Narnia 3 has a director and a release date

[Michael Stailey]

In other Bond-related news, Andrew Adamson steps out of the director's chair for Book 3 of The Chronicles of Narnia, making way for Michael Apted (The World is Not Enough). The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is scheduled to premiere May 1, 2009.

Sourcce: Variety.com

[BrettCullum]

Love it when they have the THREEquel all lined up even before the sequel shows up. Lucky Narnia though, far more books in that series than THE LORD OF THE RINGS books.

[azul017]

Yeah but the books never really captivated me. They're more simplistic and aimed more towards children, and the dialogue and exposition are just flat and lack pop.

I enjoyed the 2005 version of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe much more than its book counterpart or the BBC miniseries. And I don't understand why Disney didn't make the producers combine the following two books Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader into a big, epic-scale movie like they did with the miniseries. Had the screenwriters just adapted Prince Caspian by itself without padding it, it would probably hit the 90 minute mark and the movie companies practically demand that every movie now be 2 hours or longer now. And it would feel episodic and much too simplistic.

But I'm glad to hear a new director is coming on for the threequel, maybe Apted can spice things up because Adamsen's direction for the first movie was rather safe and limited. But it's nice to hear that Ben Barnes and the returning actors Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley will be back for that movie, too.

[Tinderbox]

I'm glad to see Adamson stepping out of the directing role for the third film, I thought he sanatized the first film a bit too much. The battles should have had more bite -- the books didn't pull punches in that area, there was real menace and danger in the evil characters and events. The books were not as adult-oriented and dense as The Lord of the Rings, but they were certainly not just children's books. I reread them recently and found them quite dark, thrilling, and allegorical as I'd remembered as a youngster.

I'm not thrilled about Apted, who is really hit or miss for me. I hated his Bond film work. I was thinking about this last night, that I'd like to see one of the currently two greatest historical epic filmmakers give a shot at this franchise, namely Mel Gibson or Ridley Scott. I know Gibson tends to be bloody, but no one does authentic historical detail better right now, and we know Ridley can do extravagant fantasy (Legend).