ROTTEN TOMATOES: Update: Disney Denies Narnia Rumors

Update: Disney Denies Narnia Rumors

The Mouse House says they're not planning to ditch the franchise.

by Jeff Giles | March 19, 2008

Could Disney be getting cold feet about bringing all seven of C.S. Lewis' Narnia books to the screen? Not really says, the studio. A Disney spokesperson reached out to RT today with the statement that the rumors are entirely false.

So what's the rumor? According to Jim Hill Media, unnamed insiders at the studio are telling Mr. Hill that the Disney brass seems to be "cooling to the idea of producing movie versions" of the entire series -- and that the franchise's future is hinging on this summer's The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian doing "truly huge box office."

Hill goes on to say that part of the reason for Disney's change of heart, according to those tricksy unnamed insiders, is the studio's excitement about Mark Andrews' "first pass" on his screenplay for the first installment in Disney/Pixar's planned series of John Carter of Mars adaptations. For corroboration, Hill did a little poking around, and discovered that the studio registered a batch of Carter-related domain names last week, including:

JOHNCARTERANDTHEGODSOFMARS.COM
JOHNCARTERANDTHEWARLORDOFMARS.COM
GODSOFMARS-MOVIE.COM
GODSOFMARSMOVIE.COM
THEGODSOFMARS-MOVIE.COM
THEGODSOFMARSMOVIE.COM
THEWARLORDOFMARS-MOVIE.COM
THEWARLORDOFMARSMOVIE.COM
WARLORDOFMARS-MOVIE.COM

According to Hill, the plan is for Andrew Stanton to promote Wall-E through the fall, then get together with Andrews and Jim Morris (described as "a Lucasfilm Digital vet who made the jump to Pixar back in 2005" who has "reportedly been tapped to be the producer on the Mars project") to formulate a "battle plan" for the first John Carter of Mars film.

The first film in Disney/Walden's Narnia series, 2005's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, earned nearly $300 million at the box office (and netted a 75 percent Tomatometer rating to boot), so it's hard to imagine that Disney would actually abandon the franchise. If nothing else, such an action would raise some troubling questions about how "success" is being defined in a film industry increasingly hampered by inflated production costs. On the other hand, getting to see Disney/Pixar translate Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter books sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Source: Jim Hill Media

Related Items

Movie:	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
	WALL-E
Celeb:	Andrew Stanton
	Mark Andrews
	Jim Morris

(1-18 of 18 posts) | Reply

MrbatMatt writes:
on Mar 19 2008 05:39 AM

Well if Disney drops Narnia maybe Fox will drop Alien VS Predator and pick up Narnia so they can go back to making good movies out of good books rather than beating a dead horse with an iron rod over and over again.

(Reply to this)

Shatter24 writes:
on Mar 19 2008 05:50 AM

Voyage of the Dawn Treader, book 3, is already being shot by Mike Newell (Harry Potter 4) so there will at least be a trilogy of the main characters. I would like to see all seven shot but it will depend on quality and interest. But I think its a bit early for Disney to start singing this series' swan song.

(Reply to this)

Shatter24 writes:
on Mar 19 2008 05:52 AM

Correction, Michael Apted is doing Narnia 3.

(Reply to this)

Elixor writes:
on Mar 19 2008 05:57 AM

As long as the horse has a chest burster in it, and a Predator is holding the iron rod ...... j/k.

I wouldn't be that disappointed if the Narnia movies were dropped. They're good books, but are the movies that interesting? I didn't find the first one very interesting. I found the movie portrayal of LoTRs to be much more interesting, even though they probably could've done better at following the books.

I'm not familiar with Burrough's works, but a John Carter of Mars themed movie sounds like it could be interesting, from what little I found on it.

(Reply to this)

Dinobot77 writes:
on Mar 19 2008 06:40 AM

I don't know if they could make all seven books into movies. For instance, The Magician's Nephew was not really a book that translates into a successful movie. To me, there are only so many in the series that can be made to turn a profit. It doesn't matter if the book is great or not. If it can't be translated into a picture that holds the audiences attention, then it will be doomed.

(Reply to this)

leaf71 writes:
on Mar 19 2008 07:56 AM

I think the approach to use with both Narnia and JCoM is to do some condensing. The JCoM books are more like novellas, and there's parts of Narnia that I think would be hard to adapt to the screen... but I'm not a screenwriter.

