Magician's Nephew?!?!

I have two stories to share with you today. First, Perry Moore, the Executive Producer of Walden Media and for all three Narnia Films, died suddenly two days ago. Dad told me, and I ran to check it out online. I posted this about him on Aslan's Country:

Perry Moore, the executive producer at Walden Media and of the three Narnia movies died yesterday at age 39. He was found dead in his apartment in New York, probably due to an overdose of OxyContin. You can read more here.

His site, PerryMooreStories.com, says this about his involvement in Narnia:

Perry Moore is a best-selling author, film producer, screenwriter, and director, best known as the executive producer of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

A longtime production executive for Walden Media, Moore was instrumental in bringing The Chronicles of Narnia series to the company. After landing the rights to the C. S. Lewis series, he moved into a production deal with the company. The film represents his first as a motion picture executive producer.

In addition to his work in production and development, The CS Lewis Company appointed Moore to write The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion, a New York Times Bestseller.

I have read the LWW Movie Companion. It is one of my favorite books! I’d encourage you to read it also. Perry Moore did a great job.

He continues his role as executive producer of Prince Caspian, due to be released in 2008, and will continue with the third in the Narnia franchise, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. He is such a rabid fan of the Chronicles of Narnia, he hopes to see all seven books in the series adapted into films.

Perry Moore was instrumental in bringing the Narnia books to film, and he hoped to see all seven made. I pray they will all be made, in honor of him. Thanks, Perry, for all you did to make Narnia come to life.

Now the question is... What will happen to the Narnia series? Surely, as I reported recently, talks of greenlighting Silver Chair were happening. Now will they be put on hold? I always held on to the hope that Walden Media wanted to make the whole series, because they continued even when Disney dropped out. Was Perry the only person at Walden that wanted to do all seven? Maybe this is the end. More likely, they will make another Narnia film dedicated to him. Mark Johnson, the Producer of all three films, was reported as wanting to make Silver Chair next. Liam Neeson said he wanted to see all seven films made.

We just waited for a day... then this showed up in our news feed:

"Magician's Nephew Greenlit?"


Why? Here's what started the whole thing: an article from wtkr.com about Perry Moore's death which talks about his last conversation with his mother.

Moore's death came as he was poised for even greater successes, his family said.

"The night before he died, he had an hour-long conversation with his mom," father Bill Moore said as he waited at the airport for a flight to New York. "He had gotten all the good news he could possibly get."

Perry Moore told his family he'd secured financing for another Narnia movie, "The Magician's Nephew." He was also working with Starz, a cable-movie company, to adapt his novel, "Hero," and he was preparing to meet with actress Julianne Moore on another project.

"He had everything in the world going for him," his father said. "He was very upbeat."

Magician's Nephew????

I'll give you three good reasons why they should make The Silver Chair first. Then three comforting thoughts.

1. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader leads up to The Silver Chair so well! (In my VDT review, I list some of the ways: The green mist, the reference to Jill Pole, etc.) I think the producers were expecting SC would come next.
   
2. If they do Magician's Nephew now, when they do Silver Chair, Will Poulter (our Eustace) will be too old! He's already pushing the age he's supposed to be in SC. And they cannot recast Eustace. Will Poulter is perfect, and he deserves to play Eustace Scrubb in The Silver Chair! Tilda Swinton (our Jadis) was quoted as saying she really wanted to do Magician's Nephew next. (Of course! She's a main character, and she's not in SC. Maybe that would be good though. Get Jadis over with, and do the last three books without her.) But Will is growing up! Tilda Swinton can wait. Will Poulter can't.
3. The story continuity keeps going if SC is next. It has the same characters (Eustace, Caspian, Trumpkin, Liliandil) and starts where VDT left off! It is the logical one, story-wise, to do next.

Comforting thoughts:

1. Magician's Nephew may be more popular than Silver Chair. Would people rather see a sequel to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader or a prequel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? It's the book that tells how Narnia began. How the Lion created Narnia, how the Witch got to Narnia, and how the Wardrobe got in the Spareoom. It will be a great movie! (like Silver Chair, Horse and His Boy, and the Last Battle...)
   
2. Perry Moore's mother may have messed up. Maybe he really meant Silver Chair? Ok it sounds far-stretched, but wouldn't it be funny if all of this fuss was for nothing? Over a typo?
   
3. They're almost definitely going to continue the series!! We want to see all seven made, and if Magician's Nephew is greenlit, that will be the fourth out of seven. I think if they get one more made, they will make them all. No more worry about the next film being greenlit.

And we wait. I'll let you know when anything is announced officially. :)

Images: Aslan's Country, RJ.