Disney Abandons Third Narnia Film

The Walt Disney Co has decided to step out of the partnered production with Walden Media for the third Chronicles of Narnia film.

While Disney and Walden Media both financed The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (2005) and Prince Caspian (2008), Disney has decided not to take part in the third film. A spokeswoman for Disney stated Wednesday, “budgetary considerations and other logistics,” are why Disney has backed out.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third installment of the Narnia film series, was scheduled to be released in May 2009, then the date was pushed to May 2010. The date of release was further pushed to December 2010, for Disney originally believed that the Christmas release would be more successful than Prince Caspian, which was released between movies like Iron Man and Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Director of the first two films, Andrew Adamson, has also stepped down for directing the third movie, handing the role to Michael Apted. As well, visual effects supervisor Jim Rygiel, composer David Arnold and cinematographer Dante Spinotti are joining the production team. Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes and Ben Barnes will reprise their roles as Lucy Pevensie, Edmund Pevensie and King Caspian, respectively.

Walden Media is now negotiating to produce the film with 20th Century Fox instead.