America's half-empty shopping malls aren't the only place where big business is sucking its teeth and proclaiming "everything must go". The worsening credit crunch is also threatening the future of some of Hollywood's best-known film franchises.
Disney took advantage of the seasonal news lull last week to quietlyslip out news that it has decided to withdraw from producing The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the next in the Chronicles of Narnia series of films based on the children's books by C.S. Lewis.
Blaming "budgetary considerations" for its decision, the studio said it would not renew an option to co-finance the US$200 million ($346 million) movie because the worsening economic climate has forced it to become more selective about the number of films it produces.
It was the second major fantasy franchise to be unceremoniously cancelled in recent months. Earlier this year, Warner Bros decided not to make a follow-up to The Golden Compass, the first instalment of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. At the time, the studio suggested that the decision to abandon the sequel, The Subtle Knife, had been made because the original had upset Christian groups. However, the real reason was likely to have been more prosaic: The Golden Compass received lukewarm reviews and generated just US$70 million at the US box office. Although the film staved off disaster by taking US$300 million internationally, investors were sceptical about a follow-up.
Even blue-chip film-makers have been unable to raise funds. Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks is facing a rocky year after failing to raise the US$750 million it needs to produce its slate of 17 films. Some of the money was to have been put up by AIG, the insurance giant that collapsed in September. No new investor has emerged.
Even Harry Potter, the most profitable franchise in film history, isn't totally secure. Its screenwriter, Steve Kloves, said recently Warner Bros was worried about prospects for the last three films in the series, since J.K. Rowling is no longer driving hype for the titles by producing new books.
