Disney and Walden Media confirmed yesterday that the Mouse House will not be exercising its option to co-produce and co-finance the next Narnia film with Walden. The reason given concerned "budgetary and logistical" matters according to The Hollywood Reporter."The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" was prep with a spring shoot planned --on track for release in May 2010.
Michael Apted was due to direct a script by Steven Knight, and cast members from the first two films were set to return .
Walden is expected to shop "Treader" around in hopes of finding a new partner with Fox looking the most likely contender.
The previous film Prince Caspian cost $200 million and notably underperformed, may cause the entire franchise to be scuttled. The failure of other recent non-Potter/Rings fantasy features like "The Golden Compass" have made the kid-friendly fantasy features a very risky and expensive proposition.
If the Narnia francise goes bust in mid-stream than surely some others only in the pipeline will be scrapped altogether--Given the times in which we live...
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