The two sides are still working out budget and script issues, but the hope is to shoot the film at the end of summer for a holiday 2010 release through the Fox Walden label...The Century City studio seems to be an ideal fit for the "Narnia" books given that it's been looking for a family-friendly, lit-based franchise for years — Fox 2000's "Eragon" failed to catch on with audiences and died after one installment.

Fox and Walden will split production and P&A costs for "Dawn Treader," which is projected to go into production at a $140 million budget. That's considerably less than the $215 million or so spent on last year's "Prince Caspian," which was considered something of a box office disappointment as compared with the first "Narnia" pic, 2005's "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" ($419 million vs. $745 million worldwide, respectively).

Still, "Caspian," which is considered the least commercially appealing of the seven C.S. Lewis "Narnia" novels, ranked No. 10 in global box office performance last year.

OK, first of all: Caspian is the "least commercially appealing of the seven novels"? Apparently Variety is all too willing to gobble the Fox line, as there are way more expendable novels coming up (A Horse and His Boy, anyone?) and Caspian had the virtue of reuniting the first film's four child stars, something no other installment does.

Also, citing Fox's misfire with Eragon is a bit disingenuous, as that trifle actually performed decently: almost $250 million worldwide on a $100 million budget for a glorified Sci-Fi channel TV-movie. Variety should have instead chosen to highlight Fox's most recent massacre, the botch job it did to the Dark is Rising franchise. Americanized and retitled The Seeker, the 2007 kickoff installment grossed a stunningly low $31 million. Yes, that includes worldwide. Citing that project, though, would have shone a spotlight on Fox's fanboy-infuriating development practices.

(Still, there's at least one silver lining: Variety says that Eustace in Treader will be played by Will Poulter of the delightful, child-friendly Son of Rambow. Anything that might bring more eyes to this underappreciated modern classic, the better.)

• Fox to develop 'Narnia' [Variety]

Eventually, the Narnia franchise was always going to present something of a challenge to put on film. Though it contains seven books, just like Potter, it's hard to imagine that Disney would ever bankroll a $200 million production of a novel as flimsy as The Horse and His Boy. And though we would have loved to see the studio deal with some of the crazy situations served up in the series' apocalyptic final book (like the premise that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe's dear, sweet Susan can't get into Heaven because she committed the cardinal sin of wearing lipstick and is thus no longer a "friend of Narnia"), we suppose we'll just have to stave off those hopes unless Fox picks the franchise up and guides it to its moralizing conclusion.

Still, it should have been clear this was coming: Disney had long ago readied Michael Apted to begin pre-production on Steven Knight's adaptation of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (the series's third book), then remained conspicuously quiet on the matter after the first sequel, Prince Caspian, performed below expectations. Here's the thing, though: the fizzling of Prince Caspian was all Disney's fault.

One of the perils of adapting the Narnia series is that the four original, much-loved children from Wardrobe don't stick around for many further installments. However, they still remain in Caspian — so why didn't Disney choose to advertise that fact instead of putting franchise newcomer Ben Barnes (as Caspian) front and center in its advertising campaign (left)? With the trailers' high emphasis on action, CG battles, and a generic hero and villain, it came off as Eragon 2 instead of the continuation of a family franchise.

Disney also erred in its choice of release date for Caspian. The original, religion-tinged Wardrobe cleaned up in a Christmas-adjacent December slot where it eventually grossed almost five times its opening weekend figure—a practically unheard-of multiplier for such an enormous film. However, Disney tossed Caspian to the wolves in its summer slot this year: no religious holidays, an unusually family-friendly slate of competition that wedged it right in between Iron Man and Indy, and a brutal landscape of screen turnover that allowed it little chance of retaining its multiplier (even the leggy Iron Man only grossed triple its opening weekend). Perhaps Disney was rushing the film, or perhaps they were afraid of going up against the Harry Potter sequel that was originally scheduled for this winter, but it's hard to argue that the studio wouldn't have found more success with Caspian right now.

Good job screwing up a good thing, Disney. Now we'll never get to see that hot centaur spinoff featuring James McAvoy!

• Disney jumps ship on next 'Narnia' [THR]

But still, Get Smart versus Love Guru is a hell of a quandary. So just for the hell of it, let's hear what the put-upon, overproducing likes of Alan Horn and even Dick Cook are complaining about today:

Adding to their costs, movie companies spend huge sums to globally promote and release their films — as much as $150 million for some big event pictures.

"In order to break through the clutter, we all feel the pressure to spend more in marketing," said Warner Bros. President Alan Horn. ...

This summer, Disney's much-anticipated sequel The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, got upstaged by two behemoths opening in proximity, Iron Man and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

"There were these giant vacuum cleaners on either side of us, and it took significant amounts of business away for our movie," said Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook.

In fact, pretty much everyone's a winner in the Times's parallel universe — even the beleaguered Weinstein Company and MGM are piling on! Meanwhile, Picturehouse is winding down its staff buyouts as we speak, and ThinkFILM is still battling rumors of its own demise. "Who?" you ask. Don't worry — the LAT will cover them after they and their, ahem, vacuums are safely liquidated.

[Photo Credit: Paul Duginski, Los Angeles Times]

• Movie release dates become tough for studios to script [LAT]

· ABC orders Border Security, which they'll eventually sexy-up with far more intriguing title, To Catch a Potential Low-Wage Job-Jacking Predator. [Variety]
· Rainn Wilson will co-star in Transformers 2, in a part that will require him to bend over in a crop-top and low-riders to check the transmission of a Camaro, rendering Shia LaBeouf involuntarily tumescent with desire. [THR]

2. Iron Man - $31.2 million
In a stunning testament to the power of doing enough drugs to kill a humpback whale, then stopping, then being really picky about material, the man in the iron suit becomes the first to jet-propulse across the $200 million mark in 2008.

