A look back at Joe Johnston's career shows him to be a director whose films frequently brought a nostalgic touch. He began as a visual effects artist on Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Raiders of the Lost Ark before moving on to direct his own movies. The Rocketeer, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Captain America: The First Avenger, Jurassic Park III, The Rocketeer, and my favorite of the bunch, October Sky, weren't all great movies but they were Johnston in a nutshell. You knew when you were seeing his work and there aren't that many directors who have a style so distinct.. And now Johnston says it's time to call it a career after he wraps up The Silver Chair.
Johnston added Comic-Con Paris and spilled some details on The Silver Chair, the fourth film in The Chronicles of Narnia franchise that ran aground a few years ago. He revealed that the plan is for this to be his final movie as a director, saying he's "ready to go do something else." The 67-year-old director added that The Silver Chair would begin pre-production in the summer with shooting in the winter for a 2019 release.
Considering they are based on the beloved books by C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia has never found the same big screen success as The Lord of the Rings, which it is frequently compared to. The last film, 2010's Voyage of the Dawn Treader, earned just $415M, prompting Walden Media to ditch their long-running relationship with the franchise.
As a result, Johnston says he doesn't want The Silver Chair to resemble the prior movies in any way, and who can really blame him?
"...I don’t want it to look like the other films. I want an audience to look at The Silver Chair and think, “This is a whole new vision of The Chronicles of Narnia.” In fact, I don’t even want to reference the other films. It’s like it’s starting a whole new thing."