I find the JCoM stories a lot more interesting than the Tarzan stuff and look forward to what they can do with it. Micheal Whelan's covers for the series were prime.

http://rebelsofmars.blogs.com/rebels_of_mars/images/whelan_princess_of_mars_cover_2.jpg

(Reply to this)

Vitamin M writes:
on Mar 19 2008 08:27 AM

yes if they can keep some of the feeling from Micheal Whelan's covers that Jon Carter could be Pixars most visually arresting film. Is it supposed to be made for kids though?
I'm no expert on Jon Carter but it seems like it would have to be Pg-13 at least.

also I'm all for some condensing, 3 Narnia films will be enough for me.

(Reply to this)

BarbarianMonster writes:
on Mar 19 2008 08:28 AM

If Prince Caspian does $300 million it won't matter. They'll continue to make the films.

(Reply to this)

arendr writes:
on Mar 19 2008 09:31 AM

They should only make them all if Caspian is better than The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe was. Seriously, that was so cheaply made.

(Reply to this)

minderbinder writes:
on Mar 19 2008 09:38 AM

You guys picked up a story from Jim Hill? Shame on you, you guys should know better than that. His articles are constantly biased and predict doom for anything he doesn't personally like. I have my doubts whether his "inside connections" even exist, if they do, he only gives one side of the story.

I'm disappointed in you for picking this up - sure, it's news that disney/pixar is doing John Carter (although we've known about the movies for months, the only thing new is the domain names), but the idea that Disney is already thinking about dumping narnia is just FUD from Hill.

The first Narnia film did HUGE business, and the second is likely to be a big hit as well (from the trailer, it looks much more impressive).

(Reply to this)

minderbinder writes:
on Mar 19 2008 09:43 AM

Seriously, do you dump a series after the only one released so far has beaten 3 of the 5 harry potter movies?

(Reply to this)

TombstoneLawDog writes:
on Mar 19 2008 09:52 AM

In reply to this comment (#1641316)
I'm pretty much right there with Elixor.

Personally, being the cynical prick that I am, I concluded long ago that the whole reason ANYone wanted to do Narnia in the first place was to greedily grab something--ANYTHING-- that could capitalize on the Potter Literary-Movie zeitgeist.

The fact that they're getting nervous about the horse they backed doesn't surprise me in the least. Narnia doesn't have NEARLY the resonance, culturally or lierarily, of either LoTR OR Potter, even if it is a bona fide classic. It certainly couldn't have helped that a bunch of wannabe literary translation epics have diluted the field a bit ('Seeker?''Eragon?' A little misfire called 'Golden Compass*?').

*I must disclose my fiery, pulsating contempt for 'Compass,' having nothing to do with any silly religious issues and having everything to do with this misbegotten waste of celluloid stealing Transformers' Oscar for Best Visual Effects. OOOH, LOOK! I MADE A F#CKING BEAR WEARING ARMOR...

(Reply to this)

donwillymo writes:
on Mar 19 2008 10:21 AM

Finally a good and profitable decision by Disney!! Who could forget their previous blunders like Pixar, and that stupid movie with the dwarfs, oh and that mermaid movie and that silly theme park with the mouse as their mascot...finally Disney you've redeemed yourselves from these mistakes in the last decade...wait what?

(Reply to this)

RT-Matchity writes:
on Mar 19 2008 11:07 AM

In reply to this comment (#1641669)
minderbinder, Disney has since refuted Hill's claim, and we've updated the article accordingly.

(Reply to this)

donwillymo writes:
on Mar 19 2008 11:41 AM

oooohhhh Minderbinder. You're in troubleeeeeeee. Matchity is gonna call ur parents. ha ha

(Reply to this)

minderbinder writes:
on Mar 19 2008 12:47 PM

Don, if you actually read what I wrote, it looks like Disney is backing up what I said.

Hill made claims without giving a source (as he usually does), and this time Disney actually came out and called him on it.

Matchity, thanks for the update. I'd recommend taking anything Hill says with an enormous block of salt and being extremely cautious about passing on anything he says as "news".

By the way (off topic), does this site have an "ignore" feature or a "report abuse" for comments?

(Reply to this)

hackles writes:
on Mar 19 2008 02:02 PM

In reply to this comment (#1641680)
I agree Tombstone- Transformers should've walked away with the statue over Compass hands down.

And I found the first Narnia movie more entertaining than the book and expect the same to be true of the second as well. But after Dawn Treader, the stories get a little boring and I'm not sure they can make much of a movie with the last two.

(Reply to this)

I Am Remote writes:
on Mar 19 2008 07:58 PM

Finish Narnia. Do them right.

(Reply to this)

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