Like Aslan Himself, A Fourth Chronicles of Narnia Movie Is Back From the Dead

It’s alive! It’s aliiiiiiive!

After a long few years of seeming-death for The Chronicles of Narnia movie franchise, we’ve learned today that the fourth book in C.S. Lewis‘ classic fantasy series, The Silver Chair, is getting a movie. But it probably won’t be the sort of big-budget adventure story you’re expecting. How’s about a quick Narnia recap?

The Silver Chair is being adapted, not by a huge studio, but by two companies that didn’t have anything to do with making the three previous Chronicles of Narnia movies. Basically, after Disney’s The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe was successful they decided to follow it up with Prince Caspian. That one didn’t do too well commercially or critically (though Ben Barnes‘s accent is a thing to behold), so the franchise moved to Fox, which made The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. That one sunk like a stone, so Fox gave up like Disney did, and now The Silver Chair‘s being helmed by The C.S. Lewis Company and The Mark Gordon Company, a smaller production outfit with credits mainly in TV (Criminal Minds, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice).

The Silver Chair doesn’t feature any of the Pevensie siblings, focusing instead on Eustace Scrubb, a whiny brat-turned-adventurer first introduced in Dawn Treader, and his classmate Jill Pole. On the one hand it makes sense that The Silver Chair would be the next movie, since it is the fourth book in the series. On the other hand–look, The Chronicles of Narnia was dead in the water, movie-wise. If you’re going to bring it back, how about you adapt The Magician’s Nephew, the prequel book that goes into the origin of the Wardrobe and the White Queen? Who doesn’t want to see more White Queen? No one! Sure, it’s the sixth book in the series (or the first book according to some box sets, but those box sets are wrong), but who cares? You could very easily have a single shot at this, like Fox did. Why would you make The Silver Chair when The Magician’s Nephew is RIGHT. THERE.

Ahem. Rant over.

The Silver Chair will have some Lewis-ian pedigree courtesy of C.S.’ stepson Douglas Gresham, who’ll be one of the producers. Says Gresham:

“I have a great deal of respect for Mark Gordon’s work and am confident that together we can bring the beauty and magical delight that Narnia engenders in the hearts of those who read the books to the screen in The Silver Chair.”

I’m less than confident, but heck, I don’t know Mark Gordon. So maybe this will turn out well. What do you think?

(via: Deadline)

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