Greta Gerwig might be honouring her two-film commitment to Netflix’s planned Narnia franchise in one big lump.
Before Barbie became the phenomenon that it did last summer, Greta Gerwig had already agreed her next move: a two-film deal with Netflix to kick off the streaming platform’s latest attempt to launch a big splashy franchise, this time with a series of adaptations of CS Lewis’ beloved Narnia books.
News of Gerwig’s deal with Netflix first emerged towards the end of 2022, a good half a year before Barbie would release to huge acclaim and transform her from a respected director of impressive indie breakouts (Ladybird) and charming literary adaptations (Little Women) into a coveted studio director of blockbuster films with mass market appeal.
To be fair to Netflix, though (and Scott Stuber, the former head of the company’s film division), the folks there managed to tie Gerwig up before the success of Barbie and as such, they find themselves with a big-name filmmaker attached to a project. That’s a feat Netflix has struggled to achieve of late. given that it simply refuses to get into the theatrical business. Instead we’ve seen other respected creators such as Martin Scorsese and Ridley Scott head to other streamers who are willing to be more flexible.
Greta Gerwig has been working on her Narnia films for a while now, and has admitted to getting nervous about the prospect of bringing the books to the screen once again. According to World Of Reel, production on this one is set to kick off in August and is slated to last for seven months.
Given that these days, epic, sprawling film productions that span far past 100 days are largely a thing of the past, we can only imagine that Gerwig is looking to make both films back-to-back. We’ve heard that Netflix’s new head of film, Dan Lin is keen to cut costs so this would make sense for the streaming platform. It also makes sense for Gerwig, as the filmmaker will be able to honour her two-film commitment to Netflix in the space of two years rather than four.
Should this story prove to be accurate, we reckon the first film might be aiming for a Christmas 2025, slot but that all depends on the heavy amount of post-production work that this project will no doubt need. When we hear more to confirm any of this, we’ll let you know.
