Copious Notes

"The Chronicles of Narnia's" Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson) may have let out his final roar on film.

If you are one of the Chronicles of Narnia enthusiasts who thinks book three, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, was the best of the C.S. Lewis series, you can stop waiting for your cinematic ship to sail . . . at least from Disney.

Over the holidays, the Mouse announced it will not pick up its option to co-produce more films from the Narnia series with Walden Media. The studio said in a faltering economy it had to be choosier about the films it produced. Last summer’s Prince Caspian, the second in the Narnia series, was considered a disappointment after the success of the first film in the franchise, 2005’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which doubled Caspian’s domestic box office gross of $141.6 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

News was no better for another fantasy franchise, The Golden Compass, as Warner Bros. Pictures passed on producing its sequel after a disappointing performance by the first film over the 2007 hoiliday season.

It doesn't look like Dakota Blue Richards will get to reprise her role as Lyra in "The Golden Compass" sequel. Photo by Laurie Sparham | New Line.

We often complain Hollywood makes too many sequels, however these are two a lot of people wanted to see. But it doesn’t seem enough people were interested to justify the expense of more CGI-heavy epics.

Both cases illustrate why it’s hard to build a literary-based franchise.

They were all the rage earlier this decade, as the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter series swept into theaters, wowing viewers and leaving them itching for the next installments. As with any success, Hollywood wanted more, and the Narnia and Golden Compass series seemed like logical places to turn. Narnia has long fascinated readers, particularly Christians who had been flexing some financial muscle in the entertainment industry with successes such as The Passion of the Christ and a growing audience for contemporary Christian music. And Compass was from author Philip Pullman’s hit His Dark Materials series.

If the stories did as well on screen as they did on the page, Disney and New Line Cinema, Compass‘ original home, had built in tentpoles for several blockbuster seasons to come, like Potter and Rings.

But there were flaws with each series.

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