The Silver Chair Support Group

[coracle]

I'm not confident. But I have an agency that supplies doubles and creature actors for lots of films, and even back home I hope it will put me forward. I am prepared to travel elsewhere.

[JFG II]

I am disappointed. I would have liked to have seen David Magee’s script come to life. And also, whatever happened to the “Name the Lady of the Green Kirtle” competition?

And I think Joe Johnston would have been a marvelous director for a Narnia story.

Sigh.

David Magee is one of the reasons I hoped this movie would work. I loved Life of Pi, so I was excited when he was announced as screenwriter.

I realized at a certain point that LotGK did not need a name, and shouldn’t have one: She’s an unknowable sociopath. That makes her frightening. Still, I thought that if she were of Charn-descent, the name ‘SOLOIS’ would be cool and strange.

I agree about Joe Johnston. He could have surprised fans and made a great version of The Silver Chair. If Peter Farrelly could go from ‘Dumb & Dumber Too’ to ‘Green Book’, Joe Johnston could have surprised everyone with Narnia, critics & audiences included.

(I only mention Peter Farrelly because ‘Dumb & Dumber Too’ was a bad film (I’ve heard) while ‘Green Book’ won Best Picture this year. Not that it’s the actual Best Picture this year, but I’ve heard it was a hugely improved effort over his previous movies.)

[Cleander]

Well, it sounds like the Silver Chair movie has finally passed on. Though in light of recent revelations about the possible nature of the film had it been made, I think things turned out for the better. Gresham made the right call by walking away from what might have turned into a "girl power action movie" and going to Netflix instead. I also consider this move to potentially be a powerful message to Netflix- corrupt Narnia, and Narnia will leave you. Hopefully Gresham will have the level of influence we want him to have with Netflix.
Weirdly enough, the last time I checked Joe Johnston's twitter, it still said he was currently directing the Silver Chair. I guess he never bothered to change it??? (Actually, he- or whoever handles his social media-rarely posts anything anyway, so...)

[Reepi]

I realized at a certain point that LotGK did not need a name, and shouldn’t have one: She’s an unknowable sociopath. That makes her frightening. Still, I thought that if she were of Charn-descent, the name ‘SOLOIS’ would be cool and strange.

I agree. They certainly don't need to invent names if C. S. Lewis didn't feel a need for one.

I still found it strange that Dr. Cornelius' name isn't mentioned once in the Walden PC film, but they felt the need to come up with a name for Ramandu's daughter in VDT just so she can introduce herself with it and then never mention it again.

[Mrs Smooshy]

I just showed the mini-Smooshies Walden’s LWW for the first time this weekend and they seemed to enjoy it. I do wish there would be another Narnia movie on the big screen to share with them but at the same time I was aware of how the screenwriters didn’t really respect the source. It was kind of obvious as I watched. LWW is bit more of a straight forward adventure so it doesn’t ruin the experience completely but the other books really rely on Lewis’ faith and philosophy and undermining that undermines the story. Downplaying Asian would make the rules and Jill’s adherence to them less meaningful. SC was one of my lead favourite of the books as a kid but I gained a new appreciation as an adult. I didn’t really follow the news for this one as it never felt “for sure”. I am also sceptical about the Netflix series. I will get excited when they start filming

Edited to add: I am an old lady who hates typing on devices so please excuse spelling errors and haywire autocorrect

[JFG II]

Ok! I'm finally here to address "the scrapping of The Silver Chair movie" for a final time. And quite frankly, I don't have much to add, nothing that hasnt already been said. So, as your not-so-supportive host, I'll make this rant as brief as possible (in other words impossible) :

After hearing what those studio execs had in mind, I'm glad Douglas Gresham walked away from the project, but I'm still gutted that we might not see any more theatrical Narnia movies, ever. Seriously, I'm both '[insert angry word]' AND Quietly Devastated. Not quite as devastated as GlumPuddle must have been 9 years ago when his favorite Narnia book was butchered by the same elk of studio execs.

Still. It's a minor tradegy: 'Prince Caspian' disappointing after the success of 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' / 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader' being turned into a Gollum of a movie / 'The Silver Chair' trying so patiently to get off the ground only to be pushed around by a bunch of bullies / The fact that we'll never see Will, Anna, Skander, Georgie & McAvoy reprise their older roles in 'The Horse and His Boy' / The fact that both Skander & McAvoy have privately renounced Narnia from their lives / The facts that we'll never see Tilda play Jadis again in 'The Magician's Nephew' / And finally, the facts that we'll never hear Liam as Aslan again, and seeing it all come together in 'The Last Battle'. These are all minor tragedies.

[As a side-note, not seeing Dinklage playing Grumpy Trumpkin again, is a tragedy in a class of its own.]

There, that's off my chest. So much for being supportive, I'm sorry. Hope you've all had A Happy Thanksgiving!
Edit: Understood. Thanks.