Wednesday, December 24, 2008

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader a "No Go" from Disney








According to our friends at Narniafans.com, Disney has "jumped ship" on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Reuters & The Hollywood reporter say:

“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” will have to sail without Disney.

The studio said Tuesday that for budgetary and logistical reasons it will not exercise its option to co-produce and co-finance the next “Narnia” movie with producer Walden Media.

The third entry in the series, based on the classic books by C.S. Lewis, was in preproduction and set for a spring shoot for a planned May 2010 release. The development puts the participation of the talent attached in doubt. Michael Apted was on board to direct a script by Steven Knight. The key players of the second installment, “Prince Caspian” — Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, William Moseley and Anna Popplewell — were to return for the third film. It is rare for a studio to pull out of a planned trilogy in midstream, but the number-crunching showed a franchise on a downward trend. “Lion” roared to $745 million worldwide. This year, “Prince Caspian” grossed just $419 million.

Read the full piece at Narniafans.com here.