Official PR from Walden Media

(Los Angeles – November 14, 2008) – Cary Granat, Co-CEO and co-founder of Walden Media, will transition from his Walden position to a consultant for the company effective December 1. Granat will be Walden’s creative consultant on the third installment in THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA franchise – VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER- which the company hopes to greenlight soon. He will also provide consulting services for an initiative with AEG Live, the concert and promotion company owned by Phil Anschutz who also owns Walden.

“This was a mutual decision,” said David Weil, CEO of Anschutz Film Group, Walden’s parent company. “Cary and we both felt this was the right way to formalize the change in the company’s creative direction that will now be overseen by Michael Bostick who was brought in as Co-CEO of Walden earlier this year. We all owe Cary a great debt of gratitude for co-founding the company and guiding the Walden brand to its preeminent place in family entertainment today.”

“I’m extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished in my seven years at Walden. We have been very fortunate, with the unparalleled support of Phil Anschutz, David Weil and the entire team here to create family entertainment that will last for generations. It’s time for me to hit the recharge button and take on a new challenge, but I’ll always look back fondly on my time at Walden.”

Granat will not be replaced and his responsibilities at Walden will now be handled by Weil and Bostick. Granat expects to announce additional future plans shortly.

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We’ve reported on this before, but Variety has recently spoken with Cary Granat, president and co-founder of Walden Media, about his plans for the future of the Narnia series.:

Hopes are highest for “Prince Caspian,” which will cost at least $100 million. Granat promises that the battle-filled sequel is easily distinguishable from its predecessor and the third pic on the sked, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Producers had announced at Comic-Con in July that auds could expect one “Narnia” installment each May for the next few years. Granat is committing publicly to only four or five, saying that “Silver Chair” might be the best bet for the fourth, followed by “Magician’s Nephew,” but he admits that there are a multitude of possibilities.

“There are a lot of stories to be taken from the seven books,” he notes.

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For those of you that are a bit concerned that a new director is taking over for Andrew Adamson on the third installment of the series, this should help to sway you over to his side.

“Michael grew up as a fan of ‘Narnia’ . . . and he has a real connection to the franchise,” Walden Media CEO Cary Granat said. “He blew everyone away with his passion and vision.”

Michael Apted is a very capable director with many films to his name, and he’s got the vision to be able to pull off The Voyage of the Dawn Treader with a steady hand. I look forward to his vision of Narnia, and perhaps having the chance to converse with him some day.

Thanks again to Tarva2Alambil for sending this quote along.

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Michael Apted has signed on to direct Walt Disney Pictures/Walden Media’s “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”

This is the third installment in the series that includes the 2005 film “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” and the upcoming 2008 release of “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.” “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” will begin filming in January and it is set for a May 1, 2009, release date.

Among the cast members who will reprise their “Narnia” roles are Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley and Skandar Keynes.

Mark Johnson returns once again as producer. Andrew Adamson, who directed the first two films in the series, will continue his involvement by also serving as a producer on the project.

“We’re thrilled that (Apted) will be directing ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader‘ and feel that he brings his own unique sensibilities, filmmaking experience, and vision to the project,” said Oren Aviv, president of production for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. “This latest ‘Narnia’ adventure will take people to an entirely different side of Narnia that no one has ever seen before, and is filled with lots of action, adventure, magic and wonder. We think moviegoers are going to be thrilled with this all-new installment.”

Walden Media CEO Cary Granat added, “Michael Apted’s extraordinary body of work has prepared him to tackle this enormously exciting adventure. We just had a wonderful experience working with him on ‘Amazing Grace,’ and we are confident that Michael will deliver a terrific film.”

Thanks to Tarva2Alambil for the link!

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Andrew Adamson is set to return to the director’s chair, having just inked a deal to helm “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.” Adamson also will serve as a producer and co-writer, collaborating with returning scribes Christopher Markus and Steve McFeely. The principal cast is coming back, as is producer Mark Johnson.

