British director for third Narnia film
British filmmaker Michael Apted will direct The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third instalment in the series, Disney Pictures and Walden Media announced.
The second film in the series, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, is set for release in 2008.
Apted’s Narnia film is due in 2009. Both are follow-ups to 2005’s successful The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – based on the books by CS Lewis.
Returning cast members include Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley and Skandar Keynes.
Apted, 66, is best known for his “… Up” series of documentaries, which chronicles the same group of a dozen Brits every seven years.
The latest instalment, “49 Up,” opened in 2006.
Apted was a researcher for the 1964 film that first profiled the group as seven-year-olds, and took over the directing task with the follow-up documentary.
Apted’s films include the James Bond adventure The World Is Not Enough and the Loretta Lynn drama Coal Miner’s Daughter.
His most recent documentary, The Power of the Game, about football, debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival last month.
