Voyage of the Dawn Treader finds a director

From cinemablend, Last week Disney made it known that Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be released on May 1st, 2009. This seemed kind of odd considering the movie is the third in a series that hasn’t seen the second movie released yet (it comes out May of 2008). It seemed even stranger because series director Andrew Adamson had previously announced he wouldn’t be directing the third installment. Well, now the 2009 release has a director.

Variety has announced that Michael Apted has been signed to direct Dawn Treader. Apted has previously been behind the first three episodes of HBO’s acclaimed series “Rome” as well as Walden Media’s sister company Bristol Bay Production’s Amazing Grace. The Variety article also confirms the return of Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, and Skandar Keynes for the third film. Barnes plays the title character in the second chapter, Prince Caspian while Henley and Keynes have already been seen as Lucy and Edmund Pevensie respectively. Dawn Treader will start filming in January, well before Caspian’s May 2008 release date.