What Directors should make a Narnia film in the future?

[narnianerd]

In my opinion, that might be exactly what Narnia needs. Walden tried to please everyone and lost out. If they had a focus demographic of 13-35 it would probably make a bit more money than it would if the focus demographic wasn't 5-65 age group.

[Narnian_Badger]

Maybe, but, I don't see Gresham ever approving that. Also, Narnia (especially LWW, VDT, and MN) aren't really about action so much as characters (specifically relations between) and restoration. A PG-13 Narnia might just give TPTB excuse to make LOTR 2.0.

[narnianerd]

True, Gresham won't ever allow a PG-13 rating, but one can wish. Right? Also, I think a big part of not being a LOTR 2.0 is not worrying about being a LOTR 2.0 and instead just doing our own thing.

[Narnian_Badger]

Good point, nn. PG-13 might work for some of them, but I really don't think it's necessary for MN, LWW, or VDT. And once they have one movie go up to PG-13, I highly doubt they'd be willing to back down to PG for the next.

[Adeona]

Are there any directors out there who are self-proclaimed Narnia fans?

I wish! But none that I know of. Other than Andrew Adamson, of course.

On the subject of Gary Ross, do you think he'd be good at directing a Narnia movie?

Huh. Well, he does have experience "World building" (Hunger Games) and capturing a period (Seabiscuit). I think, given the feel of his other movies, and how intense they are, I'd like him to direct LB or SC, but not MN or HHB.
Like you've all been saying, though, the important question is: is he a Narnia fan? And we just don't know that, right now.

[Louloudi the Centaur]

Call this strange considering I said this, but I don't really think Gary Ross would be a good idea for Narnia.

Perhaps it was the scriptwriters' fault, but for some reason I just felt the adaptation of THG was both too close to the book and too far from the book, if you know what I mean.

I also felt some important details were left out from the book, and considering how unhappy fans became with PC and VDT... that would not be a good way to start up the series again.

[David West]

I know EXACTLY who I want to see direct a future Narnia film...

Me.

No, seriously, I'm not joking in the slightest here, and I like to think I'm not being entirely delusional. I really am an aspiring writer/director with 4 fairly substantial short films under my belt to date. Below you can watch my most recent, Liberation; A dark, dystopian action film. It was made for a Christian film making competition on a super-rushed schedule (I had 10 days to write a script, and 7 days to shoot and edit it) for less than $800. I'm the writer, director, cinematographer, editor, and I cameo as a prisoner at about the 9:55 mark.

(Warning, contains some PG-13 level violence, but the message at the end is very redemptive.)


It's been my dream to make a Narnia film ever since I was a little kid and I realized how inadequate the BBC adaptations were. Specifically, I want to write and direct The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle... But if you guys ask me REALLY nicely I guess I'd be willing to pull a David Yates and just finish out the last 4 books in the heptology.

I know I'm a nobody right now, but I'm continuing to refine my skills on short films and I'm working on a feature film script for a gritty modern day western about the war on drugs called The Smoking Gun, which I'll hopefully be able to secure a modest 6-figure budget for and get off the ground in the next year or so. So I don't think it's all that crazy to think that I'd be ready to take on a huge project like a Narnia film 4 or 5 years from now. I like to think that the work I've been able to do with absolutely no budget demonstrates that I have what it takes to make it as a major film director. But being a talented director is only half of the equation here, and I can DEFINITELY deliver the goods in spades in the second half of the equation, because I'm a full-bore Narnia fan, AND a serious Christian. And I personally think that Narnia's creative team has been pretty lacking in both of those departments so far.

You will not find a filmmaker (aspiring or established) who is a bigger Narnia fan than me. I grew up with Narnia. It played a HUGE role in shaping my love for stories and storytelling. My mom read the books to me multiple times as a little kid and I've re-read them countless times since. I watched the BBC adaptations and listened to the fantastic Focus on the Family Radio Theater plays dozens of times. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe was my first midnight showing ever, and I saw it 3 more times in the theater after that. I love C.S. Lewis, and I've read his Space Trilogy, The Screwtape Letters, and most of his major non-fiction works. As a kid, I wrote what I now realize would probably be considered Narnia fan fiction, which always revolved around me somehow getting to Narnia. I also used to always check inside my closet, just in case... Even though I knew I'd never find Narnia if I was looking for it.

For those reasons, I feel like I could be Narnia's Peter Jackson; a bona-fide fan with the utmost respect for the source material who is still capable of putting his own unique spin on things. I like the films that have been made so far (well, maybe not Dawn Treader...), but with me, you'd get a Narnia film that isn't dumbed down like VODT and doesn't take major liberties with the source material like PC (or the icy river scene in LWW... Ugh.). At the same time, I think I could avoid making it a safe, by-the-numbers, vanilla adaptation like LWW sometimes comes off as. I'd deliver a Narnia film that puts character and heart first (but it would still deliver GREAT battle scenes because what better way to make a battle scene good than to actually make you care about the people fighting it?). A film that's a little riskier and a little more adult than what's been done so far. A film that fits in with the established tone and aesthetic of the series while moving it towards the darker, more adult places that The Last Battle ends up in. And, perhaps most importantly, I can guarantee you that the Christian themes and theology woven throughout the Narnia mythos would be a drastically stronger presence in my take on the stories than they have been in any of the films to date.

