This isn't exactly fresh news since it was first teased back in January, but the reboot of The Chronicles of Narnia franchise seems to be official. Earlier this year we learned The Silver Chair, the fourth book in C.S. Lewis' beloved series, could be an attempt to relaunch the franchise after prior films failed to connect with audiences. The only one that really performed well at the box office and critically was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe which made $745M in 2005. The next two movies, Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, did about half that.
Well now Deadline reports TriStar Pictures, Entertainment One, the C.S. Lewis Company and the Mark Gordon Company will join forces on The Silver Chair, which has long had Oscar-nominated screenwriter David Magee (Life on Pi) attached. A new director will be found and an entirely different cast brought in to play the characters, most of which will be new to the screen adaptations, anyway. This story takes place in the magical land of Narnia decades after 'Dawn Treader', with the only familiar face other than the lion Aslan being Eustace Scrubb, who was played originally by Will Poulter in his breakout role. It will most likely be recast now, assuming they include the character at all.
There's probably a long way to go before this gets going and it would be in everyone's benefit to just take it slow and get it right. Rushing full steam ahead is what ruined the franchise so quickly in the first place...well, that and an unexciting cast.
