nephew and A Horse and His Boy. As it is, the only way I see the films continuing is if some Wealthy Benefactors who are Narnia fans subsidize the franchise whether it makes a profitable return or not.

The upshot is that I feel very badly that the franchise is mostly likely DOA, making the question of green-lighting Silver Chair moot.

GB

Well, in the chance that VDT spells doom for the Narnia series, I think it may also spell financial doom for Walden. And if Walden wanted to make a comeback, they could finance and produce the movie themselves as a last stake effort.

It's an intriguing idea. And who knows: it make loosen the fetters that bound their time limit and how secularly they transform the story.

Although Walden is a serious movie-making group, they do tend to produce overly sappy family films (see: Ramona & Beezus. It was so sugary, you didn't WANT to see it).

Walden is rebooting Benji. I do not think they can finance or greenlight further Narnia films without some big studio support somewhere. I always wondered why even BBC Films couldn't lend some sort of financial support to these movies. Wonder if they could get a third party to provide additional funding. Or if they couldn't make more films....couldn't they just continue in the TV medium?

I think it would be worth Walden's doing Silver Chair, even at a reduced budget, because they will get the value of following the rest of Eustace's story. The four stories fit together chronologically and thematically.

That will alllow either Walden or someone else to work on Magician's Nephew and Horse and His Boy - which both fall into the 'prequel' category (I know where HHB fits timewise). Last Battle could then be a possibility if those were supported enough. (although if SC produced a lot of support at the box office it could be filmed earlier but released later?)

But there is a need for some better scriptwriters to be employed. And until Walden no longer holds the rights to make the films, they get to choose the writers.(along with the Estate aka Mr Gresham).

For goodness sakes, ditch the current scriptwriters and hire new (good) ones for SC. If there's a great script, everything else will flow from that. It's near impossible to make a terrible script look good (case in point - VDT). They should've learned from their mistakes. Everyone needs to reflect on the experience - what went wrong (most of it) and what went right with the production.

^Amen! If they brought the same script writers back, I would fall into despair. It would be the most depressing anticipation ever.

Well yes that would have to be mandatory. Of course, the movie business is kinda like a family. Nobody wants to ditch a friend who writes their scripts. Supposedly Markus and McFeely know EVERYTHING about Narnia. Didn't really prove it in VDT. It's like they hadn't read the book.

Given the dismal box-office results (approx 375 million worldwide) compared to what it cost to make (155 million not counting promotional and distribution costs) I sadly fear the Franchise is doomed. (Having said that, VotDT is the first movie for Fox in 13 months to crack the $100 million mark).

Although it makes most sense to film The Silver Chair next, I was most looking forward to see to The Magician's Nephew and A Horse and His Boy. As it is, the only way I see the films continuing is if some Wealthy Benefactors who are Narnia fans subsidize the franchise whether it makes a profitable return or not.

The upshot is that I feel very badly that the franchise is mostly likely DOA, making the question of green-lighting Silver Chair moot.

Well, do not despair. A contributor to Official Box Office Numbers called grizzledfish drew our attention to this article, on page 45.

The article on how film studios make money is very interesting in that it shows that the initial box office production is merely the most visible part of a film production's earnings. There are all sorts of spin-offs from a film including what is shown on your inflight tv entertainment as you travel the globe, film rights, pay TV rights, ordinary TV showings, not to mention DVD's and now Blu-ray editions.

I could add my own observations from an Australian POV, in light of my previous post on this thread. Fox, in particular, has been involved in a lot of movies that seemed less successful, including in Australia. These movies include Master and Commander: the far side of the world, a Russell Crowe movie, and Kingdom of Heaven, both films being extraordinarily popular library borrowings despite their original dismal box office returns.

Quite recently, Fox produced Australia, which starred Nicole Kidman, which a lot of people disliked for various reasons. But this is a film which will be enshrined in Australian film history forever after, not only because it deals with real historic events, such as the bombing of Darwin, but also because copyright law states that anything produced in Australia, by Australians, starring Australians, and especially if they have Australian themes have to have a copy lodged in the National Film Archives. And so they will remain around when other films from elsewhere will have bitten the dust.

Regardless of how popular they were originally, films like Australia, Jedda and Rabbit Proof Fence will be mandatory acquisitions for not only school libraries, but also for Australian English literature students, those studying film, Aboriginal studies, or Australian history for a long time to come. When we visited Katherine Gorge in Northern Territory, the tour guide pointed out Jedda's Rock, and the Rabbit Proof fence was a point of interest when we visited Western Australia.

What has all this to do with my previous post? Well, how about analysing the box office of last December and January? VDT was released in Australian 2/12/2010, and earned about $12 mill US. Megamind, which was released here a week later, earned about $15 mill US, whilst the following week, Tron: legacy, which earned $14 mill US was released. The fourth movie on my last post earned $18 mill US. But as I was pointing out, Tron is only just catching up on VDT, currently on $375 mill worldwide, whilst Megamind and the rest are languishing somewhere behind.

Last Christmas film viewing was entirely dominated by the HP phenomenon. Tron, the success story for last Christmas, didn't do much better than VDT, which it is only now passing in Worldwide box office. These were the only three movies which should get sequels according to voters in the associated polls.

And of the four, VDT is the only one that will be regularly stocked in libraries, discussed in English literature and film classes as we are doing here, and be in teaching kits for Religious studies for a long time to come. The same will be true of SC, and so that is why there still is a chance that SC will be greenlighted.