So... What do you guys think? Am I out to lunch here, or could you get behind a Narnia film directed by David Kirk West?

[fantasia]

I wish you luck David West! I think it's cool you're following your dream. I do have a question for you though: in some of the final interviews Douglas Gresham gave after we found out no more Narnia films would be made by Walden, he mentioned that he would like to do any future films via small independent film companies. This of course means a small budget by comparison.
You mention taking on "a huge project like Narnia", but what happens if it turns out to be a small project?

[David West]

Well, one of my big selling points for myself would be that I could do the film far cheaper than anyone else. The fact that Gresham wants to do them independently only makes me a better choice. Partly because as a basically unknown director I'd be extremely cheap upfront, and partly because I'll be coming from a background were I'm used to making films for virtually nothing. Even the feature film I'll have under my belt by the time I start campaigning for this will have been made for under 1 million dollars. Probably significantly less than a million, as I'm really only counting on being able to get $100k for it.

That kind of budget is absolute pocket change compared to even most low-budget indies. And independent films are NOT necessarily cheap. They're certainly not necessarily shoe-string budgets. Cloud Atlas (great film, by the way), for example, was produced totally independently and it had a 102 million dollar budget. And that was a very risky, high-concept, R-Rated sci-fi film with no real brand recognition. It's not hard to think that an independently produce Narnia could secure such a budget.

The thing about Narnia is that even if its done on a relatively low budget, its still going to cost tens of millions of dollars. Even a 50 million dollar budget would be considered very modest for a fantasy film like Narnia, and I don't think it would be particularly hard for the film's producers to secure funding at LEAST on that level. I suspect a budget conscious, possibly independently financed Narnia film would end up with a budget in the 75-100 million range. Dawn Treader's box office was somewhat disappointing domestically, but it did pretty solidly internationally. There may be legitimate concerns that the poorly-received Dawn Treader could hurt the next film's Box Office take a bit, but even still it's probably guaranteed $300M+ internationally. Which might be considered a disappointment for a 150 million dollar film, but for a 75-100 million dollar film would be a fairly healthy haul, which is why I don't see the film having all that much trouble securing that kind of a budget. A very well-received Narnia film - something I'm confident I could deliver - could easily match or best Dawn Treader's 415 million dollar international haul, as well as its 30 million-ish in DVD and BluRay sales.

My point is - and I know I took a long time getting here - is that even a modestly budgeted Narnia film is going to be a "huge project." ESPECIALLY for a guy like me coming from the world of zero and micro budget film making. If Douglas Gresham wants to do a mid-budget, independently financed, soft re-boot of the Narnia franchise, what better place to start than The Horse and His Boy?? It could be done cheaper than any other Narnia Films due to the setting and somewhat more limited scope of the story, it features beloved characters from the most successful film in the franchise in fairly major roles, but it's different and unique enough that you can treat it almost like a re-boot and get the series back on track. And who better to adapt Douglas Gresham's personal favorite Narnia book (it's dedicated to him and his brother) and take the series in an exciting new direction than a daring independent filmmaker who is also rabid Narnia fan that loves The Horse and His Boy above all?

[Nic5]

What are your favorite films, particularly fantasy film David?

My first choice for a non Horse & His Boy film (Adamson my choice for that) is:

Night Shyamalan - The Last Airbender is a really well crafted and put together fantasy film. The problems it had with audience wouldn't be the same with Shyamalan doing a Narnia film cause there is a better understanding of fantasy story in the Narnia market.

Peter Hogan - he has done a really good Peter Pan film. he did a great creepy scene with mermaids in that film, the kind of tone that could be expanded upon for a really cool Silver Chair film.

[David West]

My favorite films - and fantasy films - are still the Lord of the Rings films. But that's just a bit to obvious, so I'll say that Ink is my favorite fantasy film. It's a fantastic, ultra-low-budget indie film that is very moving and highly original. I'd also put money on the director, Jamin Winans, being a Christian. He'd actually be my first pick to direct The Magician's Nephew, for reasons that will be obvious if you ever watch the film, I think he could do a great job handling the more surreal concepts in that film like the wood between the worlds.

Some of my other favorite films are Serenity (as well as Firefly, the show that started it all!), Into the Wild, Leon: The Professional, Terminator 2, Die Hard, V for Vendetta, Once Upon a Time in the West, Raiders of the Lost Ark, No Country for Old Men, Red Dawn (I'm a sucker for anything apocalyptic or survivalistic), Almost Famous, and countless more.

