Naked Came I

Looks like the Dawn Treader is sunk.

Walt Disney Pictures has decided not to co-produce and co-finance The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third installment in the Chronicles of Narnia fantasy franchise. The film was already in preproduction and shooting was to have started in just four months. The film was due to be released in May 2010 release.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was the fifth of the "Narnia" books to be released. After Lewis' death, the books in the series were re-ordered, and now it comes third. It picks up where Prince Caspian let off: Edmund and Lucy Pevensie are spending the summer with their cousin, the cowardly and greedy Eustace Scrubb. The children are magically transported through a painting of a ship to Narnia and deposited on King Caspian's ship, the Dawn Treader. Caspian (accompanied by Reepicheep) had vowed to Aslan to seek the Seven Lords of Narnia, and is about to go on that voyage. The book is highly episodic in nature, with little fighting or action. Seven islands are visited, each representing a different area of sin. On the first, Caspian and Co. are sold into slavery, but their buyer turns out to be the First Lord, Bern. Eustace finds a dragon's hoard, puts on a gold bracelet and is turned into a dragon. Aslan appears to help turn him back, and Eustace puts aside greed and cowardice (realizing the dragon was the Second Lord, who never could abandon his avarice). At another island, they find the Third Lord has himself been turned into gold. The Fourth Lord has gone mad. One the last island, they find the remaining Lords in an enchanted sleep. A fallen star (or angel), Ramandu, rules the island and tells them that the only way to waken the Lords is to sail to the edge of the world in the East and leave someone behind. The Dawn Treader does so, encountering the mer-people before the water becomes to shallow to go further. Caspian wants to sacrifice himself, but Aslan appears and tells him that Lucy, Edmund, Eustace and Reepicheep should go instead. The four row a longboat across a sea of flowers, and find a wall of water marking the edge of the world. Reepicheep rows up it, becoming the one who stays behind. Edmund, Lucy and Eustace find another island and see a lamb on it. The lamb turns into Aslan, who tells them that Edmund and Lucy can never return to Narnia. All three children are sent back to the real world. Caspian marries Ramandu's daughter.

The C.S. Lewis estate holds the motion picture rights to the Narnia books. In 2001, in the wake of the massive success of Warner Bros.' The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Walden Media's Perry Moore (the openly gay author of last year's gay superhero book, Hero) negotiated the rights for the "Narnia" books. Walden Media was founded in 2000 by right-wing fundamentalist Christian billionaire Philip Anschutz, and its mission is to produce morally-uplifting, family-friendly music, books, magazines and films.

On March 1, 2004, Walden Media and Walt Disney Pictures signed a co-production agreement in which Disney. The two studios had inked a two-year film distribution agreement in 2003 for Walden's other properties (Holes, Bridge to Terebithia, Ghosts of the Abyss, Around the World in 80 Days), and Walden was happy with Disney's family-friendly approach and distribution network. The co-production agreement split production and P&A (prints and advertising) costs as well as profits 50-50, capped production costs at a pre-determined level (Walden shouldered any overages), and gave Disney an additional $10 to $20 million payment for distributing the films. The pact was exclusive, which meant that Walden had to take all film properties to Disney first, and that even if Disney turned the property down Walden could not take it to another studio for co-production or produce the property itself.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe began production immediately, with Shrek director Andrew Adamson in charge. The film cost $180 million to make (on budget), with worldwide P&A costs of $86 million. The film grossed $745 million worldwide, for a $106.5 million profit (or $53.25 million for each producing partner).

The second film, Prince Caspian, directed by Adamson, cost $200 million. Worldwide P&A was $86 million, and worldwide box office gross was just $419 million. The partners took a $76.5 million loss on the film, or a loss of $38.25 million each.

Michael Apted (Coal Miner's Daughter, Gorillas in the Mist, The World Is Not Enough) was tapped to helm The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

The production was troubled from the get-go. Disney wanted to limit the budget for Dawn Treader to $100 million, but Walden wanted $140 million. A final budget had not yet been established, but was probably going to be in the $120 million to $130 million range. Originally, filming was to begin in January 2008 for a May 1, 2009, release date. Shooting would have begun in Malta, and then moved to Prague and Iceland. The Malta and Iceland locations were then rescheduled to shoot at Playas de Rosarito, Baja California, at the water tank used for Titanic. After concerns grew about gang warefare, kidnapping and extortion in Mexico, the production was re-scheduled yet again so that all shooting would occur in Australia (New Zealand was in the running for a time, but the worsening exchange currency exchange rate led the production to choose Australia instead).

The poor box office for Prince Caspian caused Disney to hesitate. Disney execs claim that scheduling the film for release in the summer blockbuster season meant it got eaten alive by other powerhouse films. Walden Media execs claimed that Prince Caspian is the least-popular of the books, and Dawn Treader is the second-most popular after Lion.

Disney lost the scheduling battle, and release of the film was delayed from Christmas 2009 to May 7, 2010; filming was pushed back to October 2008. Disney later claimed this was to accommodate the "heavy" shooting schedule "the children" would have to endure. Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian) is 27 years old, and would turn 28 during the shoot. Skandar Keynes (Edmund) is 17 years old, and would 18 during the shoot. Only Georgie Henley (Lucy) would be a child any more; she would be 14 during most of the shoot. Instead of three locations (Malta, Iceland, Prague), there will now be just one. It's not clear exactly why Disney thinks this would be a "heavy" shooting schedule for two adults and a teenager.

Although Disney is citing the likelihood that the film's budget will see significant overruns, in fact Disney is not at risk for any of these costs due to the caps in its agreement with Walden.

