^ Hi Timmy. Thanks for listening! Good to see you in the forum

They make no money and there are no follow up movies.

The world has changed a lot since The Wizard of Oz (1939) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). It is much easier for lower-budget content to find an niche audience. District 9 (2008) only made $200m worldwide at the box office, but that was okay because it's production budget was only $30m. And take a look at the success of Netflix's original content. I would like to see lower budget Narnia films produced that are targeted at a specific audience rather than a mass audience. Not everyone likes the books so we should not expect everyone in the world and their dog to like faithful adaptations.

But let me be clear: My first concern is for good movies and faithful adaptations. If they turn another Narnia book into a a generic blockbuster, I hope it fails at the box office. This movie may be the only exposure to C.S. Lewis many people ever get. So, why would I want them to walk away with the impression that Narnia is another children's fantasy franchise to throw on the pile? I would prefer the movie not be made at all.

Glumpuddle mentioned that he would like to see the SC down like "2001 a Space Odyssey".

To clarify: In the podcast, Dot asked me for an example of a great movie so I mentioned 2001: A Space Odyssey because it's my favorite. I'm not necessarily saying The Silver Chair should be done in a similar style.

2001 was a cult movie, which might be ok in its self, but they are often considered jokes.

2001 is considered one of the greatest and most influential science-fiction films of all-time.

See you around the forum, Timmy!

Glumpuddle, Once again I love your podcasts. I gave the example to The Wizard of Oz to make the point that yes a cult move can be a great movie and very popular. I can name a bunch of popular cult movies. but most of them only reach as you said a niche audience. I liked 2001 and remember it coming out in 1968 (I was 10), but even I knew most of the audience watching it in the theater was smoking pot. Like the other members of the podcast, I want all the books made into a movie just so that it can be said that it was done. CS Lewis deserves to have his Narnia books put on the big screen. I still hope his Space Trilogy and Screwtape Letters make the big screen too. I can name other cult movies that were jokes (The Dark Crystal, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, and Howard the Duck) as most were. Cult movies are great in themselves and can be popular but only to a small audience. I want these movies to show people who CS Lewis was, and not just make geeky Narnia fans happy.

Now I agree with you that character development is is important in a movie made about SC. Getting to know Jill and Puddleglum is critical. You said the book was about "follow in the signs". That is like saying The Wizard of Oz was about "following the yellow brick road". The book is about Jill and how she overcomes her fears and preconceptions. Aslan has a reason not to think much of her at the beginning. As in the Wizard of Oz, is Dorothy happy with her life with Auntie Em and Uncle Henry or will she always chase rainbows. While in Oz she learns that all loves about Oz is in Kansas. The thing about Jill is that she doesn't trust anyone but herself. The fact that she was bullied give you a reason why she doesn't trust others. The signs teaches her about trust. But just to say that the book and the movie is about following signs is to make the movie into just a road-trip movie. Why is Jill in Narnia is the question, to follow signs, or how a bullied girl learned to trust.

Now I agree with you, I don't want a PBS made for TV movie on bullying. I want to see the owls , the giants, the Underworld, and learn about faith from Puddleglum. Keep up the good work Glumpuddle.

I want all the books made into a movie just so that it can be said that it was done. CS Lewis deserves to have his Narnia books put on the big screen.

Here's where we differ. I only want Narnia movies if they're good. Why would I want to be able to say "they made bad Narnia movies"? The books are perfect just the way they are. They don't need movies. Nothing is missing. C.S. Lewis deserves to have his books treated with reverence, not gobbled up and distorted into generic Hollywood blockbusters. If they're going to make them into movies, they should be movies that attempt to live up to the high bar the books set.

You said the book was about "follow in the signs". That is like saying The Wizard of Oz was about "following the yellow brick road".

I don't think that's a valid comparison. Those two expressions just so happen to have the word "follow" in them. "Follow the yellow brick road" is just a means to an end; it's one small thing in the story. The plot moves beyond that. Whereas in The Silver Chair, following and trusting the signs defines the both the story and the characters. The signs are given right at the beginning, and the struggle to remember and follow them is the central drama in the story.

