Silver Chair Being Made By Mark Gordon Company

[mm1991]

Hmmm.....I never finished "The Day After Tomorrow" because it was so horrible and I count it among the list in my head "The Worst Films Ever Made". So there's that.

BUT I think a lot of that had to do with the core story and script in general. As far as visually, Mark Gordon's films are decently impressive. And if Douglas Gresham is working on the script directly, there is hope this movie will turn out better than Voyage of the Dawn Treader. At this point so early in the process, I think that is all we can hope for.

BUT WOW! NEW FILM! I was convinced I wouldn't see a new Narnia film for at least another 10-15 years!

[narnialover101]

I don't know this for a fact, but I have a theory. Gresham has stated he wants to see all seven books made into movies during his lifetime. I suspect the reason they're continuing on rather than rebooting is to help ensure his dream.

Yes, I do recall him saying that, and I can certainly see that being the case; It makes perfect sense. I also see Icarus' point. It would be somewhat depressing to start all over again, but if we got better films out of it, it would be well worth it in my opinion.

At any rate, it certainly doesn't look like that's going to happen, so I'll just have to embrace SC. It will be exciting to see Puddleglum, if they don't mess him up.

I'll always be a,
NL101

[mm1991]

I agree it would be depressing to start over again. Another thing to consider, do any studios or companies WANT to take on the Narnia franchise starting from scratch? Especially so soon after the most recent movies?

I believe we can still have this somewhat-fresh start without rebooting the entire series. We'll have one bad film (VDT). Oh well. It happened and we can move on. And hope the rest of the films will be better.

[Reepi]

Well, it was time. Please let Gresham have more control this time and not repeat the mistakes that were made previously.

[FriendofNarnia2]

The more I've been thinking about this, the more I find myself slightly disappointed that they aren't going to reboot with MN.

I completely understand this sentiment, and this would be my preference as well. But there are some positives of doing The Silver Chair next, the biggest being that it doesn't require a large budget to be good. The Magician's Nephew would be much more difficult to pull off on a tighter budget.

And I think at some point when LWW becomes outdated they will reboot the series, so we may yet see a faithful adaption of Dawn Treader.

Personally, I would like to see all ties broken between the previous series, and have The Silver Chair as a strong stand alone film. I wouldn't be opposed to a completely different artistic style.

[220chrisTian]

I've wanted "The Silver Chair" to come next since early 2011, so I was really disappointed with the "Magician's Nephew" news that March.

I see SC as love for the franchise, and MN as love for money. Maybe I'm wrong. But SC without Walden Media makes me really happy!

I've seen quite a bit of Mark Gordon's work, both as producer and as executive producer. Some people may not like "The Day After Tomorrow," but I did. It and "Deep Impact" are my favorite end-of-the-world disaster films.

"The Patriot" was okay, but it was never a work of art like "The Last of the Mohicans." I liked "The Source Code," but it was macabre.

Of all the Gordon films I've seen, "The Painted Veil" was the best. It is a true work of art, far superior to the Somerset Maugham short story it was based on. "Warm Springs" was pretty good too. Cynthia Nixon played an excellent Eleanor Roosevelt. Too bad Gordon was just an exec producer on these two films!

With all that said, is his company right for Narnia? It's too soon to tell. But I like his enthusiasm and love for the books. That's important.

[thephfactor1]

You know what would be cool? Ben Barnes playing Caspian in old man makeup.

Hey if Jared Leto can pull it off...

[Aslanisthebest]

Wow, big news. At this point, I'm not really as excited as I was for VDT, but of course, I'm not uninterested. I am happy TSC stands a chance, but, goodness, it sits alongside HHB on the shelf of my favourite chronicles, so I can't say that I'm not concerned! In my opinion (and I'm being pessimistic here), it seems like TSC can suffer probably the worst damage of the chronicles, except for TLB. It could be good, but I do not have my hopes up. That said, I am looking forward to news on the film. I am glad that things will start picking up around narniaweb.

[PhelanVelvel]

I think Will Poulter could easily reprise his role as Eustace. Even though he'd likely be 22 by the time the film goes into production he could probably pass as a 16 year old relatively well. That would make Eustace several years older than he was in the books, but I think it would be a good change. As much as I love the Narnia books, kids fighting in battles and going on epic adventures doesn't translate all that well to the big screen. Making him older would make The Silver Chair MUCH more believable. Pete was older in the first film than he was in the book, and Caspian was MUCH older in the movie than he was in the book. And both of those changes were for the better in my opinion. There's also really no reason why Eustace couldn't be in his early 20s in The Last Battle, too. Just make Tirian 30 or so and the dynamic will work just fine.

