First it was going to be The Silver Chair, but everything got shuffled around and now the next Narnia movie’s going to be The Magician’s Nephew–or so it seems ( http://teaser-trailer.com/the-magicians-nephew-movie/ ). Really, I just can’t keep track of it anymore. But they’ve got a movie poster ready for it, even though they can’t give us a release date. Not this year, and probably not next year, either.
Whoever is actually working on the movie now–guys, could you please get this one right?
(While you’re waiting for them to get it right, sit back and enjoy this rendition of the theme music from the BBC-TV Narnia productions of the 1980s–still the gold standard for bringing Narnia to the screen.)
The first three Chronicles of Narnia movies of the 21st century didn’t do all that well at the box office, and no one in Hollywood seems to know why. Allow me to enlighten them.
Yo, the movies underachieved because:
a) You guys kept messing around with the stories, and the changes you made were never for the better. Never.
b) You’re afraid of C.S. Lewis’ forthrightly Christian message, so you kept soft-pedaling Aslan, which was to miss the whole point of the stories.
c) You don’t seem to think your audience is capable of appreciating the stories as C.S. Lewis wrote them, so you keep trying to shape them to what you think is the taste of a dumbed-down, text-messaging, doofus audience.
Like many, many others, I want these movies to succeed; but so far the movie-makers have been their own worst enemy.
But we should be thankful they haven’t taken the books down with them.
I honestly don’t care anymore. They can make the movies, or they can leave the movie rights to rot for the next hundred years.
By the way, I LOVE the BBC versions! The theme music always evokes deep sentimental feelings in me; I watched LWW way back, even before I read the books, so it will always hold a special place in my heart. But not only that, they were really very good. You could never top Tom Baker as Puddleglum, in my own humble opinion 😀
Tom Baker’s Puddleglum stands alone, I’ll be bound.
AMEN! The BBC version is the only one I will watch at this point. The new movies just got progressively worse–couldn’t even get through the first half hour of Dawn Treader before I shut the TV off in disgust. (You didn’t think I would pay to see it in the theater, did you?) And you’re right, the movie makers in Hollywood still don’t get it. Maybe they should read your post. : )
Know something? I have never yet heard from anyone who thought the new movies were better than the old BBC version. Not a soul! Hmmm…