Joe Johnston to direct The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair

Sounds like a reboot of the Narnia franchise. Johnston is quite a capable director with past works such as The Rocketeer and most recently, Captain America: The First Avenger. Had no idea until recently that he was involved with ILM and Star Wars too.

As for Narnia, guess it makes sense for the series to be rebooted. While I was left disappointed with Voyage of the Dawn Treader which has been regarded the most popular book in the series, the film could have been adapted better than what we were given. Unsure which book will follow next whether it be The Magician's Nephew or The Horse and His Boy, however, I do think the Pevensie kids from the first two films can easily come back now that they're old enough to play their adult counterparts.

Joe Johnston Heads to Narnia to Direct The Silver Chair

 

Dead franchise walking. The time for these movies to make money leeching off the success of Jackson's The Lord of The Rings is long gone. They really should just do these as a TV series or miniseries.

 

At least Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is being adapted into a TV series by the BBC. The Golden Compass while a decent film was still a disappointment in terms of adaptation.

 

A reboot would be doing another Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie. They're just belatedly continuing the series...a series people weren't all that enthusiastic about.

I felt like the stories didn't really work acted out as Lord of the Rings style epic fantasy... they're more fable-like and allegorical and not grounded in a kind of baseline "reality" or consistency like Tolkien's writings. (Tolkien had the same problem with them even as books!) I think they need to be done in a more stylized way.

 

I don't know why a studio thought that His Dark Materials would sell to a theatrical audience.

 

I'm glad to hear this. I thought Voyage of the Dawn Treader was the best of the Narnia movies so far. I was obviously in the minority though.

 

I hope they have the budget to do it justice. The BBC does have the advantage of not having to worry about frightening the shareholders, and not having to tone down the religious aspects of the series.

 

I look forward to this. Also to the Dune reboot.

 

I'm really excited for the Dune reboot, especially with Denis Villeneuve at the helm and recently announced, Eric Roth who won an Oscar for Forrest Gump is penning the screenplay.

 

The Silver Chair is one of the best books in the series. It doesn't have the Pevensie children in it, which might be good for a reboot. Eustace, Jill and Puddleglum make for a great main cast. I like the Narnia movies, though they aren't as good as the novels (which are some of my favorite children's books). I always secretly hoped they might continue them on, though it's a tricky series to adapt because The Silver Chair and The Horse and His Boy are both basically stand-alone stories with their own unique casts and The Last Battle is the most overtly Christian of any of the books (which they definitely toned down in the films).

 

Granted, a tough sell given the controversial nature of some aspects of the story - but they are GREAT books...

The film had a good cast, high production values, yada yada - but, boy, did that script STINK.....

 

I agree on Dark Materials. Great books.

I really enjoyed the first Narnia movie.

 

Straying rather off topic, but Roth's penchant for re-using the same structure (as he essentially did with Benjamin Button) compels me to lapse into a moment of fantasy, where I try to imagine the tale of Paul Atreides reconfigured to fit the Gump story framework. Hilarity may ensue.

 

I've been watching Denis Villeneuve's other films of late including Sicario and Prisoners not to mention the brilliant Arrival (looking forward to Blade Runner 2049 too). One thing I love about his movies is that he's been using Roger Deakins and his beautifully shot cinematography. No doubt he'll be used for Dune as well so I really do have high hopes. And I'm sure Denis will bring back Johan Johannson to compose the score too.

Anyway, back on topic...

I'm really nervous about The Last Battle. And you're not kidding about the overtly Christian tone of that book too. When I saw the Lost Series Finale I thought how much the closing scene reminded me a lot of TLB. While the next books to continue the franchise may be in reboot form, I still won't mind if Liam Neeson comes back and voices Aslan.

 

I agree with you, the Narnia movies generally got better with each sequel. I think the first one just didn't light the world on fire. So each following movie has been met with increasing indifference.

It doesn't help this franchise keeps switching movie studios for distribution.

 

No thanks, the movies are terrible.

The Definitive adaptation is the BBC Mini Series from the late 80's which went from The Wardrobe to the Silver Chair.