News for Oct. 05, 2005

'Narnia' books getting a boost from film

10/05/05, 12:49 pm EST - Xoanon

Hollywood has been turning best-selling novels into movies for decades, as far back as ''Gone With the Wind." But publishers have usually had nothing to do with it. They watched and hoped the movie would drive up sales of the book. Sometimes it did, but just as often it didn't. That whole disconnect is disappearing. The best new example is the Dec. 9 release of the movie ''The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," based on the C.S. Lewis children's classic. Far from sitting back and watching, publisher HarperCollins is working closely with filmmaker Walden Media, unleashing a massive worldwide marketing drive for the books, timed to coincide with the film -- and not only for ''The Chronicles of Narnia," but most of Lewis's other books as well. [More]