Sunday, April 20, 2014

Captain America Writers Talk Next Narnia Movie

Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely were the screenwriters on the first three Narnia movies. They were replaced during pre-production on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader which lead to their work on the Marvel cinematic universe writing Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Thor: The Dark World. They've already been signed to write Captain America 3, and may also work on the Agent Carter miniseries that could come to TV in the mid-season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

They spoke with SuperheroHype, who asked about The Silver Chair, even though Markus and McFeely are not writing the screenplay.
SHH: Before you guys go, I want to quickly ask about “Chronicles of Narnia,” because I’m a huge fan of the books. Do you think there’s a future for the movies as a franchise at this point and are you still involved at all?
Markus: They’re trying to do a fourth one.
McFeely: Yeah, they’re trying to do “The Silver Chair” right now but I don’t think there’s a studio.
McFeely: No, I think they switched producers, but “Silver Chair” I think is a good choice because it’s a pretty coherent adventure that’s not terribly tied to what comes before or after so you can make a really solid adventure movie and not get too bound up inside this other thing. It’s three acts, it’s literally a beginning, middle and end and it feels like a whole story. “[Prince] Caspian” was harder because it takes place a thousand years later and “[The Voyage of the] Dawn Treader” was really hard. We were kicked off that one. The problem with “Dawn Treader” is that it’s a lovely book with no stakes. It’s a philosophical exploration that needed to be turned into a heroic quest, but it basically just wasn't.
McFeely: We always thought that if we did “The Silver Chair,” we’ll crush that one, but everything worked out for a reason. If we stayed with that, we wouldn’t be here.

David Magee is currently writing the script for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair.