Joe Johnston has been picked to help bring the moribund Chronicles Of Narnia film franchise back to life. The Captain America: The First Avenger director will be helming the fourth installment in the series of film’s adapting British fantasist C. S. Lewis’s classic The Chronicles Of Narnia series of books titled The Silver Chair.
David Magee, who adapted the books Life of Pi and Finding Neverland for the big screen has been tapped for scripting detail here.
The Chronicles Of Narnia literary franchise was brought to the big screen back in 2005 with the first book in the series The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe as part of the first big wave of films based off of fantasy literary properties that came in the wake of the success of Peter Jackson’s The Lord Of The Rings adaption. (Trivia – Lewis and Rings author J. R. R. Tolkien were friends and often crtiques each other’s work as it was being written.) The first film’s success spawned two sequels – 2008’s Prince Caspian and 2010’s The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader – before sputtering out.
The Silver Chair takes place years after the events of Dawn Treader with Prince Caspian now ruling as King. When Caspian’s son goes missing, Aslan the Lion sends Eustace Scrubb and his friend Jill Pope to search for the missing monarch.
Previously Ben Barnes played Caspian in Prince Caspian and The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader and The Revenant co-star Will Poulter played Eustace in Dawn Treader while Liam Neeson has voiced Aslan the Lion throughout the franchise.
Honestly, I am surprised that they are going back to the well again for this franchise. The film did reasonably well at the box office, pulling in $415 million against a $155 million budget. But it never seemed like a franchise that people talked about or questioned when the next installment was due. And seven years is a long time to go between installments, when any enthusiasm for the franchise could very easily dissipate. It’s the same question that confronts James Cameron’s Avatar sequels – Does anyone really care after all this time?
No release date has been set for The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Silver Chair.
Via Hollywood Reporter.
