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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - for which pre-production work is underway in New Zealand - will not be backed by Disney.
Disney and Walden Media confirmed this week that for budgetary and logistical reasons the Burbank-based studio is not exercising its option to co-produce and co-finance the next Narnia movie with Walden, the Hollywood Reporter said.
The third entry in the series, based on the classic books by C.S. Lewis, is in pre-production and set for a spring shoot for a planned May 2010 release.
Michael Apted is on board to direct a script by Steven Knight. The key players of the second instalment, Prince Caspian - Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, William Moseley and Anna Popplewell - were to return for the third film, but some talent was understood to be left in doubt.
Walden has a strong relationship with the Lewis estate and will look for a new partner. The most likely candidate at this stage is Fox, which markets and distributes Walden fare under the Fox Walden banner.
Caspian, which filmed in the Czech Republic, Mexico and New Zealand, cost US$200 ($357) million. The first film, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, was shot mostly in New Zealand for US$180 million.
It is rare for a studio to pull out of a planned trilogy in midstream, but the number-crunching showed a franchise on a downward trend.
Lion roared to US$292 million domestically and another US$453 million internationally in 2005. This year, Prince Caspian grossed a healthy US$141 million in North America and another US$278 million internationally, but that was well off the Lion take.
- NZPA
