Narnia on Netflix?

[NarnianTourist]

Seeing as how slow any news of continuation of the Narnia franchise seems to surface, I am beginning to suspect that one of the main reasons no studio seems to hold any kind of interest in distributing Narnia is because of lack of demand. The fantasy genre was reinvented in 2001 with blockbuster films like LOTR and Harry Potter. Many other fantasy films, including Narnia, came along to ride the coattails of the success of those films. However, Narnia was the only one that found any real moderate success. But over time, fantasy films began to over-saturate the market and sort of died out. Now it's superhero films and dystopian fiction that is over-saturating the market. One could argue that the Hobbit trilogy tried to bring back fantasy, but it was really just riding the coattails of the golden age of fantasy film...the age of Lord of the Rings. The general audience reaction to another upcoming(?) Narnia film has just been very "meh".

In a nutshell, people don't really care as much anymore. In my opinion, this is the real reason we have yet to see any REAL news of another Narnia film. If big budget theatrical studios have no interest, then it seems there really is no hope for this franchise........unless Netflix picked it up.

Think about it! Look how well House of Cards or the recent Daredevil series turned out. The latter in particular, while set in the same Disney-Marvel universe, was unlike anything we have seen from Marvel....at least creatively. It was dark, violent, complex, and thought-provoking. I think this might because of no studio input, which one could argue was the main problem with the previous Narnia films; too much studio meddling. If Netflix picked up the series, the Lewis Estate would have the budget to not only portray fantastic visuals, but more than likely would have creative control to do whatever they wanted in the writing side of everything. I think that if Netflix bought Narnia, we would be able to get a compelling, enriching, complex, and visually impressive end product.

What do you guys think? Would it be better to get a Netflix series or continue to wait for studios to negotiate the continuation of theatrical movies?

[coracle]

What is a "Netflix series" ?
The Estate will only allow a decent production to be made of any of the stories from here on.
You can find quite a lot of information (including confirmation that the script is being worked on by a good writer) on this site - we keep good contact with helpful sources close to the pre-production.
We're looking forward to the next announcements - which will presumably include completed script and appointing a director.
The earliest it can be released, by law, is the end of 2017 - so there is plenty of time for interest to revive and for people to look forward to it keenly.

[starkat]

Netflix has begun adding original programming to their streaming video service. It's available only on their platform. For example, they've picked up the rights to a tv series called "Fuller House" which is based on, and uses the same characters and actors, "Full House". It will not be available over regular tv channels.

Or in other words, doing something like they did with the BBC. Doing another TV serial of sorts, but with today's technology.

I honestly doubt we'll see that kind of a set up for Narnia any time soon. I suspect the Estate will do all it can to get Narnia onto the big screen before resorting to getting it out on the small screen.

[fantasia]

I've been wanting to respond to this topic for a while and just haven't been able to do so. NarnianTourist, I for one think your suggestion is brilliant.
Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu (perhaps others too?) have been competing for a while to get an edge on the market with their own original TV shows, and not without success. 'House of Cards' which is Netflix's original series has won Emmy's, Golden Globe's, and many other awards. Same with their 'Orange is the New Black.'
Recently, Amazon Prime totally undercut Netflix in the bidding process and won Top Gear when the BBC fired Jeremy Clarkson. Amazon, as we all know is NOT a small company. I think they would be a strong contender as well.
They have very recently started getting into the movie business and while I don't think anything big in the works, they definitely have big named actors. Getting the opportunity to do a big name movie would be HUGE for them.
And as we've seen in the past, when a company and/or person has something big to prove, they do an exceptional job (original Star Wars with George Lucas, Lord of the Rings with Peter Jackson).

Now the downside, as Kat pointed out, is that Narnia would probably not show up on the big screen, at least not at first, though I don't think that would be completely off the table as we're talking about totally new territory here.
The C.S. Lewis Estate would have to weigh their options on whether they want to take a big risk making the last four movies in a totally new way vs possibly not make them at all because no "Official" movie company seems to be interested.
If nobody has contacted them about this, someone ought to because I think there's some real potential here.

[Lake Lachrymose]

I agree with NarnianTourist about the new (and horrible) trendy in the market. Yes, years ago fantasy/epic movies were The Thing. Now you can see that any other movie with this genre falls down in a black hole of criticism and not so great reactions. The public has changed and that's a fact, but I'm one of those people who thinks that there's always space for a good fantasy movie and people will like it if they do it right. To me, the problem with all these new fantasy movies is that the team behind them are constantly trying to underestimate their public by playing too safe and too predictable. Harry Potter (and I'm not even a fan of it) and LOTR were huge success and reinvented the genre precisely because they did exactly the opposite, showing a new way of telling and adapting fantasy/epic books to the big screen. After this (The Hobbit is a big example) they were just repeating the formula again and again and again.