I also think that you guys who think they're going to try to distance themselves completely from the previous films as much as possible are mistaken. They may try to make this film a back-to-the-basics soft reboot that hearkens back to LWW as much as possible and largely ignores VODT, but they won't totally start from scratch. Don't underestimate the power of having an established franchise. The last two films didn't exactly set the box office on fire, but only because they had such large budgets. $400+ million is nothing to shake a stick at. Those two films still earned the franchise a lot of name recognition. With a $150 million budget VODT should have been reasonably profitable with those numbers. I think it's reasonable to believe that the next Narnia film can expect a box office haul at least somewhere in the $400 million range due to the performance and name recognition of it's predecessors, so I don't think they'll abandon that. Instead, I think we'll just see the film get made with a lower budget. Maybe $100 million or so, which would still make for great film.

Agreed! I'm open to some changes in order to make them flow better in film format, I honestly think it works much better with the characters bumped up in age. The Narnian air makes them feel older and more warrior-like anyway, so why not express that visually with older actors? Personally, I don't want to see a literal film version of Eustace that is nine years old, which I believe is his age in The Silver Chair. If I were in charge of these films, I would be terrified and have a lot of trouble making decisions. Sometimes you have to choose between sticking 100% to the source material, or doing something that works better on film. If you keep it 100% faithful and it comes off weird/cheesy, you fail, if you change something and piss off the fans, you fail. That's not an easy position to be in.

[CorazonBandido55]

I've never stopped checking NarniaWeb for updates, but it definitely wasn't the same without a movie to look forward to.

Extremely happy to see Narnia movie. I know many of you disliked VDT, but outside of this website, I know many people who immensely enjoyed that movie, and it is those fans also that pushed VDT to a stellar $415 million worldwide gross - and a profit.

It great to see a producer wth a passion for the books. And it doesn't hurt that Narnia is still commercially viable. Let's face it, Hollywood is looking for a franchise hit, and when they are looking at pumping life into less lucrative franchises like Percy Jackson, it was only a matter of time before they began revisiting Narnia again.

My only concern is the budget - hoping to see something north of $100 million.

[wild rose]

this is really big news, and it gave me a lot of mixed feelings, I'm half agony, half hope as Captain Wentoworth so well put it. I've been hoping and hoping that a new movie would be made, but with the last two messed up I'm almost afraid that this one will be ruined too. I'm so glad that it will be Silver Chair, of all the Chronicles The Magician's Nephew is the one I enjoy the least, so I wasn't really looking forward to it being made. I'm excited for a new movie, but I don't know what to expect, hoping for the best, and of course, I'm glad that now life will be brought back the forums!!!!

[King_Erlian]

I think Will Poulter could easily reprise his role as Eustace. Even though he'd likely be 22 by the time the film goes into production he could probably pass as a 16 year old relatively well. That would make Eustace several years older than he was in the books, but I think it would be a good change. As much as I love the Narnia books, kids fighting in battles and going on epic adventures doesn't translate all that well to the big screen. Making him older would make The Silver Chair MUCH more believable.

Agreed! I'm open to some changes in order to make them flow better in film format, I honestly think it works much better with the characters bumped up in age. The Narnian air makes them feel older and more warrior-like anyway, so why not express that visually with older actors? Personally, I don't want to see a literal film version of Eustace that is nine years old, which I believe is his age in The Silver Chair.

This is overlapping a lot with the thread in the Cast & Character Discussion section, but I have to say I disagree. Lewis didn't seem to think it was a problem having pre-teen children fighting in battles and going on epic adventures. Does that mean they can't be made into films without altering them so much they're not really the same stories any more? As I said in the other thread, all the detail about Experiment House in the book of Silver Chair convinces me that Eustace and Jill are about 12, not 9. But make Eustace 16 (and tall!), and all that stuff about being bullied by older children goes out of the window. The beginning of the film of Dawn Treader wasn't word-for-word what was in the book, but the mood was pretty much the same. But it would need a more radical rewrite of the opening of Silver Chair to get Eustace and Jill into Narnia. A lot of people on this forum appear to hate the film of VDT because it wasn't a faithful-enough adaptation of the book. Personally I thought that the film of Prince Caspian took more liberties with the source material than Dawn Treader; it felt like it was trying so hard to be a "teen" movie. But I think of the Narnia books as children's stories that I can still enjoy as an adult, and I suppose that's what I'd like to see in Narnia films: well-made, avoiding being patronising and silly, but still primarily for children.

[thephfactor1]

For me, a good adaptation is not one that tries to simply do everything that the book did in the same way that the book did, because why would you want to watch that kind of movie? Just read the book! Instead, a good adaptation of a book needs to expand and expound, to show us new angles and pose new questions, to show us new sides of favorite characters, and to introduce new ones for them to interact with. Prince Caspian, I thought, did a good job in many ways. I thought it was made less than good by all the teen angst and such. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader made no attempt to really adapt the book at all, in my opinion, the book elements just seemed like a vehicle for their contrived plot and "moral of the story".

