The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005)

SDG here. Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings tour de force turned out so brilliantly that one could almost forget how different it could have been. It’s entirely possible that a significant part of the reason the films are as true to the books as they are is due to enormous fan pressure online and elsewhere. (Here’s a link to an article I wrote about the issues and controversy before the release of the first film.)

Now that Walden Media is at work on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Narnia fans are understandably wary. For one thing, as well-loved as these books are both inside and outside the church, they don’t have nearly the huge following of the Lord of the Rings books. For another, the Christian themes in Lewis’s books are so much more blatant than those of Tolkien’s books that the risk of Hollywood subversion and the stakes in the event of such subversion are higher.

By the way, recent news from the set of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe includes the recent casting of the four Pevensie children. So, if I need an excuse to be musing about this subject just now, here from the set (courtesy of the New Zealand Herald) are pictures of:

Nine-year-old Georgie Henley, from Yorkshire, as Lucy:

17-year-old William Moseley, from Gloucestershire, as Peter:

15-year-old Anna Popplewell and 12-year-old Skandar Keynes, both of London, as Susan and Edmund:

The big question, of course, is: Do the people in charge of this thing have any idea what they’re doing?

And the answer, so far, is: Hard to say.

On the encouraging side, the people at Walden Media are apparently Christians, and Lewis’s stepson Douglas Gresham, who is co-producing, seems committed to preserving Lewis’s vision. Plus, Walden Media produced Holes, a wonderful — and wonderfully faithful — adaptation of a delightful children’s book. (Of course they also produced the Jackie Chan parody of Around the World in 80 Days, but I choose to believe that doesn’t count as an adaptation at all.)

On the down side, director Andrew Adamson (Shrek, Shrek 2) at the very least hasn’t yet learned like Peter Jackson to talk the talk. Following massive interest by the Christian press and moviegoing public during the phenomenon of the first film, Jackson became trippingly familiar with variations on this theme:

“Of course Professor Tolkien was a very religious man, and his religious ideas did play a part in his novels, and while we have not set out to make a religious film, from the outset we were determined to honor Tolkien’s vision and not to put any of our own baggage into this film. So while we brought no religious intentions to this project, Tolkien’s beliefs did shape the story he told and some of that is evident in our films.”

This respectful and nuanced speech, which I read and heard in various versions from Jackson on a number of occasions, was reassuring to Tolkien’s Christian fans while at the same time not alarming non-Christian Tolkien lovers with worries that they were in for a ten-hour serial sermon.

When it comes to The Chronicles of Narnia, of course, Lewis’s Christian beliefs are even more emphatically important. Unfortunately, published remarks from Adamson so far don’t evince the same kind of respect for the integrity of Lewis’s vision or the same level of awareness of its religious dimension. Instead, Adamson has made such remarks as these:

“I don’t want to make the book as much as my memory of the book.”

and

“So I’ve really tried to make the story about a family which is disenfranchised and disempowered in World War II, that on entering Narnia, through their unity as a family become empowered at the end of the story. It’s really bringing the humanity of the characters into what is effectively a symbolic story.”

Other signs have also been mixed. Early reports indicated that the creature effects for Aslan, Tumnus, and others would be handled by the two companies who did the effects for The Lord of the Rings, Weta (which was responsible for most of the film effects) and RGB XYZ (which did the very best digital creature work in the final film, and was responsible for the oliphants looking so much better in The Return of the King than they did in The Two Towers).

But later reports indicated that in fact creature effects would be handled by a company called Rhythm & Hues, best known for the (hardly awe-inspiring) digital work on Daredevil, Scooby-Doo, The Cat in the Hat, and Garfield. Not encouraging.

Now, a friend of mine, who shall remain nameless but who works in the industry and is a Christian, assures me that the project is in good hands. Regarding Adamson’s off-putting comments, he cites PR concerns and the desire to avoid appearing as if they’re making a religious picture.

That’s fine, I guess. But somehow Peter Jackson managed to let religious fans know that their beloved author’s themes would be respected without coming across like Mel Gibson making The Passion of the Christ. From a PR perspective, there’s no reason why Adamson can’t learn to do the same — assuming he does know what he’s doing and does want to respect Lewis’s themes and intentions.

Walden Media, don’t let us down!