A screenplay is not yet written, but production is scheduled to begin this year with an eye toward a Christmas 2007 release. “Caspian” finds the four Pevensie siblings pulled back into the land of Narnia, where 1,000 years have passed since they left. The children are again enlisted to join the colorful creatures of Narnia, who have been driven into the wild, unfriendly parts of the land. The Pevensies must struggle to overthrow a usurping king named Miraz and restore the rightful heir to the throne, the young Prince Caspian.

“Caspian,” published in 1951, is the second book in the seven-book series written by C.S. Lewis.

While it’s no surprise that Disney and Walden would move ahead with a sequel, the behind-the-scenes negotiations have been drawn out. “Narnia” has grossed more than $637.8 million at the worldwide boxoffice. Internationally, it ranks as Buena Vista’s top-grossing live-action release of all time, surpassing “Armageddon” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” with its gross to date of $359.4 million. The film has grossed $278 million domestically and is the studio’s third-highest-grossing live-action film. It is on track to surpass “Pirates’ ” worldwide gross of $655 million to become Buena Vista’s all-time top live-action grosser. The movie also received three Oscar nominations Tuesday.

“I’m unbelievably relieved that what we hoped has happened,” Walden Media co-founder and CEO Cary Granat said about the success of the first film. “It reminds me of when I was kid and saw clouds and wondered how it would be to touch one. And when you’re an adult and you’re on a mountain and actually have a chance to touch one, all you can think is, How cool! We’re incredibly elated right now.”

About Adamson returning, Granat added, “To me, the most exciting aspect of all of this is that there is so much that Andrew wanted to express and do in the first film, and now he’ll have a chance to.”

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Walden Media CEO Cary Granat told Daily Variety that the “Narnia” story of a fractured family coming together has resonated in every market.

“The worldwide audience has genuinely connected with the story’s emotions from Indonesia to Israel,” he added. “And in markets where the ’Narnia’ stories aren’t well known, Disney’s done a brilliant job of marketing.”

The success of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the first published in the C.S. Lewis series but second chronologically, is spurring plans for a sequel based on the next title, “Prince Caspian.” Granat said work on a script is under way, with plans to tap a director within a few weeks.

“We’re planning on starting production by the fourth quarter of next year,” Granat said.

It’s unclear when this interview took place. If it was before New Year’s, “Prince Caspian” would start filming later this year. If not, we have a long wait ahead of us.

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Micheal Flaherty is the president of a movie studio that manages budgets in excess of $100 million. He’s also a Christian. If you think that this might make him the target of a lot of suspicion, you’d be right. Any time big money and religion get mixed, B.S. radars start working overtime. Mine included, alas!

But Flaherty is pretty open about the purpose of Walden Media. He recently told Christianity Today that he and Cary Granat started the company “to find a way to make more great, inspiring films that can lift people up and encourage them.” Because they realized that the “media really does have a role in influencing hearts and minds,” they decided, “rather than just to curse the darkness, to light a few candles and get more great films out there.”

“We try to be a voice for parents, teachers, pastors, youth leaders, librarians – people who work actively with kids,” Flaherty said. “We find out what stories really get these kids motivated to love reading.” So his number one agenda is not, as many liberal skeptics might think, spreading the message of Christianity. It’s also not, as many conservatives suspect, pandering to Hollywood. It’s not even, to be perfectly honest, making “art.”

“We’re trying to build a brand for Walden as something that parents, pastors, teachers and librarians are really comfortable with. So if they see our logo on a movie poster, they’ll know that they’re going to get a certain experience.”

That “certain experience” is familiar to anyone who’s seen one of Walden’s better films: Holes, Because of Winn-Dixie, or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The movies convey a sense that Walden’s production teams really paid attention to the books upon which they were based; that the filmmakers actually liked the books; and that they know how to show an audience a good time. For better or worse, Walden’s films also lack a certain spark, the kind that elevates a film to the level of a cinematic classic.

And that’s probably as it should be, given that Flaherty’s objective is not to inspire the next generation of filmmakers.