I know that The Silver Chair will not be the "salvation" of the genre or something like that, but if they make a good adaptation, they can show that these stories are still worth watching. I also think that there's a lot of people that want to see something different than all of these boring blockbusters that proliferate like rats day by day. You know, people like to see new things and Narnia has its own appeal, just like LOTR. I think that's why they're being so careful with this new adaptation. Now, about Netflix, they are TOTALLY and 100% reliable when it comes to adaptations and quality. They are fantastic and the film business is changing. We have A Series of Unfortunate Events, a movie that did not so well on the big screen 10 years ago and now will be filmed again by Netflix and I can assure you that it's going to be awesome.

It seems to me that the authors/etc have much more freedom doing their work on Netflix. They're totally creative. The Silver Chair will definitely show up on the big screen (and people still like Narnia and wants to see a movie being made!), but I don't know about the future of the other books. It depends solely on the success of TSC right now. I would be completely cool with a Netflix or something adaptation, but they probably would need to reboot the series by now. I don't know, but I still think that Narnia can do great if correctly managed.

And yes, fantasia_kitty is right. Is a new territory. But as much as I know, Netflix are planning to fully start a movie business or something.

[sorry, my english was horrible, haha]

[PhelanVelvel]

Netflix is baller. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (a Netflix series) was hilarious and had some of the most relevant humour out of any series I can think of in recent years. None of it cringe-worthy, either. I think Netflix offers a lot of freedom that major television networks just don't offer anymore. I definitely wouldn't be sorry to see some sort of Narnia adaptation on Netflix. A film on the big screen is great, but the quality you get from creative freedom is worth the trade, in my opinion. Seems very difficult to get a film by an independent studio on the big screen. I don't know the politics of it, but most everything in theaters nowadays is a huge Hollywood production.

[Future Narnian]

I'd say definitely no. Not everyone likes streaming and Netflix. Some of us still want to watch our movies the old fashioned way on a DVD.

[Impending Doom]

I'm not really interested in a TV series of any kind right now and I really don't see the Estate jumping on board with it anytime soon either. Besides they've invested far too much time and money developing a script specifically for the big screen to start over with a teleplay. It's just not going to happen.

The general audience reaction to another upcoming(?) Narnia film has just been very "meh". In a nutshell, people don't really care as much anymore. In my opinion, this is the real reason we have yet to see any REAL news of another Narnia film. If big budget theatrical studios have no interest, then it seems there really is no hope for this franchise........unless Netflix picked it up.

The reason why some people's reactions have been "meh" is because the last two films have been received with very mixed reactions and believe this one will simply be a cash grap. They don't realize that The Silver Chair is practically a reboot with a new production company, screenwriters, characters, likely a new director and new producers (aside from Mr. Gresham). If this was a cash grab we'd be anticipating the 6th Narnia film by now. Be patient - a studio will be announced soon after the script is done. Like coracle said, the film can't legally be released until 2017 which is plenty of time to build positive hype and make a quality film.

[King_Erlian]

I'm not keen on the series appearing on Netflix. I'm not sure what the situation is with it in other countries, but in the UK you have to pay to view services like Netflix and it isn't cheap. I would far rather the BBC, or an independent terrestrial station such as Channel 4 in the UK, made a series of it, with a reasonable budget, modern special effects, and good casting throughout. One thing about the BBC series from 25-30 years ago is that it looked cheap, and like the BBC weren't taking it seriously.

[CorazonBandido55]

My observation is that Netflix offers mostly mid tier movies and original productions. You won't find any top tier movies on Netflix, like some of the top Disney animated movies, or recent box office blockbusters like superhero movies etc.; same goes for original series.

IMO Narnia qualifies as a top tier film franchise, so it won't be appearing on Netflix as an original series, or as a backlog of its previous movies anytime soon. But it would be nice if they did.

[waggawerewolf27]

I don't know much about Netflix but think that the main reason why you don't hear about any more Narnia movies is because there are still legal restraints on the series, and most franchises won't touch anything with legal complications attached.

[mm1991]

Well, there are a few things where filming/production etc was for the most part wrapped up and finished long before Netflix came along as a distributor and slapped the "Netflix Original" label on it. But like others said, it would be ONLY available on Netflix.

I'm not so sure if I would like that but I'd be open to it, if that were possible. I'm more concerned about the actual filmmakers involved in such a production.

[Stylteralmaldo]

A Narnia original series would be great.

Personally though, I'd rather see an original series on Tolkien's Silmarillion.