That's a very cheering point Wagga . Maybe I am despairing too soon. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

GB

Yes, we will have to wait and see. Venezuela's release of VDT has been put back I hear and Japan's release will be next week, so VDT's run isn't finished yet. And then there are the DVD sales already being discussed.

In the latest NarniaWeb news, it has been reported that an agreement has been reached between Fox, Walden and Disney so that the three Narnia movies to date can be sold in the one trilogy package. Legally this would take some doing, if Disney retains the first two as its property.

It also paves the way for other co-operation between the three film companies in producing other Narnia films, and in the series' unity, should footage from the first two be needed.

All this in my opinion does have momentous implications for greenlighting SC.

If there is an announcement concerning this, whether it be greenlighting or cancellation, when do you all think that will happen?

Yes, we will have to wait and see. Venezuela's release of VDT has been put back I hear and Japan's release will be next week, so VDT's run isn't finished yet. And then there are the DVD sales already being discussed.

In the latest NarniaWeb news, it has been reported that an agreement has been reached between Fox, Walden and Disney so that the three Narnia movies to date can be sold in the one trilogy package. Legally this would take some doing, if Disney retains the first two as its property.

It also paves the way for other co-operation between the three film companies in producing other Narnia films, and in the series' unity, should footage from the first two be needed.

All this in my opinion does have momentous implications for greenlighting SC.

You're really cheering me up Wagga . I was getting quite distraught, but you make some great points. DVD sales + the initial gross could be enough to inspire the relevant studios (whoever they end up being) to continue the series. It's not like a few hundred million to begin with + potential sales and TV licensing residuals is anything to sneeze at.

GB

I think they'll announce the greenlighting until after the last country the movie will be shown in has played on all the screens after it's three weeks. I know they had to of been working on the concepts, storyboard, script for Silver Chair by now.

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

DOA? As in Dead on Arrival? Given that the "arrival" was LWW I think that term hardly applies here, or are you using DOA as an acronym for something else?

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.

Thematically, there is no continuous thread to the series. Rather there are multiple threads that move from foreground to background in the different books, without any sort of narrative transition. I wouldn't say that VDT has any stronger a thematic link to SC, which develops the themes touched on in Dark Island, than it does to HHB, which develops the themes of pride and self-importance addressed at various times throughout VDT.

I think they should do SC or HHB next. Both movies have the advantage that their plot and character development could be readily translated into a film script. I think you could turn either of those books into an excellent movie with relatively little modification from the books, a bit of trimming here, a bit of fleshing out there, like they did with LWW. However, just because a movie is great, doesn't mean it is easy to market. HHB has a brighter tone, a simpler, easy-to-understand theme, and it features the return of the Pevensies and Tumnus. I think HHB could rejuvenate America's excitement about the series.

Once people are hooked on Narnia again, they can return to the story of Eustace. I think this will actually work better than doing SC next, if they keep Will P as Eustace. He's been through a major growth spurt since filming VDT. He now has facial hair, adult height, and an adult jaw line; basically, he looks like a completely different person. If they return to his story line after a break, they can give the opening a "where are they now?" feel, like the audience is catching up with an old friend. The passage of time could actually be a benefit. They can have Jill be a new girl at Experiment House, picked on by the local mean girls. She remembers Eustace as her bratty, bossy neighbour from when her family was living in Cambridge, several years before (explaining the line at the end of VDT), but he explains that he's changed since then, and reminds her of times that he's stood up to the bullies, even under torture, since her arrival at Experiment House. They will have to mature the characters so that their behaviors are more teenaged, rather than the little kids that they are in the books, which may result in some complaints from book purists, but I think it could work.

Granted, they might decide to replace Will P with someone who looks more like Eustace's age in the VDT movie, in which case they would stick to the timeline from the books, where SC happens only a couple months after VDT. In that case, they should probably film SC next, because a really long break between events that take place only months apart might be jarring.

If they greenlight HHB first over SC....considering how long they take to make these movies....Will P will be way past the window of looking even believable for his teens....he probably has better chances of scraping by as a teen appearance-wise in the next two years...

I'm guessing what's gonna happen is either they'll just greenlight SC or they'll greenlight SC and HHB. Possibly, although I'm starting to think it's less likely they will greenlight SC and MN...

Only time will tell...

