In October, it was reported that Greta Gerwig had been quietly raising the issue of giving her ‘Narnia’ films a theatrical release with Netflix’s newly-appointed film head, Dan Lin.
Given their scope and grandeur, Gerwig had allegedly voiced “concerns” about limiting her ‘Narnia’ movies to Netflix’s streaming platform. The report added that Gerwig was “bummed” by the streamer’s theatrical model. Then again, she knew this would be the case when she signed on to direct these movies.
Then you had another report, with word coming in that Gerwig was trying to get out of her Netflix deal to direct ‘Narnia.’ A few days later, Netflix budged and decided to begin talks with IMAX to grant Gerwig’s wishes and give ‘Narnia’ the theatrical release she desired for the films. A date had even been tentatively set up for the film: Thanksgiving 2026.
We now have another update, via Empire City’s sources, and it’s not good news. Multiple studios —including Disney & Universal — are warning IMAX not to dish out any screens to Netflix for ‘Narnia.’ Exhibitors aren’t on board either with the plan. It sounds like Netflix/Gerwig will not be getting a theatrical rollout after all.
In fact, according to Empire City, it’s now come to the point where they believe that the project is “DOA” and that Gerwig will soon be exiting her ‘Narnia’ deal with Netflix.
Gerwig signed on to direct ‘Narnia’ months before “Barbie” was released in theaters, sometime in late 2022. I don’t think she realized at the time how big “Barbie” was going to be. After “Barbie,” she could have gotten carte blanche on whatever passion project she wanted, but ‘Narnia’ has now turned into a major handicap for her.
Gerwig has admitted to getting “recurrent nightmares” about the project. In another interview, she said she was “terrified.” This isn’t what Gerwig had hoped to happen after her resounding success on “Barbie,” but the only person to blame here is herself, especially since she was the one who signed on to partner up with Netflix on these two ‘Narnia’ movies.
Paul Greengrass’ "The Uprising," starring Andrew Garfield, opened to $3.2M from 2,068 theaters this weekend. Yikes. The budget hasn’t been disclosed, but is said to be in the $20-$30M range.