[More at Hollywood Jesus]
[Interview at Christianity Today Movies]

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Christians tend to think of Hollywood as a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah inhabited by the living dead. Indeed, evidence would indicate that the Sodom and Gomorrah part is pretty accurate. But its citizenry consists of all kinds, including those who desire to create family friendly films and those who even proclaim a relationship with the Almighty.

One such man is Micheal Flaherty, who, along with college friend Cary Granat, formed Walden Media (”Because of Winn Dixie“; “I Am David“) six years ago. Their purpose was to make great films from celebrated literature.

(Actually, Walden Media is located in Boston, but then, there really is no Hollywood nucleus. The populous of the entertainment community resides throughout the world.)

Forming the film production company was a challenge, one not taken lightly by the company’s founders.

“We want to be the next great trusted brand for families, particularly for teachers, libraries and parents,” Flaherty says. “And we have to deliver on our mission to use the film and the book to make learning more exciting for kids.”

The Walden Media CEO’s now face their greatest challenge and very likely their most rewarding contribution to the film world — the making of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.”

Based on the best-selling children’s book by C.S. Lewis, the story concerns four children who discover a magical wardrobe that transports them into the realm of Narnia, a land inhabited by talking animals and many a life lesson. There, the children join forces with the courageous lion, Aslan, to defeat the evil forces of the White Witch.

“We go to a lot of teacher conferences, library conferences, curriculum conferences,” Flaherty says. “That’s an opportunity for us to ask teachers and librarians what books their students are reading. And what books they want to see made into movies. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe has always been at the top of the list.”

A step up from most children’s fables, the book and the film are full of Christian analogies and symbolism. What’s more, many churchgoers find that the story serves to open a dialogue between parent and child concerning the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf.

Asked if this religious kinship raised eyebrows at Disney, Flaherty says, “No, no one ever separated out themes or characters from the book anytime we had a discussion about it. Everyone embraced it as a great story.”

With Disney embracing the Christian philosophy of C. S. Lewis, surely that means a filmmatic makeover.

“Well first, the film is the book, pure and simple,” Flaherty says. “So any themes in the book are there in the film. For me, the main themes are family and forgiveness. Those are the two great themes. I especially pay attention to them now that I have three children. What’s unbelievable is the friendships between the brothers and sisters in the story. And of course, the theme of forgiveness is beautifully incorporated.”

“There are a couple of educational guides on the site (Walden.com) that parents can work on with their kids. Basically, it details how we brought the book to life. It also goes into some history behind The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and its author.”

If Wardrobe fits moviegoers, will Walden Media embrace other projects by the author?

“I’d love to,” Flaherty said. “One of our first projects was The Question of God, a documentary that examines the religious debate between Sigmund Freud, a life-long critic of religion, and C.S. Lewis, who became America’s most influential proponent of faith based on reason. Screwtape Letters is one of my favorite books and Mere Christianity was one of the most influential books in my life.”

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Though remaining focused on big-budget action films, several big studios are turning to Walden Media to capture some of the family-film market.

Financed by billionaire investor Philip Anschutz, Walden began mining “nice” films in 2001. “There’s been a desire to grow an underserved market with non-cynical family entertainment, films that provide inspirational experiences,” says Walden Media CEO and co-founder Cary Granat.

Walden and Disney teamed on 2003’s Holes, which is based on the Louis Sachar novel and screenplay about a boy who is unjustly sent to a detention center. The $40 million film made $71 million worldwide, and DVD sales have been strong. Less successful was this year’s Walden/Disney remake of Around the World in 80 Days, which cost about $140 million but made just $51.5 million worldwide, a sign that these films, like others, carry risk and aren’t automatic cash cows.

Walden already has struck partnership deals with Disney, 20th Century Fox and Paramount that could result in more than a dozen family films. Walden and Disney will release The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a live-action film based on the C.S. Lewis children’s classic, in December 2005.

The studios are hoping for a Harry Potter-size franchise, with six more films based on Lewis’ novels to follow over the next decade.

