You won't be hearing the Chronic-WHAT?-cles of Narnia at the Mouse House any more.
The Hollywood Reporter is reporting (clunky sentence, sorry) that Disney has decided not to pick up the option to get involved with "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader", the third film in the series. The reasons are "budgetary and logistical", which sounds to me like code for, "the other films didn't make enough money and producing them was annoying, so why should do it again?" "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe", the first film in the series, grossed $745 million worldwide, whereas "Prince Caspian" took in "just $419 million," according to the Reporter. That still sounds like a lot of cabbage to me, but it's a big drop-off, and may not be enough to make risking more cash on a third film worthwhile.
Although I enjoyed the books when I was younger, and my son is starting to read them now, we haven't seen either movie yet. They didn't have that "must-see" effect on my kids that the Harry Potter films or "Iron Man" had. In fact, my son has expressed more interest in seeing a DVD-only release, "The Next Avengers", then he has in "Lion" or "Caspian."
Interestingly, "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" was scheduled for a May 2010 release, so talent was attached, plans were made, people had eaten a cheesecake and taken a nap, etc. (Random reference for you on Christmas Eve – don't say I never gave you anything.) Walden Media, which owns the rights to the C.S. Lewis stories, will shop around to try and find another partner for "Treader", but these flicks don't come cheap -- $180 million for "Lion", $200 million for "Caspian". With shrinking profits and a crummy economy, it will be interesting to see if another studio jumps in for "Treader."
Source: Hollywood Reporter via Reuters
Image: Amazon
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