Aslan tells Jill right at the beginning, "But, first, remember, remember, remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from following the signs." All the challenges the characters face in the story stem from their failure to follow the signs.

They m**f the first one, which forces them to seek help from the owls and Puddleglum. The Lady of the Green Kirtle distracts them from following the signs by planting thoughts of hot baths and meals. "Bother the signs!" Jill says. They become trapped at Harfang because they don't recognize the third sign as they're climbing over it. In a dream: The Lion told her to repeat the signs, and she found that she had forgotten them all. At that, a great horror came over her. They realize that in order to get back on track and follow the signs again, they must escape Harfang and search underground. In the darkness of Underland, Puddleglum tries to cheer them up by reminding them they are following Aslan's signs. Perhaps the lowest moment for the characters is when the prince suggests that the writing they found has nothing at all to do with Aslan's signs. Finally, in a climactic moment for the story, the characters must decide if they will trust Aslan's signs and free a raving lunatic from the silver chair... Puddleglum says, "Aslan didn’t tell Pole what would happen. He only told her what to do. That fellow will be the death of us once he’s up, I shouldn’t wonder. But that doesn’t let us off following the sign."

Trusting and following the signs is the most foundational part of the story.

They m**f the first one, which forces them to seek help from the owls and Puddleglum. The Lady of the Green Kirtle distracts them from following the signs by planting thoughts of hot baths and meals. "Bother the signs!" Jill says. They become trapped at Harfang because they don't recognize the third sign as they're climbing over it. In a dream: The Lion told her to repeat the signs, and she found that she had forgotten them all. At that, a great horror came over her. They realize that in order to get back on track and follow the signs again, they must escape Harfang and search underground.

Quite so. Jill has indeed been given the signs and yes they are very important. But what if Eustace had been less snarky at the beginning, had listened to Jill immediately to entertain the possibility that there was indeed an old friend whom he ought to remember pronto? What would have happened then if he had remembered that very old friend? Caspian would have probably sent a well-equipped army with Eustace and Jill. Not only would the story be different, but they might not have done any better and the story of their adventures would have been ruined. And then I would have agreed with your arguments that the SC we know and love, filmed with such a storyline, wouldn't be worth watching. Because, even if they don't realise it, why they need to see Caspian at all, as directed in the first sign, is to help him recover his son, Rilian, something even a grumpy Eustace would be happy to do. They need to stop Caspian going anywhere, and they need to cheer him up no doubt. It doesn't change the signs at all, nor does it alter the reason why they have to learn those signs.

But not missing Caspian alters the story we have, quite considerably. And I agree we need the film to stick to the story we have, which is still about the importance of the signs but also includes all the stuff-ups and how they learned to persevere with their orders, anyway.

Yes, they were expected to follow the signs and expected to persevere with following the signs, despite their self-inflicted mistakes, which they did. Think of having to remember the directions to any place you can think of? You have to recognise someone who will give you good help but you miss them by seconds, when they depart for elsewhere. Then someone called Glimfeather behaves like an idealistic Girl guide, takes you to the powers that be, then to their brownie pack meeting, and then escorts you to someone they know who might be amenable to helping you, plus giving you exactly the background information you need, to explain what the situation is, which specifies that you go north. You aren't forced to take that help, anymore than Glimfeather feels obliged to go north with you. But mere gratitude, and sheer common sense makes it unlikely you will refuse what good help you are given. And without that help from "someone" called..um.. Puddleglum? Oops, Glumpuddle, you will be up the creek without a paddle, or the Shribble, without a ford. As we say.

