Greta Gerwig’s upcoming take on CS Lewis’ Narnia books could be facing a production delay of several months according to a new report.
Dan Lin and any other film executives attached to Greta Gerwig’s planned Narnia films must be hoping that things soon quiten down with regards to the film’s production because ever since the project was first announced, it’s never been too far from the headlines.
Not too long after signing up for the project, Gerwig’s huge sucess with 2023’s Barbie thrust Netflix’s take on the Narnia films into the spotlight and it’s remained there ever since. From Gerwig publicly admitting that she was having “nightmares” about the project to the director’s rather public display of brinkmanship that seemingly forced Netflix into giving the first planned film a wide IMAX release, it’s been quite the run-in to production.
Apart from the director dropping hints that she wan’t entirely happy and Netflix perhaps irreversibly altering its business model to assuage her, who knows what else has been going on behind the scenes.
According to a new report at Screen Daily previewing all of the big productions filming in the UK this summer, Netflix’s Narnia project is no longer listed, with production reportedly pushed back into the autumn. No detail is offered in the piece but it is being suggested that Producer Amy Pascal’s claim that the film would shoot in July is now in doubt.
The key issue here is that locked-in IMAX window. Normally, Netflix could absorb a delay without too much impact given that it is both production company and exhibitor. but in this rare case, the project is set to debut on IMAX screens. It has a locked-in exhibition window of November 2026 and if it shooting doesn’t get underway soon, that release date is going to start looking like an increasingly tall order.
IMAX’s annual slate is increasingly full of films and as Tom Cruise discovered to his chagrin during the 2023 release of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, persuading the company to alter its release windowing isn’t going to happen. Not least because of the uproar it would cause with Hollywood studios who were already reportedly upset with IMAX for giving Netflix some of its screens whilst refusing to support the wider theatrical business.
Gerwig is a supremely talented filmmaker and the cast for this one looks strong too: Emma Mackey, Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep, and Daniel Craig will all feature in what is believed to be an adaptation ofThe Magician’s Nephew, a prequel tale, set in Victorian times that precedes the later books’ World War II setting. In it, Didgory (later known as the professor) and Polly ‘set off on an adventure with the help of the mad uncle Uncle Andrew. The wood they find them selves in and set off to meet a evil Queen Jadis.’
We’ll bring you confirmation of this report when we hear more.
