20th Century Fox pick up the NARNIA series
Disney's epic plan to co-release seven NARNIA movies, one every May, hit a massive roadblock last year when PRINCE CASPIAN made just $141 million domestic, around half of what THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE had earned at the back end of 2005. CASPIAN wasn't a financial failure for Disney thanks to it's big worldwide appeal but the studio saw the crumblings, the beginnings of a sinking ship. They bailed out before they hit that iceberg, in these economically poor times they weren't willing to bank on a project which showed signs of problems. Around a month later and Variety say 20th Century Fox are taking a gamble on the franchise and have snapped up the rights to the rest of the series, co-financing with Walden Media. They will split the $140 million production budget (considerably less than $215 million for CASPIAN) but it's unknown if new director Michael Apted (AMAZING GRACE, ENIGMA) and writer Richard LaGravanese (P.S. I LOVE YOU, FREEDOM WRITERS) will be kept on. The plan is to shoot late Summer for a release sometime next year, aiming probably for a more audience friendly Christmas release like the first time. I didn't bother to see PRINCE CASPIAN last Summer and now to think the franchise is in the hands of the guy who greenlit ERAGON, well it doesn't fill me with a ton of hope.