Anhun, I really like your idea about a "where are they now?" feel. That story line sounds great and i like the idea that more than a few months has passed.

I'd really like to see silver chair next though because it my fave, but with your idea, i think that a gap with HHB could work!

I am also curious with it. Now, I'd like to see the silver chair too. It seems interesting; I can't wait to see it as soon as possible.

Anhun
I'd really like to see silver chair next though because it my fave, but with your idea, i think that a gap with HHB could work!

I'm curious, Charlotte, did you like the BBC Silver Chair? That's actually one of the two reasons why I'm not chomping at the bit to see SC next. I feel we already have a wonderful film version of that, whereas we don't have any film version of the other 3.

Mmm true...
I did like the BBC silver chair, the story was adapted well and the casting was great, but I'd love to see a new Silver chair because it would have a larger budget so the effects would be better (I'm not one of there effects-a-holics who just wants a film full of explosions but i'm a fan of the other new films effects) and I'm concerned that if they leave a gap to large then they might not decide to make SC at all
I really want all the books made it to films but I don't know whether that will happen and as I said before, SC is my fave so I'd love that to be released, but I know exactly what you mean...and some people are probably feeling the same way about making HHB, MN and LB (But you need SC for LB really), if one of those is your favourite CoN book then you are going to want others made instead of SC.
Really, whatever gets released next will make me happy becasue it will give more hope to my 'make all of them!' wish, but i'd like to see...yeah I'm not gonna say it a third time...

Sorry for the paragraph rant!

I am really hoping for SC next. I definitely don't want Will Poulter to be replaced, and althought I would love to see an adaptation, I dont necessarily think non-fans of the series would be as eager to see a HHB adaptation as compared to the other books. I think that, judging from the relatively-low reviewed Prince of Persia, it's safe to say that at this point in time, a SC adaptation is the best way to go.

That being said, I feel like the production company wants to make MN really bad. I crave a MN adaptation, but i do not, however, want this to come before SC, because, once again, I dont want Will Poulter to be replaced. Currently my feelings are as such: SC, MN, HHB, LB

Yes, I agree with you, Trufflehunter, that the production company definitely wants MN to be made. And the order you mention certainly looks to be the order in which the films will be made, if they are made at all.

Anhun
I'd really like to see silver chair next though because it my fave, but with your idea, i think that a gap with HHB could work!

I'm curious, Charlotte, did you like the BBC Silver Chair? That's actually one of the two reasons why I'm not chomping at the bit to see SC next. I feel we already have a wonderful film version of that, whereas we don't have any film version of the other 3.

No I don't agree a gap with HHB would work, despite our, or rather, your marvellous ideas here. Possibly a gap with MN just might work, which is why Douglas Gresham and others kept saying that there was some uncertainty about which movie should be made next. It certainly suggests they are interested in filming MN, which is all to the good.

Frankly the overwhelming choice online would have to be SC. I agree the BBC production of this film was really good, despite the lamentable choice of the PC Caspian rather than the VDT Caspian for a resurrected Caspian, the ridiculous snake being killed in Underworld, the clunky special effects and the challenge, even in BBC SC of incorporating what Michael Apted referred to as 'a lot of things happened', ie the backstory of Caspian, Lilliandil, LOTGK and Rilian.

I also agree that BBC PC was pathetic, a reason why the Disney PC did relatively well by comparison. BBC VDT was a rather better production than BBC PC, and with a much more effective Caspian, but suffered by being coupled with BBC PC, especially once the DVD edition came out. Nevertheless, Samuel West as King Caspian was a long way better than the kid who played Caspian in PC, and there are some on NarniaWeb who consider the BBC production of VDT is in some ways preferable to that of the Walden film VDT. This bodes ill for film SC, in my opinion, as BBC SC definitely was the best of the four Narnia books adapted.

However, much as I agree that SC already has a good production, I still want to see what sort of film Walden and Fox can do in competition with BBC. Providing I live that long, I don't want to spend my declining years, watching up to six Walden/Fox/whatever films of the remaining Narnia films, with a hiatus for SC because BBC made it in a better than average TV production, and because Walden/Fox wimped out on that particular movie. Try watching the movies now with BBC SC at the end and see if you would agree.

And I also agree that SC could be the turning point of the series. After SC was when BBC wimped out.