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Fox signs on for next ‘Narnia’ film Print Email
Written by Eric Tiansay   
Thursday, 29 January 2009 04:23 PM America/New_York
A month after Walt Disney Pictures dropped its plan to co-finance the third movie in "The Chronicles of Narnia" film series, Walden Media has found a new partner in 20th Century Fox, Variety reported.

Fox--which was entitled to first crack at The Voyage of the Dawn Treader after Disney pulled out because of the shared Fox Walden marketing and distribution label--has made a commitment to develop the project. The two sides are still working out budget and script issues, but the plan is to shoot the film at the end of summer for a holiday 2010 release through the Fox Walden label, Variety reported.

Ben Barnes, Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley are reprising their roles as Caspian, Edmund and Lucy, respectively. New to the production is Will Poulter (Son of Rambow), who will portray Eustace Clarence Scrubb, according to Variety. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is being directed by Michael Apted, with Mark Johnson and Andrew Adamson producing.

The second movie in the "Narnia" series, Prince Caspian--which had a $215 million production budget and was recently released on DVD--was considered a disappointment last year, earning $419 million worldwide in ticket sales, a drop from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe's worldwide total of $745 million.

Disney balked at the cost of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which is projected to have a $140 million production budget, and opted out, the Los Angeles Times reported. The "Narnia" agreement with Disney was at one time said to include a total of nine features based on the popular books by author C.S. Lewis.