The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair movie will be a total reboot of the franchise
Late in 2013, producer Mark Gordon announced that his company had acquired the rights to adapt the fourth book in C.S. Lewis’ fantastic world of Narnia, and shortly afterwards they announced that David Magee, best known for the screenplay for Life of Pi, would script The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair movie. Now Collider finally has an update from Gordon, which reveals that the film is on its merry way.
“We’re hoping to be able to make the movie very shortly,” states Gordon. “We’re very excited about it.”
With Magee’s script completed, a big question would be if any of the young actors from the previous three Walden films would carry over into the new one, which takes place a decade after The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and prominently features the character Eustace Scrubb (played by Will Poulter in the 2010 adaptation).
“No, it’s all going to be a brand new franchise,” confirmed Gordon. “All original. All original characters, different directors, and an entire new team that this is coming from.”
Gordon later confirmed that “original” meant characters from Lewis’ books that have yet to appear onscreen, as opposed to inventions of the screenwriter. It looks like this fourth film is going into total reboot territory, which is not surprising given that the previous films suffered from diminishing box office returns. However, it remains to be seen if those films suffered due to lack of quality or merely public disinterest in seeing any films in the series beyond The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which is by far the most well-known title in the series.
The “Silver Chair” book is described as follows on the official C.S. Lewis site: Through dangers untold and caverns deep and dark, a noble band of friends is sent to rescue a prince held captive. But their mission to Underland brings them face-to-face with an evil more beautiful and more deadly than they ever expected.
Adaptations of the first three Narnia films (The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) have, combined grossed over $1.6 billion at the worldwide box office. Mark Gordon and Douglas Gresham along with Vincent Sieber, the LA based Director of The C.S. Lewis Company, will serve as producers and work with The Mark Gordon Company on developing the film. Michele Wolkoff and Sara Smith will oversee for The Mark Gordon Company.
