The Silver Chair to be Joe Johnston’s last film, shooting starts next winter
Director Joe Johnston attended Comic Con Paris the last few days and gave an update on The Silver Chair, the adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ fourth book in the Chronicles of Narnia series. The filmmaker, behind such movies as The Rocketeer, Jumanji, Jurassic Park III, and Captain America: The First Avenger, told attendees that the plan is for The Silver Chair to be his last film as a director. Pre-production is expected to start next summer, with filming taking place next winter for a 2019 release. They are eyeing South Island, New Zealand for the filming.
Johnston told the crowd that he doesn’t want to reference the other films and that they are “starting a whole new thing.” Sony’s TriStar Pictures has teamed with The Mark Gordon Company, The C.S. Lewis Company, and Entertainment One (eOne) to adapt the Narnia story.
The script for The Silver Chair, Lewis’ fourth book in the Chronicles of Narnia, has been adapted by David Magee, the two-time Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of Life of Pi and Finding Neverland. Mark Gordon, C.S. Lewis’ stepson Douglas Gresham, Vincent Sieber, and Melvin Adams serve as producers.
The seven original novels have sold over 100 million copies worldwide, and have been published in more than 50 languages. The Chronicles of Narnia began with the publication of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in 1950. Six more novels (including the prequel, The Magician’s Nephew, and the sequels, The Horse and His Boy, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair and The Last Battle) followed over the next six years. The final title in the series, The Last Battle, was awarded the highest mark of excellence in children’s literature, the prestigious Carnegie Award.
At the box office, the Narnia franchise has taken in nearly $1.6 billion worldwide with three feature films: 2005’s The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, 2008’s Prince Caspian and 2010’s The Voyager of the Dawn Treader.
(Thanks to ‘Alex Brown.’ Photo Credit: Getty Images)