After Prince Caspian didn’t perform to expectations at cinemas, there was doubt whether they’d actually make the planned third Narnia film, The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader. Things looked even more dire when Disney announced they were leaving the mega-bucks franchise, but the production company behind the film series, Walden Media, managed to to get 20th Century Fox involved, and so the Narnia adventures lived again.
Fox apparently signed up hoping for their own own Harry Potter franchise, although it’s difficult to imagine that with the less than spectacular business for Prince Caspian, the series will get through all seven of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia novels.
Either way it appears that Dawn Treader is indeed going ahead, with several places saying that principal photography has just started in Queensland, Australia. This one sees Lucy and Edmund return to Narnia, along with their cousin Eustace (series newcomer Will Poulter), where they join Caspian, who’s now a king, for a trip across the seas, meeting all sorts of fantasy danger as they try to find the seven lost Lords of Narnia for Aslan.
It may be heresy to say it, but it’s probable that the reason Prince Caspian didn’t do that well (and in our opinion neither will many of the other sequels), is that they’re simply not as good stories as The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. That said, if any of the other books can breath new life into the franchise, it’s Voyage Of The Dawn Treader. The movie is currently due for release on December 10th, 2010.