Disney is slowly ramping up the marketing pitch for Prince Caspian, the second of three Narnia films (more on that in a second) and the outlook (within the movie, at least) is looking more grim. The studio is given over to selling this as a darker movie full of creatures and warfare. You know, one that sells toys and DVDs to 15-year olds. That demo apparently has all sorts of discretionary income. The cuddly Jesus lion is still here, but the trailer (hosted by MySpace) sidelines him in favor of odder beasts, the Teen Beat-ready Caspian and people going ‘Aaarrrgh!’
Will that help? Disney doesn’t seem sure; word out of the NY Comic Con this weekend was that the studio is ready to make only one more film after Caspian. Outrageously good numbers on Narnia 2 and 3 could always push more movies into production, but it now appears that Disney is no longer convinced they can crush Narnia into a Harry Potter-shaped mold. If the film’s final effects and tone are as flat and uninspired as this trailer, that’s probably a good thing.
And in tangental news, Variety reports that the upcoming polygonal advert, or ‘video game’, for Caspian will feature two all-new scenes directed by Andrew Adamson and starring Ben Barnes (Caspian) and Vincent Grass (Dr. Cornelius). The scenes help tie this story to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. No doubt they’ll be on the movie’s DVD in the fall, too.
11 comments
This movie looks ridiculously bad -like Hercules or Xena but not campy or fun. Just flat and stupid. The advertising doesn't do anything for me, either.
Given the source material I think its smart for them to stop at three films. The quality (such as it is) begins to dip and the books become nearly un-filmable. I mean, was Disney ever really considering dropping the prequeltastic The Magicians Nephew right before the climatic Last Battle? Of course if there's a profit to be had I'm sure they'll come up with something.
The Narnia films suck in pretty much every respect, so the sooner they stop making them, the better.
Great books though.
I think this will do enough money to keep the franchise going past 3 films, Narnia 1 did very well everywhere and cleaned up on DVD. If the ludicrous cost of filming these things keeps that from happening, they can always go animated or CG, disney is quite good at that I hear.
An excellent decision to stop the series before the final book, which can be summarized thusly: "All the characters are dead and the world has ended but it's OK because the ones CS Lewis approves of get to go to heaven for being good little Christians. And by the way, nothing that happened before was real or important anyway. Only God and Heaven are real and important." I think my summary was longer than the book.
The source material is fine. 'Tis the director that is obnoxiously bland.
The pessimistic tone of this piece is rather surprising. Regardless of our (the online film community) take on the first film, the general public loved it. That film made $293 mil. U.S. and $754 mil worldwide in competition with King Kong's release. I wonder whether the studio doesn't like what it's seeing this time around; or if someone is unable to remove bias from their interpretation of a stated cautious approach by the studio.
I don't see how we can say a franchise is bad when only one film has been released.
Fact is – the first film was no worse than the first two Harry Potter films; a little bland and sterile.
If there was any mistake made it was in casting. At least the older kids exit the series after this film. Edmund and Lucy, the better characters, stick around for one more film as I understand it.
We'll see how the third one goes. If they can pull a "Prisoner of Azkaban" quality wise, then I see no reason not to make a new film every so often.
Heck, the characters come and go in these books so its not like they are held to actor's aging, developing ego's, etc.
I think this one looks like an improvement. You'd never know it because the writers on this site are still reeling from whatver film they loved opened the same week and got crushed.And for anyone who might've missed the update Man of Steel will never get made, ever…
Settle down, it doesnt look as bad as you say.
Andrew Adamson, one of the finest directors. I have seen the lion, the witch and the wardrobe some days back. It's great. Can't wait to see the sequel- Prince Caspian!!
It's hitting the theaters on the 16th of May in most countries!
I saw the trailer, it's simply amazing. I am in love with Ben Barnes! He's just too cute!!
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