SC next? Independantly? Seven years?

[Glumpuddle]

After all the drama surrounding MN, it looks like SC will be next after all. And Gresham wants to do it independently in order to keep more control over the screenplays.

http://www.narniaweb.com/2012/05/gresha ... rnia-film/

It has been suggested before that if you are going to make a low-budget Narnia film, SC is probably your best bet. I think that is Gresham's reasoning.

He's also saying it's a seven-year moratorium. But in October, he said he hoped to be able to start production in "three or four years time." Putting all this together... maybe it's okay if they start filming a movie during the moratorium as long as they don't release it until it ends?

[wolfloversk]

News ahoy!

I wish the moratorium was shorter, but I'd wait 7 years for it so long as it's good...

I like the independent film idea

[Reepicheep775]

Wow, news at last! I certainly wasn't holding my breath, but it's still good to hear something.

On The Silver Chair:
Good! SC is one of my favourites in the series and I'm happy to see they aren't skipping it. Money is definitely not the motivation if they go through with this idea.

Independent studio:
Huge up and down side to this. Of course, the upside is that the story will remain closer to what Lewis wrote, but the downside is the lower budget. SC doesn't seem like it would need a huge budget though as there's a relatively small cast of characters (and no armies - unless the earthmen count) and not many elaborate sets. A small budget doesn't have to be a bad thing though and I've seen plenty of good movies made with small budgets. Of the two I'd rather see an independent Narnia film with a small budget than another big-name studio Narnia film with a generous budget.

Seven years:
Dang, that's long. Hopefully glumPuddle is right and they can still work on the movie, but just not release it until they are allowed. It would be a tough waiting period otherwise.

Andrew Adamson:
I'd rather he come back, then we get a new director. We've seen what Adamson can do and I'm satisfied with it. His movies could be better, but another director would be a shot in the dark. Could be good, could be bad.

[Louloudi the Centaur]

*Minor Edit* Look at the news story posted exactly a year ago today. Thought it was almost a little ironic. http://www.narniaweb.com/2011/05/silver ... ssibility/

While I just read the article less than 10 minutes ago, I still have several thoughts with some shock, but in a good way.

Okay, the biggest part: A seven year wait. As obvious as said, that's longer than we thought. On the downside, some of us will be adults in college or out of college by then, and seven is definitely longer than three. Then again, box office wise, the new main teen film franchise The Hunger Games, for example, will likely be done.

Gresham says he wants The Silver Chair made next, providing the proof the Estate wanted what Walden Media didn't want to do. SC is not my favorite book, but it is what many other fans and myself wanted done next, in spite of Poulter now having zero chance of returning.

Hark, hark, will we finally have a well done adapted [itl] and [/itl] well done film series? Which leads into something that makes me a little nervous, but a little hopeful...

Douglas Gresham wants to make the Narnia films done independently. The first words that came to my mind were , "Great. Low budget, cheesy BBC Narnia all over again."

Maybe the budget wouldn't be The Avengers or even Harry Potter sized. That doesn't mean the visuals would look cheesy though. CGI is becoming cheaper as time goes on, I believe. But visuals isn't my full concern. I'm just worried the films would be too close to the book. If that happens, the film just becomes boring.

Okay, all of this is assuming this will happen, and is happening (the seven year wait).

In the meanwhile, seven is the lucky number for Narnia fans. Seven books, seven year wait. Seven is our magic number for waiting.

Well, time to keep reading the books.

[Glumpuddle]

On The Silver Chair:
[...] Money is definitely not the motivation if they go through with this idea.

I don't know about that. If there is one Narnia book you could do justice on a tight budget, it's probably SC. And if Gresham makes the film independently, the budget will be tight. I suspect that is a big factor.

[wolfloversk]

Agreed on the CGI aspect... If we're waiting 7 years LWW-style cgi may become the norm for low budget films... though by then we'll probably all be used to something more high tech... Hah then we can complain to the next generation how all out movies used to be made like the Narnia ones... /ramble

Definitely glad to here something.

[Reepicheep775]

On The Silver Chair:
[...] Money is definitely not the motivation if they go through with this idea.

I don't know about that. If there is one Narnia book you could do justice on a tight budget, it's probably SC. And if Gresham makes the film independently, the budget will be tight. I suspect that is a big factor.

That's true. The Magician's Nephew especially would require a significant budget to not look super cheesy.

[Rilian The Disenchanted]

I think shooting the film and then waiting years to release it because of the moratorium is out of question. When you spend huge amounts of money, you can't wait years to get profits back. Investers would never give you their money on these terms.
It will be interesting to see how the next Narnia movie will look like.
Independantly, does that mean that Gresham is going to set up a new, small studio of his own, or just that he's looking for a small studio beside the big Hollywood companies?
I'm wondering if Narnia could be released as mini-series, Tv shows can have big budgets as well, like Rome, Game Of Thrones, Band Of Brothers.
And the Narnia brand is pretty well established, it woud definitely get decent tv-ratings.

[Glumpuddle]

I think shooting the film and then waiting years to release it because of the moratorium is out of question. When you spend huge amounts of money, you can't wait years to get profits back. Investers would never give you their money on these terms.

