Narnia will get another chronicle. Though Disney decided to ditch Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the next installment in The Chronicles of Narnia franchise, Fox 2000 has swooped in to save the day. HR reports they’ve picked up the project with an eye to developing it for release during the holiday movie season of 2010.
Best of all, most of the original elements from previous movies should remain intact. Though the movie will get new funding and new distribution, it’s still being produced by Walden Media, the same company which has made these movies happen all along. In particular Prince Caspian star Ben Barnes is expected to return for the next one. Important since his character is a key figure in the next chapter of the story. It’s also expected that Michael Apted, who directed the last film, will be back to direct this one.
The only question which remains is whether or not Disney made the right move. These movies are fantastically expensive to make and while the last one made money, it did seem clear that both box office take and audience interest was starting to wane. Meanwhile Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a far different, and far less traditional story than the one told in previous movies. It involves a long and meandering sea voyage in which Caspian embarks on a quest to find the lost seven lords of Narnia. There’s no clear, singular villain for the movie to hang its hat on and only two of the Pevensie children show up in the story.