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The Walt Disney Studios has entered into an agreement with Walden Media to co-finance and distribute the long-awaited motion picture “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” the first book published in C.S. Lewis’ famed series, it was announced today (3/1) by Dick Cook, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, and Cary Granat, chief executive officer of Walden Media. The live-action film will be directed by Andrew Adamson (”Shrek,” “Shrek 2″) and is scheduled to be released Christmas, 2005, by Walt Disney Pictures. The agreement allows for the continuation of the partnership for future films in the series.

“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe,” the first in an exciting series of films in the making and based on the phenomenal bestselling novels, concerns a war between good and evil, pitting the magnificent lion Aslan against the forces of darkness in the magical world of Narnia. A White Witch has used her dark powers to keep Narnia in winter for 100 years, but it is foretold that four humans will be able to help Aslan break the spell. When the Pevensie siblings — Lucy, Susan, Edmund, and Peter — discover the magic of Narnia by entering the enchanted world through a wardrobe, the stage is set for a classic battle of epic proportions.

Commenting on the announcement, Cook said, “With an exciting and meaningful plot and well-drawn, emotional characters, ‘The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe’ has the potential to be just the start of an extraordinary series of films; the exceptional imagination present in the novels follows in the best Disney tradition. We’re pleased to be partnered once again with Walden Media — I think this is just the kind of movie audiences are looking for, and we’re thrilled to be able to bring it to the screen.”

Cary Granat and Micheal Flaherty, co-founders of Walden Media, added, “Disney has been a great friend and partner, with our company, on ‘Holes,’ ‘Ghosts of the Abyss,’ and this summer’s ‘Around the World in 80 Days.’ The combination of C.S. Lewis’ visionary ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ with the incredible strength and uniqueness of the Walt Disney brand and organization makes this a true dream project for us. This is one of the most imaginative novels ever written, and to bring it to the screen requires a director of equal inventiveness, ingenuity, and spirit. Andrew Adamson is just the guy — he knows better than anyone how to create magic on-screen and tell a story that touches the audience’s hearts. His expertise in visual effects, animation, and live-action will be critical to a fantasy work of this magnitude.”

Adamson added, “‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ were an important part of my childhood just as they are to millions of fans around the world. I hope to bring to the screen a movie that is as real to the audience as Narnia was to me as a child. ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ tells an epic story of great heart, of a family torn apart by a war in our world, who are united in their struggle to save the magical land of Narnia. It’s been a long time dream of mine to bring these classic stories to a new generation of moviegoers and readers.”

Douglas Gresham, stepson of C.S. Lewis, said, “Fans of the series have been waiting for generations for a film that faithfully adapts the Narnia books for the screen. Disney and Walden are a perfect match for the magical world that C.S. Lewis created, and we’re as excited to see the movie as everyone else is.”

A classic series of seven novels that have sold over 85 million copies worldwide, C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia” began with the publication of “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” in 1950. Six more novels (including the prequel, “The Magician’s Nephew,” and the sequels, “The Horse and His Boy,” “Prince Caspian,” “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” “The Silver Chair” and “The Last Battle”) would follow in the next six years. The final title in the series, “The Last Battle,” was awarded the highest mark of excellence in children’s literature, the prestigious Carnegie Award.

About Walden Media

Founded by Cary Granat, former president of Miramax Films’ Dimension label, and educator Micheal Flaherty, Walden Media creates films, television shows, books and interactive media that inspire, engage, enlighten and entertain. Walden believes that quality entertainment is inherently educational and can capture the audience’s imagination, rekindle curiosity and demonstrate the rewards of learning.

Walden Media is a subsidiary of The Anschutz Company. The Anschutz Company is a privately owned investment and holding company with investments primarily in the areas of entertainment, media, telecommunications, natural resources, transportation, and real estate.

For further information, please contact Dennis Rice, Senior Vice President, Publicity of The Walt Disney Studios, +1-818-560-5610; or Alison Lehrer, Vice President, Public Relations of Walden Media, +1-310-887-1052.

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