A few more fantasy films that I absolutely love are How to Train Your Dragon, The Princess Bride, and The Neverending Story.

I've gotta say, Nic... I'm going to have to vehemently disagree with your choice of Shyamalan. I think there'd be a fan revolt if he was selected. I was never a huge fan of his. I liked Unbreakable, but thought The Sixth Sense was incredibly overrated and Signs was just OK. But his last few films have been AWFUL. The Happening was abysmal, and from what I've heard After Earth was pretty bad too.

I never watched The Last Airbender either, but I know a few people who are HUGE fans of the show and I've watched some pretty in-depth breakdowns of the film, and it seems like not only is it a terrible film, but it utterly disrespects the source material. You're one of the very few people I've ever heard claim to like it. So all indications seem to be that Shyamalan would not do Narnia justice.

[mm1991]

By now, I think a lot of people are.....weary?...of M. Night as he now has a bit of a reputation so-to-speak. So I think that would actually steer away audiences from future Narnia films if he directed them.

I think I stated this somewhere before but I reiterate: Alfonso Curon would be a fantastic pick, as would Guillermo Del Torro. I'd add in though a good pick for cinematographer (without worrying about comparisons to other films) like Andrew Lesnie; Guillermo Navarro would be awesome; Michael Seresin.

[Nic5]

.....

I never watched The Last Airbender either, but I know a few people who are HUGE fans of the show and I've watched some pretty in-depth breakdowns of the film, and it seems like not only is it a terrible film, but it utterly disrespects the source material. You're one of the very few people I've ever heard claim to like it. So all indications seem to be that Shyamalan would not do Narnia justice.

This is my point of thinking that the Narnia film market is different to that which went off the deep end about The Last Airbender film. The majority of Narnia fans, are not gonna be about watching postings online saying how bad something is with more interest in this than the film itself.

The Last Airbender film was a kinda asian 'star wars' mythology story, it is very popular in Asian demographics as well as the less catered to fantasy myth western segments of audience demographics. Shyamalan in fairy tale fantasy mode, would deliver a very well put together Narnia mythical tale with a definite vision. That is all. It's just what you like at the end of it. I havn't seen any films of my two Director picks above apart from the two listed i think also so hmmmmm.... Anyhow a Shyamalan Narnia entry would require an open mind stylistically & that would interest me, is what i would like the most i guess in Narnia film versions. It's all objective, my fav. middle earth film thus far is the first Hobbit: AUJ for example.

[Eustace]

Personally, I'd rather see Adamson become the director than any other director out there. But, if we are not just picking from directors, instead just people who are necessarily are directors but would do a good job, I'd like to see a Narniawebber get the job.

[David West]

Out of curiosity... Why Adamson? He did a decent Job with the first two films, but at the end of the day their direction is fairly vanilla. I love them to death, but I'm the first one to admit that it's largely because of my love for the books. As movies... They're pretty good, but they take no real risks and they don't have a particularly memorable style. I just don't view Andrew Adamson as a particularly great director. He's serviceable, but nothing more.

A bigger issue that I have with Adamson is that in an interview he once said, "I didn’t really think a lot about the religious aspect. I know C. S. Lewis never really intended it to be allegory, but he definitely wrote from a place of his own belief, and a lot of people get that from the book… People can interpret the movie the same way, they can apply their personal belief and interpret the movie the same way they interpret the book."

Statements like that lead me to believe that Adamson doesn't have enough respect for the books to truly do Narnia justice and that he isn't all that big a fan of them. It's doubtful that his version of the silver chair would be a VODT-level disaster, but it would still just be a perfunctory adaptation that lacks the emotional and thematic depth of the books. What Narnia REALLY needs is a Peter Jackson-esque auteur; Someone with a strong, discernible style and a slavish devotion to the source material. I'm NOT saying the films need to be LOTR-lite (which is basically what Adamson has tried to do...), I'm saying that whoever helms the project NEEDS to be a hard-core fan of the books who is utterly devoted to bringing them to the big screen. The LOTR movies were Jackson's baby from the get go. He is the one who initially convinced the studios to make the film at all, whereas Adamson strikes me as something of a mercenary director.

I want whoever makes the next Narnia film to be a full-bore fan of the books, have the guts to fight to keep the film's religious overtones intact (hopefully the producers will side with him...), keep a strong focus on character development, and take the franchise in a somewhat darker direction.

[icarus]

Out of curiosity... Why Adamson?... I just don't view Andrew Adamson as a particularly great director. He's serviceable, but nothing more.

"Better the devil you know"?

To be honest, a few years back I'd of scoffed at the choice of bringing back Andrew Adamson too, since as you say he is honestly not a "great" director, but with everything that's gone on since, and given the uncertainty of where we are now, i'd take Andrew Adamson as a safe pair of hands any day of the week.

If I were Mark Gordon i'd be on the phone to him straight away. Andrew's career sadly hasn't really gone anywhere since Narnia, so i'm sure he'd jump at the chance to come back.