Netflix Recruits ‘Coco' Scribe For ‘Narnia’ Revival

First announced in October 2018, Netflix’s plan to revive “The Chronicles of Narnia” for film and television started picking up steam on Wednesday. Variety reports that Matthew Aldrich, co-writer of Pixar’s “Coco,” has been brought on to serve as a creative architect to oversee all of the streaming giant’s “Narnia” content.

Netflix and The C.S. Lewis Company struck a multi-year deal in 2018 to Lewis’s classic fantasy series into a series of films and television shows for the streaming platform. This is the first time that the rights to all seven books have been owned by one company. Under this deal, Netflix will be working in partnership with the Canadian production giant, Entertainment One, and producer Mark Gordon (“Saving Private Ryan”).

Lewis’s “Narnia” books were most recently adapted to film by Walden Media from 2005 to 2010. Adaptations of the second and fourth books, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” and “Prince Caspian,” were released by Disney, while an adaptation of the fifth book, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” was released by Fox. The three films collectively grossed around $1.5 billion worldwide.

Further films stalled after Walden’s film rights expired in 2011, but in 2016, TriStar Productions and The C.S. Lewis Company announced plans to reboot the series with an adaptation of the sixth book, “The Silver Chair,” to be directed by Joe Johnston (“Captain America: The First Avenger”). These plans were halted after Netflix entered the picture.

Aldrich co-wrote “Coco” with Adrian Molina, and developed the story with Molina, Lee Unkrich (“Toy Story 3”), and Jason Katz. The film went on to gross $807 million worldwide and win Oscars for best animated feature film and best original song.