AceShowbiz - Director Michael Apted fears it will be too difficult for movie bosses to take the "Narnia" franchise any further - because the original books go "haywire" after "Voyage of the Dawn Treader". "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" - the third of C.S. Lewis' classic fantasy tales to be adapted for the big screen - is set to hit cinemas later this week.

But despite the hype surrounding the film, moviemaker Apted is convinced it will be a tricky task for all seven of Lewis' books to be transformed for the big screen because of their lack of movie-worthy narrative. And he admits he landed in hot water with the author's estate for changing huge swathes of the story's plot for the latest film.

He tells Reuters, "They (the Lewis estate) were a bit put out by it at first. We gave them the original script to look at which was the pure adaptation of the book, and I think that they could see that there was just an inner inertness to the story..."

"I would be surprised if they did all seven books. I suppose the fourth one might work better now after the changes we made in the third... but after that it goes haywire. With a franchise, the continuity of characters is actually quite crucial and I don't know how they are going get beyond book four. I think it is a problem."