NarniaWeb Community Forums

Something I've been wondering about... I've looked at many other Netflix series and have noticed that it's different than what I'm used to with movies. Instead of one director, there's kind of a head creator, often the scriptwriter, with multiple directors for different episodes. Even if they go the route of doing seven movies, one for each book, I suspect each movie would get a separate director. But honestly I'm not familiar with it. Anybody follow tv news and know how the hierarchy of the production crew works?

This is not my area of expertise either, fk. Aside from director, one word I see cropping up often in reference to current television shows is "showrunner" ... it's a relatively recent term, and this is Wikipedia's description:

A showrunner typically has creative control of a television series production, through combining the responsibilities of the head writer, executive producer, and script editor. In films, directors typically have creative control of a production, but in television, the showrunner outranks the director.

So that's interesting. Directors may come and go, but it appears that whoever is hired as showrunner will have the greatest impact on the Narnia series. (Who will it be?! )

And has there ever been any example of a known movie director taking on a smaller tv/movie series adaptation like this? Either as a showrunner (thanks for that term Rose) or episode director?

fantasia_kitty wrote:And has there ever been any example of a known movie director taking on a smaller tv/movie series adaptation like this? Either as a showrunner (thanks for that term Rose) or episode director?

I can't believe I haven't thought of this before now, but Joe Johnston has actually done this! I don't know what became of the project, but in 2014, it was announced that Johnston had been hired to direct the pilot of a new television series called "Lumen," a fantasy drama about a family trapped in an alternate world. (Sounds a bit familiar...)

So this is a kind of a mental shift for me... I had been previously thinking that Joe Johnston's involvement with Narnia was likely coming to an end given the new direction, but he may actually play a role in Netflix's plans. I don't know how extensive his involvement would be since he said that he planned to retire after SC, but I was surprised to see that he was absent from The Nutcracker and the Four Realms premieres and now I'm wondering if it's because he's very busy in talks with eOne.

I was pretty positive about Joe Johnston being the director a Silver Chair adaptation because it seems like his kind of movie. But other books, like The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Magician's Nephew, would be much better suited to an artsy director.

So I'm hoping he's not the showrunner. (Though part of me feels sorry for him because now he won't get to end his career with a Narnia movie.)