Jill, Eustace & Puddleglum went north as directed, past rock-throwing giants, who, when one of them saw them, merely laughed. Would that giant have been so amused if there was an army accompanying Jill and Eustace? But then, after crossing rough terrain, Jill and friends find a bridge where they meet LOTGK. And a knight in black armour. They are already forgetting those signs, and in particular why they have to follow the signs, otherwise Jill and Eustace might have remembered their discussion with the owls who agreed with Jill, when she said she thought the lady Drinian saw might be the same as the snake. Especially as both that lady and the one they see at the Bridge seem to be wearing green. But, hey, green might be the fashion statement in those northern parts.

But, then again, if Jill had not let herself be distracted by even meeting these passers-by in their fancy rigouts, lovely horses, and LOTGK's dulcet tones, forgetting that Drinian's evil lady also was wearing green, would there also have been a different story to the one we have? And so it goes. You can go on a trip all you like, following any number of signs, remembering them meticulously. But if you still stray, looking for accommodation or get weather bound you might still forget why you are going on that trip. You might give up, be waylaid, or remain in prison. As they nearly were at several points. Fortunately, Jill had that dream, they were able to see from Harfang's window the information in the Ruined City they might not have noticed the night before, and, having taken that advice they also remembered the fourth sign which was all about Rilian.

And reaching that last hurdle, dutifully following the signs, was just as arduous, dangerous, dramatic, or more so, as anything that went beforehand. Especially given the predicament Rilian was in and that LOTGK, was just the sort of bullying "control freak" who left very little to chance, to realise her plans to take over Narnia, using Rilian as her puppet. I really hate to disagree with you, Glumpuddle, but Hannah Minghella, as the "mere" President of a firm marketing films, might not be so far off when she outlined what she knew of SC in one sentence which describes Jill as a bullied girl who learns to stand up for herself. Thanks to Aslan, Puddleglum, Eustace and her perseverance in her mission to free Rilian from LOTGK's prison-like domain in "Underland".

Hi TimmyofOz, I really did get what you were saying about the Wizard of Oz, which I first saw in a home in Spring of 1952, before I started school in January 1953. But the Wizard of Oz resonated for many more reasons over time whether or not it was a considered a cult movie. Mainly, it was just so applicable to a land Down Under where the inhabitants are in the habit of shortening everything under the sun, from biscuits to the name of their land. Which is why we call it Oz, and ourselves Aussies. And why at least one Prime Minister was called the Lizard of Oz, and why a state premier was inevitably called "the Wicked Witch of the West". Sydney is of course Emerald City, and its main link to the hinterland, started after 1813 to much hoopla, has at one time or other been called the Yellow Brick Road, until the current makeover was finished after its beginnings sometime before 2013.

So, we haven't had any Silver Chair news in six months now. And while I'm not really worried about that, (I assume part of the reason for this news drought is cause Joe Johnston was busy with the Nutcracker and The Four Realms reshoots.)

But I do think it's a little odd that we haven't heard anything of any kind, especially since we're quickly approaching the time when Johnston estimated prep would begin. Makes me wonder if maybe plans have changed.

So, we haven't had any Silver Chair news in six months now. And while I'm not really worried about that, I assume part of the reason for this news drought is cause Joe Johnston was busy with the Nutcracker and The Four Realms reshoots.

But I do think it's a little odd that we haven't heard anything of any kind, especially since we're quickly approaching the time when Johnston estimated prep would begin. Makes me wonder if maybe plans have changed.

I’m also skeptical about whether filming will start this winter. I just expect that there would be casting announcements by now if that were the case. And this isn’t the first time they’ve missed a deadline to start filming. I guess I’ll accept a Narnia film will be made once they actually start filming, or at least select a cast.

What does everyone else think?

I really hope they make Silver Chair. It is my favourite in the series. Why are there so many delays, do you think? Is it a sign they are reluctant to make the film?

Why are there so many delays, do you think? Is it a sign they are reluctant to make the film?

Welcome to Narniaweb JillPoleFriend!

I wouldn't say Silver Chair has been delayed. Last we heard from director Joe Johnston he said that they planed to start pre-production in July and start filming this winter. It's still only May so that could easy still be the plan, it's just that the lack of news over the past few months has me wondering if that's still the case, we just have to wait and see.