Prince Caspian Hasn’t Destroyed Narnia

Comingsoon.net is reporting that Will Poulter has been cast as Eustace Clarence Scrubb in the third Narnia movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. This is three kinds of excellent:

1) Before Prince Caspian debuted in theatres, Disney expressed doubt about whether the entire Narnia series would be adapted, and hinted that much depended on Caspian’s performance. As we now know, the film debuted weakly and subsequently dropped like a stone, not even approaching The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’s $300 million domestic take. After such a dismal performance, some of us began to wonder whether Disney would go ahead with a third installment. Poulter’s casting is a clear sign that the flick is moving forward. Count me excited, as The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is my favorite book in the series.

2) Will Poulter was nothing less than fantastic in Son of Rambow (which you should go see right now, before it disappears!) His performance as Lee Carter was both touching and hilarious, which is a rare achievement for a 13-year-old. I sort of imagined Eustace as more weasely and less thuggish, but I still think this casting works, and can’t wait to see it.

3) This kind of blockbuster exposure just might cause a few people to go check out Son of Rambow. Did I mention that it’s pretty good?

With Andrew Adamson stepping out of the director’s chair, I’m hoping we might actually get a good movie. I was extremely disappointed in the first film–so disappointed, in fact, that I didn’t even see the sequel. Hmmm… perhaps similar stories account for Caspian’s poor performance? Adamson’s first film was very workmanlike, and simply didn’t capture the wonder of these masterful stories. Here’s hoping Michael Apted has something more interesting up his sleeve.