3. What Happens in Vegas - $13.85 million
It's happened, right under your very noses: Ashton Kutcher is the Biggest Star in the Universe. Not even just this week. Always. You can react to this news in one of two ways: Accepting his rightful place as your Cougar-Chasing Lord and Reality-TV-Producing Savior, or being fated to tambourine and cowbell duty for an eternity of Fantasia performances. The choice is yours.

4. Speed Racer - $7.645 million
Some people might say Speed Racer's 59% decline is a bad sign, but we prefer to see the good in everything. So let's spin it this way: $7.645 million's worth of independently minded Americans could give a rat's ass what everyone else thinks, and wanted to see how badly this movie sucked for themselves! Either that, or the $200 bucks it cost for a sitter, tickets, snacks, and parking seemed a minor sum in exchange for getting their kids to shut up about seeing Speed Racer.

5. Baby Mama - $4.593 million
This is sort of off topic, but we'd be remiss if we didn't mention it: How fantastic is that landmark California Supreme Court decision legalizing gay pregnancy?! It's about time! Happy ovulating, fellas!

• WEEKEND BOX OFFICE May 16-18, 2008 [boxofficemojo]

WHAT'S NEW: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is guaranteed to knock incumbent champ Iron Man from its box-office perch, with most observers predicting the second installment of the Disney franchise to muscle into first with as much as $79 million. And with merely five days before Indiana Jones 4 wheezes into multiplexes internationally, Disney is no doubt hoping that even that number is somehow on the low end. We don't think so; even without major counterprogramming, $74 million seems a little more reasonable what with holdovers Iron Man, What Happens in Vegas, Made of Honor and even Speed Racer still pulling in viewers who are just fine waiting for the DVD. Also opening: a light week overall, with the America Ferrera vehicle How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer and the acclaimed Norwegian drama Reprise playing small-ball in Caspian's shadow.

THE BIG LOSER: Iron Man may drop another 50% from weeks two to three, but with Speed Racer forecast to pull in less than $10 million in its own second week — potentially accumulating less than $30 million domestically in 10 days of release — the indignities just never end for the Wachowskis, Warners and everyone involved.

THE UNDERDOG: Back when Sangre de mi Sangre (Blood of my Blood) was known as Padre Nuestro, its Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival all but assured it the fest's long-suspected "best picture curse." But we knew at the time it was a remarkable debut feature for writer-director Christopher Zalla, whose identity-theft thriller about a pair of Mexican stowaways transplanted to New York was misread as everything from a globalization allegory to an overreaching effort at social realism. In fact, Sangre is all and none of these things, nothing more so than a riveting glimpse at two immigrants' reinventions: Villainous schemer Juan (Armando Hernández) and his "papa," cash-hoarding dishwasher Diego (Jesús Ochoa). The latter's tentative warming to his imposter son — while real son Pedro (Jorge Adrián Espíndola) scours Brooklyn for any clues to both men's whereabouts — is as dynamically acted and observed as any first film you'll see this year. And despite its precarious limited release, you should seek it out, and you should see it. Fuck the Sundance curse.

FOR SHUT-INS: Highlights among new DVD releases include Francis Ford Coppola's mind- (and patience-) bending comeback Youth Without Youth; Denzel Washington's late '07 Oscar bait The Great Debaters; the Diane Keaton/Katie Holmes/Queen Latifah trifecta Mad Money; the Criterion Collection's Louis Malle tandem The Lovers and The Fire Within; and — finally, thank God — Two and a Half Men: The Complete Third Season.

Does anyone want to go out on a limb for or against Prince Caspian's weekend reign? Did we miss anything on a sluggish week for new releases? Can you explain Youth Without Youth in 50 words or less? Don't be shy; the floor is yours.

Among the many questions in the poll, the most revealing one asked the 420,000 respondents which May release they were "most excited" about. And surprisingly, the gals of SATC: The Movie won the majority with 32%. Sadly for Iron Man, especially considering today is the day when Robert Downey Jr. will begin charming audiences with his Third World-loving superhero, Indy 4 came in second with 31%. Sadder still, Iron Man only won over 7% of pollsters in this category. But Speed Racer actually fared worst in the poll, with only 2% saying they were most excited for the Wachowski brothers' car racing flick.

The Moviefone poll's other most revealing question asked which male and female stars they "most wanted to see" throughout the entire summer blockbuster season. Mirroring the first question's results, Sarah Jessica Parker and Harrison Ford took top honors, and once again Iron Man fell short. Following Ford was the late Heath Ledger, whose role in The Dark Knight "would likely draw curiosity seekers" to the chillingly fantastic-looking flick, according to Moviefone's Editor in Chief, Scott Robson. (Insert any variation of "Duh" here, since we'd rather not.) But there is one (yes, one!) silver lining for RDJr. this thrilling morning: 22% of pollsters said he is the "superhero they're most psyched to see." So...there's that!

• MOVIEGOERS HAVE 'SEX' ON THE BRAIN: POLL [Moviefone]

Wanted
Release Date: June 27
Tagline: "Choose your identity." (Um, can we borrow Jolie's for a hot second?)
Prime Players: Pre-preggers Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and the always dependable Morgan Freeman.
Highlights: Angie's first magnetic, eyeliner-drenched appearance in a drugstore five seconds in, curveball bullets shot in slo-mo, McAvoy breaking through glass windows, and yeah, the classic shots of Angie shooting massive guns out the passenger window of a red speedster. And...that eyeliner. Wow.