I always found this the least interesting book. But, I suppose it’s best for the ‘franchise’ (god, is there now a Narnia franchise?) to plug away at all seven books in sequence. That’s a good ten years of marketing available.
It implies that they will make the rest of the books into movies as well. I don’t think there’s enough “meat” in some of the books to make a full-length movie, so they will either combine some of the books (a la “Series of Unfortunate Events”) or put in filler.
I’d run with “filler” myself, since the nearest any two books come to being combinable is “Prince Caspian” and “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” (and the BBC did combine these when they made the 1980s TV series). OTOH the filler that went into TLTW&TW worked pretty well, I thought (Edmund in the dungeon with Mr Tumnus, the escape tunnel, the frozen-river scene) and as long as they do no worse, I shouldn’t mind too much.
Well, since hey decided to forgo both *The Magician’s Nephew * (unless they try to shoehorn it in later) and A Horse and his Boy, we can hope that they only choose the easiest to adapt.
My votes are for Prince Caspian, Dawn Treader, and the Silver chair. Leave out the rest.
When I first read the books in childhood, I read them in the order in which they were written, putting TLTW&TW first in the series. I believe in recent years the books have been reodered by the publishers to appear in chronological order. I personally prefer the original order, and am glad the filmmakers are going this way.
I don’t think they chose to forgo them, merely that they decided to release the movies in the order in which the books were published, which, not-so-coincidentally, begins with the most popular of the books.
[insert debate about proper Narnia order here]
I agree with you though that Dawn Treader and Silve Chair would make fine movies (as could Magician’s Nephew). The rest I’m not so sure of.
I don’t remember clearly, but shouldn’t they shoot bits from all the books NOW, while certain members of the cast are the right age. It’s not like Potter where the kids in the books age at the pace they are making the movies.
Actually, I think the reason they did prince caspian next is because it invovles all 4 childern for a large chunk of the film. After that, different kids are moved in, until we get to the cousins and no sign of the original 4.
All 4 do appear at the end of a horse and his boy and 3 at the end of the last battle, but it’s pretty much on the level of a cameo there.
Not really. Peter and Susan are done with the end of Prince Caspian. Bring in a new actor to play Caspian. Edmund and Lucy are done at the end of Dawn Treader. New character and actor in Eustace and Caspian is done at the end of Dawn Treader. Eustace is in Silver Chair and bring in a new actress for Jill. Horse and His Boy is an interstitial, so cast new for Sasha and Aravis. The people who played the adults Susan, Edmund, and Lucy will work for those scenes. Magician’s Nephew is a prequel, so cast new for Diggory and Polly. Last Battle will bring back most everyone in one form or another.
Besides, time passes in both worlds, just not at the same rate (which I don’t think you find in very much multiple-world fantasy these days.) The producers are not under any real time crunch in terms of cast.
One can only hope that the direction evolves in the same way it has in the Harry Potter series. TLTWTW was a pretty pedestrian effort, as far as I’m concerned; much more so than Chris Columbus’s oft-maligned work in the first two Harry Potter movies.
Unfortunately, since the Narnia movies are under the main Disney masthead, I think it reasonable to expect a cookie-cutter series.
I dunno. The ethnic-religious controversy over The Horse and His Boy film would be hoo-boy fun to watch!
OTOH, I can think of absolutely no way The Last Battle could be given a satisfying film treatment unless you’re aiming it strictly at the Left Behind crowd.
The Horse and His Boy really isn’t much of a story - I could see it being included in a Prince Caspian film as one of the “olden days” stories that Cas gets told by his dwarf tutor, but can’t imagine watching a whole film of it.
Another advantage Narnia has over Potter, as far as aging actors go, is that the characters’ ages are never made explicit. We know that Lucy and Edmund are the youngest, but that’s about all that Lewis ever tells us about their ages. I don’t think there’s even any explicit indication of the time (on Earth) between Wardrobe and Caspian. So if it’s a year between the two, that’s fine, and if it’s 3 or 4 years between, that’s fine, too.