Movie version of the third book of the series of Chronicles of Narnia fantasy novels for children written by C. S. Lewis. (Current editions of the series are numbered using the internal chronological order, making Dawn Treader the fifth book. It was first published in 1952.)

The plot involves Lucy and Edmund Pevensie returning to Narnia with their cousin Eustace where they meet up with Prince Caspian for a trip across the sea aboard the royal ship The Dawn Treader. Along the way they encounter dragons, dwarves, merfolk, and a band of lost warriors before reaching the edge of the world.

When the second Narnia movie, Prince Caspian, underperformed at the U.S. box office Walt Disney pulled out of the third movie. The movie’s future seemed uncertain, but since then 20th Century Fox has stepped in to share the estimated $140 million budget with Walden Media. Now a 2010 holidays release is envisaged.

Veteran director Michael Apted (The World Is Not Enough, Coalminer’s Daughter, Amazing Grace) is taking over as director from Andrew Adamson (Shrek) who helmed the previous two installments; which is kind of a pity because Adamson was actually getting better: Prince Caspian was after all a huge improvement on the first movie.

One thing is sure though: they better hurry up because those kids are getting older by the day!