Netflix to adapt Narnia novels

Three of the Narnia books have been made into feature films, with another, The Silver Chair, on the way

US streamer Netflix has agreed a multi-year deal to develop new series and films based on CS Lewis’s classic children’s novels The Chronicles of Narnia, and has also ordered a basketball-themed animated series.

Under the pact with The CS Lewis Company, the SVoD service will develop stories from the books into series and features for its global platforms. All projects will be Netflix productions in conjunction with transatlantic prodco Entertainment One (eOne).

The Narnia series is one of the most popular children’s literary works of all time with more than 100 million copies, translated into nearly 50 languages, sold worldwide. Three of the books – The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – have been made into feature films. The deal represents the first time the rights to all seven novels are held by the same company.

Mark Gordon, president and chief content officer of eOne, will exec produce the series alongside CS Lewis’s stepson Douglas Gresham and Vincent Sieber, director of The CS Lewis Company.

“CS Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia stories have resonated with generations of readers around the world,” said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix. “Families have fallen in love with characters like Aslan and the entire world of Narnia and we’re thrilled to be their home for years to come.”

“Narnia is one of those rare properties that spans multiple generations and geographies,” Gordon added. “eOne and I are excited to be collaborating with The CS Lewis Company and Netflix, who have the capacity to translate the Narnia universe into both stellar feature-length and episodic programming. We cannot wait to get started on the multiple productions we hope to undertake.”

The success of HBO’s Game of Thrones has led to an arms race among the streamers in the fantasy/sci-fi genre with Netflix’s deal for the Narnia novels following on from Amazon’s US$250m rights deal to serialise JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Elsewhere, Netflix has ordered Hoops, an animated series centring around a foul-mouthed, tetchy high school basketball coach who thinks turning around his useless team will seal his ticket to the big leagues.

The 10×30’ series is produced by 20th Century Fox Television and will star Jake Johnson (New Girl), who wrote, created and exec produces the series. Phil Lord, Chris Miller and Seth Cohen also serve as non-writing exec producers. Bob’s Burgers animators Bento Box will be the animation house for the show.