Citing “budgetary considerations and other logistics,” Variety reported last week that Disney will not be co-financing The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (aka the third installment of the Chronicles of Narnia franchise) with Walden Media, throwing the future of the entire series into doubt.
The second film didn’t exactly light up the box office this summer the way the first one did, with Prince Caspian pulling only $419 million worldwide, compared to the $745 million that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe pulled in 2005, despite a respectable 66% rating on the Tomatometer.
Scheduled to start production in early 2009 to be directed by Michael Apted (The World is Not Enough), now no one’s sure if they’ll be able to raise part of the proposed $100 million to $150 millon they projected for Dawn Treader. It also doesn’t help Walden’s big summer film—City of Ember—only grossed $13 million worldwide with a production budget of $55 million.
I personally think it’d be a shame if they were to discontinue making these movies, but then again, I am a huge nut for the Narnia-verse, Christian overtones and all.
Leslie says:
Best book of the lot, too, and it won’t get to see the light of day.
slash says:
I wanna see Magicians Nephew…
Genevieve says:
Disney failing in a recession is highly ironic considering its origins. I guess they’ve decided the big money is in Miley Cyrus and her ilk.
And here I thought Disney was just giving up on Dawn Treader because of the difficulty in bloodless battle scenes.