Back in July of 2023, it was announced that Barbie director Greta Gerwig had been hired to write and direct at least two Chronicles of Narnia films for the Netflix streaming service. We haven’t heard any details on this project, we don’t even know for sure which book(s) Gerwig has chosen to bring to the screen, but during an interview with Deadline, producer Amy Pascal said (with thanks to Total Film for the transcription) that Gerwig has a “very new take on Narnia. It’s all about rock ‘n’ roll.” Meanwhile, actor Jason Isaacs is spreading the rumor that the first Narnia book that Gerwig is adapting is the prequel The Magician’s Nephew!
While listing his favorite books, Isaacs told The Week, “I loved all the Narnia books as a kid. When Peter was told he wouldn’t be coming back, I understood something devastating about mortality. I picked this one because Greta Gerwig is about to make a film of it, which I can’t wait to see.“
Netflix acquired the rights to C.S. Lewis’ series of Narnia novels way back in 2018. There are seven novels in the series: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Horse and His Boy, The Magician’s Nephew, and The Last Battle. The first four books have received multiple television adaptations over the decades since they were published in the 1950s. Walden Media made two big screen adaptations with Disney. The first, Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, was an enormous hit in 2005, grossing over $745 million worldwide, but the 2008 sequel Prince Caspian, made significantly less, $419 million. So Walden Media had to go to Fox to get a third movie made, 2010’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. That one made about as much as Prince Caspian.
Like Jason Isaacs, I loved the Narnia books when I was a kid. I haven’t read them since I was a kid, though. I really should revisit them.
If Gerwig is making The Magician’s Nephew, this is the story she’ll be bringing to life: Narnia… a land frozen in eternal winter… a country waiting to be set free. On a daring quest to save a life, two friends are hurled into another world, where an evil sorceress seeks to enslave them. But then the lion Aslan’s song weaves itself into the fabric of a new land, a land that will be known as Narnia. And in Narnia, all things are possible.
Are you looking forward to seeing what a “rock ‘n’ roll” Narnia adaptation from Greta Gerwig is going to be like? What do you think of the idea that she’s making The Magician’s Nephew? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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