Well, we all suspected something like this would happen, but now it looks like it’s official. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) is going to get the four-disc extended-edition treatment that has already been accorded to Pearl Harbor (2001), The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) and Kingdom of Heaven (2005). Reports UltimateDisney.com:
Earlier this week, UD broke news that couldn’t be found anywhere else online, that Disney/Walden’s blockbuster fantasy adaptation The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was due to be revisited in a 4-disc extended edition in the near future. Now, not only has that been confirmed, but the release appears to have been put on the fast track. Those attending the annual fanboy festival Comic-Con in San Diego later this month will be treated to a first glimpse at never-before-seen footage from the upcoming limited edition “director’s cut” DVD, hosted by Narnia producer Mark Johnson. The event will take place on Saturday (July 22) at 3:45 in Hall H, with attendees being treated to exclusive collectibles from Narnia and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, which shares the hour with an insider’s look at visual effects.
On the one hand, this longer version of the movie could be a good thing, since the original version was noticeably abbreviated in certain key respects (e.g. Aslan’s walk to the Stone Table with Susan and Lucy was missing some key bits of dialogue).
On the other hand, the original version of the movie pumped in so much unnecessary story material, one shudders at the thought that they might pump in even more. This isn’t like The Lord of the Rings, where a super-long book had to be cut down to a long-ish movie for video and a less long-ish movie for the theatre.
I note also that some movies, like Pearl Harbor, have had different ratings after they were expanded for video. Might Narnia‘s battle scenes, say, be upgraded from a PG rating to a PG-13?
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