Netflix is going all-in with its upcoming Chronicles of Narnia adaptations as Barbie writer-director Greta Gerwig has been tapped to direct not one but two Narnia movies.
The news was confirmed in a recent interview with The New Yorker, where Mattel executives and Gerwig’s team spoke about the upcoming Barbie movie and the ongoing search to find more intellectual property to adapt.
“Greta and I have been very consciously constructing a career,” Gerwig’s UTA agent Jeremy Barber explained in the interview. “Her ambition is to be not the biggest woman director but a big studio director. And Barbie was a piece of I.P. that was resonant to her.”
C.S. Lewis’ popular fantasy novels were previously adapted for a big-screen trilogy from 2005 to 2010, starring the likes of Tilda Swinton, Liam Neeson, James McAvoy, and Peter Dinklage.
Netflix secured a deal with The C.S. Lewis Company in 2018, obtaining the rights to all seven Narnia books (the first time a single company has held the rights to the entire collection). While details of the projects remain scarce, the franchise is expected to include movies and TV series based on the novels.
Mark Gordan, Douglas Gresham, and Vincent Sieber of entertainment company eOne are set to serve as executive producers on all upcoming Narnia projects.
“Narnia is one of those rare properties that spans multiple generations and geographies,” Gordon told Deadline in 2018. “We cannot wait to get started on the multiple productions we hope to undertake.”
“It is wonderful to know that folks from all over are looking forward to seeing more of Narnia, and that the advances in production and distribution technology have made it possible for us to make Narnian adventures come to life all over the world,” added Lewis’ stepson Douglas Gresham. “Netflix seems to be the very best medium with which to achieve this aim, and I am looking forward to working with them towards this goal.”
Gerwig is a three-time Oscar-nominated writer-director for her films Lady Bird and Little Women. She most recently wrapped up production on Barbie and had an acting role in Noah Baumbach’s Netflix movie White Noise. She is also on board as a writer for Disney’s upcoming live-action version of Snow White. Barbie hits theaters July 21.
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