Far, far more likely is that Disney felt that no "Narnia" picture is going to make money after this. The agreement Disney has with Walden Media includes all rights to figurines, video games, music, posters, clothing, DVDs -- the whole works. Disney had marketed the living hell out of Lion, and made millions on the licensing. That Disney couldn't make money off Prince Caspian, and believes it will lose money on Dawn Treader says something pretty fucking amazing about the lack of popularity of these films, and about just how boring and stupid Dawn Treader would be as a motion picture.

Dawn Treader will most likely be shot nonetheless. In 2005, Walden Media let its film distribution deal with Disney lapse. It quickly established a new deal with 20th Century Fox. The new deal forces Fox to pick up all P&A costs, rather than sharing them 50-50. It also has no caps on production costs, and there is no exclusivity provision (meaning Walden is free to take properties anywhere it wishes, and Fox has no right of first refusal). Walden is most likely to take the picture to Fox, which may or may not help finance it. However, unless Walden guarantees financing, the film will be put on hiatus. This will free Apted to leave the picture (he has directing jobs coming up after "Narnia," and any delay longer than a month in the production schedule means he will bail from the film -- with pay!). Significant delays may also make Ben Barnes and Skandar Keynes unavailable for the production, as well as other actors and actresses, cinematographers, composers, editors, and visual effects companies attached to the film.

It may be that Disney was also looking ahead toward the next several books in the series, and not seeing much of value. Book Four, The Silver Chair, is a rant against psychology (Tom Cruise, call your office). Eustace and a new character, cousin Jill Pole, travel to Narnia to escape some bullies. It is far in the future, and King Caspian Xth is traveling East to seek Aslan after his son, Prince Rilian, disappeared some years before. Accompanied by a talking grey frog with big ears and grey hair, Puddleglum, they cross into the Land of the Giants. They are almost killed by giants rolling boulders as dice, nearly die of exposure, and are almost eaten by giants. Using clues left by Aslan, they journey underground to the Green Witch's lair, and free a boy who is tied to a silver chair (Rilian). Rilian kills the Witch (who herself had killed Rilian's mother, the Queen), and all three return to Narnia. King Caspian is turned into a young man again so he can enjoy his son.

Bleah.

Book Five, The Horse and His Boy, features a boy, Shasta, and his talking horse, and a girl, Aravis, and her talking horse. They try to escape the land of the Calormenes, Narnia's enemies. They run into some Narnian nobility, and learn that a Calormene prince, Radabash, tried to force Queen Susan to marry him. The Narians escaped, but Aravis is trapped in the Calormene castle. Luckily, she overhears the Calormene plan to invade Narnia, and (reuniting with the horses and Shasta) flee toward the border-state of Archenland (which lies between Narnia and Calormene). They help the Archenlandians prepare for war, and fend off the evil Calormenes. Shasta, it turns out, is an Archenland prince (gee, will the coincidences never end). None of the Pevensie children feature in this book, nor does Narnia. Aslan appears multiple times. While there's a lot of battles, near-escapes, evil kings, talking horses, and the like in this novel, it lacks the association with Narnia and none of the actors or actresses from previous films appear in it.

Book Six, The Magician's Nephew, is a prequel. Digory and Polly have a magician as an uncle, and he accidentally sends them into a different dimension. They awaken an evil queen, Jadis, who follows them back to London. Trying to escape Jadis, Digory and Polly accidentally drag their uncle, a hansom driver named Frank, and the hansom's horse (Strawberry) into a world which is just being created by Aslan. Jadis attacks Aslan with an iron bar, but he turns it into the lamppost seen in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Aslan transforms Strawberry into a winged horse, and tells Digory and Polly to get a magic apple to plant to keep Narnia forever young. They fly to the garden to get the apple, and Jadis (already there) tells them it grants eternal life. Untempted, they fly back to Aslan. He rewards them by saying Frank and his wife can be king and queen of Narnia. He gives Digory an apple to heal his mother anyway, and sends them back to Earth. His mom cured, Digory buries the apple in the back yard. It grows into a huge tree. Years later, the tree is blown down. Digory uses the wood to build a wardrobe... Some of this novel's plot was included in the first "Narnia" film. The film would have a fairly low budget. But there is precious little action in it, outside the flight to escape Jadis through the pools.

Book Seven, The Last Battle, occurs about 200 years after the events of The Silver Chair. An ape has put a donkey in a lion's skin, and says this is Aslan. People are doing all sorts of evil things, even saying that the Calormene god (Tash) is the same as Aslan. King Tirian tries to tell the people the truth, but the Calormenes tie him to a tree and leave him to die. He calls on Aslan, who allows a vision of Tirian to be witnessed by Peter, Edmund, Lucy, Eustace, Polly, Digory, and Jill. Jill and Eustace arrive first, rescue Tirian, and they prepare to stop the Calormene invasion. They are captured and tossed along with the donkey into a dungeon, where they discover that Tash is a demon and very, very real. Tash eats the ape. Tirian kidnaps the Calormene king, and feeds him, too, to Tash. Peter and the others appear, and Peter orders Tash out of Narnia; Tash goes. Aslan appears and judges all the people, living and dead in all of Narnia's history. Many are judged to be evil, and so vanish into darkness. Aslan opens a magical door, and allows all the children, Tirian, and the good animals and people to pass into "real Narnia". Only Susan remains on Earth; we learn all the children died in a train crash, except her -- and she's given up faith in Narnia for materialism. The book is full of idiotic deus ex machina plot devices, has an ending that drags on for chapters and chapters, and is so blatantly allegorical that it's creepy.

Labels: cinema, literature