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glumPuddle wrote:We just recorded a podcast on this (GymFan returns, yay!). The more I think and talk about it, the better I feel. It has changed my perception of the production and makes me really feel like SC could be something special.

Definitely. Having Magee writing the script has raised my expectations for this film. Obviously I'm still hesitant but I think it's a step in the right direction. I get goosebumps thinking about what SC could be!

Really interesting podcast! Rilian's idea of Magee being a way to tell the movie industry that The Silver Chair is something to be taken seriously got me thinking. I really wonder if The Silver Chair is going to be marketed as a classic of children's literature almost as a standalone and not as the fourth movie in a franchise.

It might have to be marketed that way, just with the distance from the other films. I hate the word "franchise" maybe because it reminds me of french fries, but I digress.

That might be the healthiest way to do the film. I'm trying to think of other cases where a book series was picked up later by another person and given new actors, etc. Actors are all the viewers really care about for continuity, and the story will already provide continuity. And this really deserves another thread.

I really want to go watch Life of Pi and Finding Neverland again, but then I'd only have a good impression of Magee's skills if I read the corresponding source material for both. What I take away from this choice is that they've chosen an artist, not a skilled yes-man, and they want to give this film credibility as a story and work of art. Both of those are good things.

This sounds very promising! I hope we get an update whenever the first draft of the script is complete. I would think some sort of script is ensemble at this point. I'm just dying for an update of any sort.

I'v never heard of him until Narnia. The idea that Narnia is returning to the screen is good however.

A good way to get an idea is to look him up on IMDb, list a few of his movies, and choose a couple to watch on DVD.

I looked him up on Rotten Tomatoes, and his lowest rated project is rated 77% fresh (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day). That's a high baseline. This suggests one of two things to me:

1. He only picks projects that he feels have artistic merit.

2. He has strong artistic integrity, and is committed to telling a well-composed story.


Now, RottenTomatoology is not an exact science, and there are still many things that can go wrong with the script or other aspects of the film. At the same time, I'm pretty confident that we are safe from the overwhelming cheese factor that we saw in VDT's dialogue.

Probably my biggest concern is that he hasn't done a family film before. Hopefully he doesn't feel he has to lower his standards for the kids.

Rogin wrote:I hope we get an update whenever the first draft of the script is complete. I would think some sort of script is ensemble at this point. I'm just dying for an update of any sort.

I don't have the slightest clue on how long it takes to write and finalize a script but I do know that Mark Gordon can be pretty picky. When his company was working on Saving Private Ryan, he liked the original script but there were 12 more redrafts before Gordon was confident enough to even show it to a director.

I can also be really impatient when it comes to news. But if you look on the bright side we did wait over 2 years before we got an update about anything, so this is nothing.

Yeah, I was actually wondering at what point we should begin to feel "nervous" about not receiving news for a while. I wasn't on NarniaWeb for the other films, so I don't know what's considered normal when the film is in this very early stage of development.

Maybe it's silly, but I've been nervous for a while now.

I've seen other movies be announced and then just fade away...

It's a little bit difficult to know what to expect because of the moratorium. I don't know how many films have to contend with situations like that, although it seems fairly unusual to me. That's definitely affecting how quickly they can move along with production.

On the bright side, let's hope that the slow pace of production means they're taking plenty of time to get the story and everything else about the film just right. All the same, though, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we get some news very soon!

Yeah, I was thinking that perhaps it was taking so long because the screenplay is still being written. Does that sound like a possibility? Because all we really know of, aside from the production company, is the screenwriter. I would imagine that writing a first draft takes a while, between consulting the source material and perhaps asking other involved parties for advice. I wouldn't be surprised if it took many months, but then again, I'm not super educated on movie-making, haha.

According to fantasia_kitty's film timetable, LWW was greenlit Dec 7th 2001 and it wasn't until July that Andrew Adamson was announced as director. That's around 7 month! I'm not totally sure what happened in between that (maybe FK can help me out ), but I'm not going to start worrying just yet. I'm expecting SC to follow a similar production schedule.

I'm afraid I'm not going to be much help because there is no answer to this question. Having followed several movies, this seems to be the most common stage when films can be pushed through quickly or sit and languish for years. I don't know how many of you read the history of the John Carter of Mars movie that came out several years ago, but I believe it holds the record of being in "development hell" for 79 years. It was supposed to be Disney's first full-length animated movie... crazy.
I don't think we're going to have to worry about that with The Silver Chair. I hear that Douglas Gresham is "busy" with the movie, so that gives me hope that it's being actively worked on and not gathering dust on some film executive's desk.
I know for me personally I'd rather them take a little extra time with the script to get it right instead of shoving it on through the filmmaking process.

Rose wrote:It's a little bit difficult to know what to expect because of the moratorium.

This is a question that was finally answered for us. We have it on our Movie FAQ page, but I'll go ahead and post it here too.

We have recently learned that the seven year moratorium applies from film release to film release. ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ came out in December 2010, so the earliest we could possibly see ‘The Silver Chair’ is December 2017. We're not saying that's when it will release, but rather, we won't see it before then.

Thanks very much for your insight, fantasia_kitty. I agree, I would much rather they take their time with it and give it careful thought. If they released some news stating "It will be another six months to get the script just right, but we are actively working on it", and for some magical reason we could be sure it was true, I don't think I'd care about not having any news. XD

I just hope they are working on it rather than pushing it aside. o_o However, I think that Gresham being involved does give us a slight edge over other movies which maybe don't have someone trying as hard to have them made. From what I've read, he really does want the Chronicles put on screen, and I don't think he would settle for people forgetting about the project.

Some franchises might be doomed for a while after a poor critical reception like VDT's, but luckily we do have Gresham actively looking to get Narnia out there, which I appreciate.

Here is an interview with David from January 2013, its not directly Narnia related but it gives us a glimpse of what we can expect from him.

There has to be something that when I first read the material, or when I first heard it, I said, ‘Oh yes, I want that, I want to explore that idea,’ or ‘I want to show that to my kids,’ or ‘I’ve felt just like that’, or ‘That really moved me.’

This goes to show that he only excepts offers that he is passionate about! He goes on to say that at one point he was pressured into accepting a job he didn't really want to do and know he just needs to say no sometimes. I wonder what first drew him into the Silver Chair?

He also talks about working with Ang Lee on Life of Pi and about the process of making an adaptation. It's a really good interview and is defiantly worth the 25 minutes.