All that to say: I don't really mind having characters and such a bit different from the book. Honestly, I'll be able to relate much better to an older character, so I have a selfish reason for wanting an older Jill and Eustace. ( And if you don't think people older than 15 get bullied, I don't even know what ) I would be fine, I guess, with a 12 year old Jill and Eustace, as long as they didn't try to make the plot, story, and themes of the book more "kid-friendly" as a result. ( i.e., dumb a la VDT ) But I think the reality is that they're going to make a decision on who the primary audience is, and hopefully they choose adults, because that's in my opinion the best chance for a proper The Silver Chair movie.

[Reepicheep775]

Anyone worrying about children fighting in battles translating to screen needn't be concerned about SC, as there are no battles except the fight with the LotGK at the end. This is assuming they stick with the book.

[Skilletdude]

I thought I needed to join in on this NWeb reunion. Like most, I'm skeptical and perhaps foolishly optimistic about this upcoming Silver Chair movie. But more than any of the other stories in the book series, I want the filmmakers to nail this one, my long-time favorite. And with Walden Media out of the picture, perhaps that's more possible.

I'm curious if this film is still legally bound to a 2018 release. If so, why would they announce it as early as 2013? Seems premature from a media standpoint. No casual fans are going to have any anticipation for the film with such a long wait. Walden's restructuring must have something to do with this. I'm thinking a late 2016 release would make more sense given the announcement, but that's just guesswork.

But I think of the Narnia books as children's stories that I can still enjoy as an adult, and I suppose that's what I'd like to see in Narnia films: well-made, avoiding being patronising and silly, but still primarily for children.

Exactly. The problem is that the children's books of today are often more mindless and sanitized, while Lewis consciously avoided this while writing the Narnia series. And that's why I feel the filmmakers are finding it tricky to nail down the target audience for the films. They are trying to wrestle between what our current cultures expect in a children's story and what Lewis wanted them to be when they were created. And they need to get closer to Lewis' vision. That's how we will get films that appeal to everyone.

[waggawerewolf27]

All that to say: I don't really mind having characters and such a bit different from the book. Honestly, I'll be able to relate much better to an older character, so I have a selfish reason for wanting an older Jill and Eustace. ( And if you don't think people older than 15 get bullied, I don't even know what ) I would be fine, I guess, with a 12 year old Jill and Eustace, as long as they didn't try to make the plot, story, and themes of the book more "kid-friendly" as a result. ( i.e., dumb a la VDT ) But I think the reality is that they're going to make a decision on who the primary audience is, and hopefully they choose adults, because that's in my opinion the best chance for a proper The Silver Chair movie.

Usually, in UK schools, at any rate, & also here, there is a change of school at the end of primary school (5-11 years of age) and vulnerable newbie 11, 12 and 13 year old students are the ones most likely to be bullied by older students in high school. Eustace and Jill have been at Experiment House for at least a year. Jill knows that Eustace has suddenly changed in his attitudes, rather than in his physique, during an intervening summer holiday, from sucking up to bullies to standing up to them. What is even more complicating is that the academic year in the Northern Hemisphere follows the financial year, not the calendar year, as it is here, though it is summertime in both cases, if that makes sense. In both cases, new students from the previous year could expect to have gone up a grade in autumn, unless there is a good reason to keep them back a year, which could have happened to Jill to make her an obvious target of bullies.

And so, I don't think it is realistic to film Jill and Eustace as being any younger than 13 or 14, whatever the target audience of the film may be. Much over 16 or 17 is also unrealistic, since in the 1940's, most of the bullies and troublemakers, even in Experiment House, would be weeded out anyway, once the minimal school qualifications loom, and once school references for future employers are mentioned. This was particularly true during WW2 when the military was always in need of new recruits over the age of 17 years of age, and when school leavers could be drafted into munitions manufacturing.

There have been all sorts of studies into bullying, and the sorts of people who get targeted are often those who differ noticeably from others. They could be more academically gifted, have a different background or a different creed, or they could be perceived by their tormenters as being weaker in some other way. Sometimes standing up to bullies can also make people targets, since bullies are not noted for their altruism.

Eustace in VDT & SC had gained strength from showing off that he could get the best academic results, but physically he was no match for bullies, even those in his own age range. I think Will Poulter, unless he grew really tall since VDT, could feasibly still play Eustace, if asked to do so, but this film will most likely try someone else, due to the 3 year delay since VDT's release, maybe also legal complications from Walden. There are a few other characters that return, Aslan, for instance, as well as Trumpkin. Would a new film want to get the same actors or different ones?

There is one thing that all the previous films have done well with so far, and that is recreating the WW2 ambience. I hope a new film also continues with this theme. VDT showed the realities of WW2 rationing & recruitment into the military, including a soldier being farewelled by his sweetheart. PC showed air-raid wardens patrolling underground stations, and LWW the evacuation of children. But I wonder how WW2 would relate to SC?