In October, Gresham said he hoped to start in "three or four years time." If they started pre-production in 2016, they could shoot in 2017, and have post-production in 2018 when the moratorium is over. That's pretty much the average length of a film production. Investors would not be stuck waiting.

*Minor Edit* Look at the news story posted exactly a year ago today. Thought it was almost a little ironic. http://www.narniaweb.com/2011/05/silver ... ssibility/\

That is awesome! Nice catch, haha! Well, now NarniaWebbers know that May 24 is the date to watch.

I believe May 24 was also the day I officially became a news poster, haha.

[filmaddict86]

This definitely is a long wait for Narnia fans. Though I must admit, after Dawn Treader I would prefer to walk away from Walden Media myself. I was highly disappointed in that film, and not just from an adaptation standpoint, from a quality film as well. There were too many flaws ... everywhere. I can't say who most of the problems fell on since I wasn't there, but I have a feeling there was a mix of the studio and the director. But I could be wrong.

The problem with the moratorium is that is probably how long until anyone is even allowed to begin any kind of work on another film, meaning Walden Media probably still owns rights until then. Some people have been saying they will be almost or out of college by then ... I was in college when the first one came out. It won't be that bad. True, people will move from college and on to other jobs, etc., but at least most of them won't include the option of being deployed and not allowing you to see the movies. So it will be okay.

What people also don't realize about independently producing the films is that there is also a lot of up and coming talent these days. Gresham would just need to find the right director, a director with a passion for the Narnia story and a feel for fantasy story. Not every director is suited for that genre and I feel that Apted was one of them (not that he is a bad director just was ill suited for a Narnia film). But if Gresham has enough money it could work well. And what I personally have been so disappointed in is how it seems so necessary to make everything CGI. That is actually part of what costs so much money. CGI is far more expensive then created things like prosthetic.

And I'm sure that if Gresham decides to take the independent route that he will ensure he picks a director truly fit for the job.

[King_Erlian]

I'm 48 now, so at this rate, by the time we finally get to The Last Battle, I'll have died of old age...

[Bookwyrm]

The indie film thing kind of terrifies me. Visions of an adaptation similar to those wretched Asylum movies that SyFy Channel loves so dearly. Or perhaps a really terrible, cliche-ridden Christian production a la Courageous, etc. But it's not like a bigger name studio has actually done that great a job anyway.

[Eustace]

Independently? It could be quite a good idea. I have seen very well done independent movies : Mandie series first two movies, (they even got famous actors and actresses in the second film. Plus, they had a lot of special effects on that train that looked awesome.)

But I have also seen really badly done films independently, (The Sugar Creek Gang) (even when they just tried to follow the books their lines felt so forced and most of the kids were terrible actors except Lexi Johnson and a couple others.)

Seven years is a long time but, then I will be out of college and may have more time to do a Lion Party while waiting in line like a week or two before the movie comes out or maybe even waiting outside a whole month or two. You never know.

[starkat]

The TV series Sanctuary did an incredible job with green screen technology and a small budget. If they go this route, I could see them doing quite a bit and a very nice job. It will depend on the budget though. Indie films have come a long way over the last 15 years.

[Reepicheep775]

I have a feeling that the decision to make the movies independently will either be the best thing to happen to the series or the worst thing.

[fantasia]

There is an interesting post in the comments section of the news story I thought I'd copy over here....

I was at the talk and this report is a bit misleading (as is naturally the case since it’s a third had interpretation). I hope Douglas goes on record on the internet to say what he said in Oxford, since it was all really interesting and made things a lot clearer.

I’d rather not go into details because those should come from the source rather than 2nd hand accounts. But generally, Douglas was really really sharp on the films, and he really understands Lewis’s works. He was very frustrated with aspects of the films, particularly Dawn Treader. He said he felt a bit crushed after that film, and kept on apologising to Apted, the director, for the script (which he did not have direct control over). Sounded like breaking the film deal was partly his idea, because Walden kept wanting to re-negotiate, and also to increasingly turn Narnia into something it’s not (for Dawn Treader, the idea was to make it like Pirates of the Caribbean). The thing to understand is that these people — the Hollywood suits — are complete clowns who don’t understand or care about the source material.

Also, I understand that the ‘seven years’ thing is from the last film being released, and there was talk of starting work on Silver Chair a year from now, because new contracts / deals need to be drawn up. So in a way there’s only a year before work gets started again, even though it will be at least seven years before another film. In the meantime, there’s other projects.

It was also the C.S. Lewis Society, not the Tolkien society. And it happened on Tuesday, not Monday.

Sounds like gP's theory could potentially be correct. At the very least, it's something that it sounds like they're considering.
Whatever the case, I'm pretty much at the point where I'm not expecting a movie for a while, but I am expecting one in the future. But I'm certainly not counting down the days by any means. It'll get here when it gets here.
The one and only part I'm not super thrilled with is that DG wants to pick up where they left off, and I feel that's a huge mistake. I think they need a clean, fresh start.
Here's to a few more years.... !