Disney's Narnia?
So, Disney has signed a deal with Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz' Walden Media for rights to produce films based on C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. So far all we really know is it has a budget in excess of $100 million, Andrew Adamson (director of Shrek) will be directing the film, and it's slated for a Christmas 2005 release. The contract will give Disney the right to produce more films based on the series of books.
Doing a little digging, I found that Walden Media signed the deal to produce just such a film back in 2001, so here we are over two years later, and now Disney's involved.
Some more digging confirms that Adamson was apparently already attached to the project since sometime in 2002.
Now, can anyone confirm if this is going to be live action or animated? The 2001 press items stress live action - which is what I'd expect - but they appear to have neglected mentioning it in today's announcement, unless we're either meant to presume that Adamson will only direct animated films. I'm reasonably confident they have the sense to handle it as a live action item, which should mean cattle call casting for a new quartet of would-be child stars in the near future.
I couldn't resist noting all of this, for better or worse, since these books are treasured for various reasons by generations of fans. My expectation is that the aim is to tap into a Harry Potterish vibe, all the way from the positive - encouraging children to read a series of books, to the negative - a horse-choking flood of Christmas 2005 & beyond merchandise.
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