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Narnia to be Created in New Zealand
SCS writes "It has been confirmed
that the The
Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe will be made in New Zealand as
part of a five film line-up of C.S. Lewis's Narnia fantasy book
series, with New Zealander Andrew Adamson of Shrek fame as its
director. Filming begins next year, and Weta Digital has already started
the graphics work. Also reported at the BBC
and HeraldTribune.com."
With all the fantasy crap that's been sweeping the theaters lately it was just a matter of time before someone got the bright idea to bring those childhood stories to the big screen.
Too bad most of the nerds who are carried away by the fantasy stories are more interested in how to attach a tail to their costume before the furry convention than in the Christianity-laced works of C.S. Lewis.
I have been pwned because my
I may be a lonely voice here, but I didn't care for Shrek in the least. Ugly art direction (it resembled nothing so much as a poorly executed video game to me) and stale, juvenile humor. Hearing that the director is doing these films doesn't exactly fill me with unbounded joy. Why not someone with a more literary bent?
Having been an Atheist since rather early in my
childhood i sure as hell dont see what
all the fuss is about.
Just because there are parallels and story
foundations/ideas borrowed/copyed dosent meen
much at all to the story..
How much Roman history have you realy learnt
from Starwars and Dune?
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It's so nifty to see all the books I read as a kid getting a second revival. Problem is, I wish kids would read these books in the first place, and discover that (gasp!) there's more to children's literature than Harry Potter.
Please help metamoderate.
Since the first movie will be "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" (which is the second book), they probably skipped book one, The Magician's Nephew (which was, in fact, also written after the second book).
Also, they might choose to skip The Horse and His Boy since it's just a side-story. Or maybe the last book (The Last Battle), as suggested by another poster, because that one would probably be very hard to make into a good movie.
Actually...I don't think you can explain away the Christian element in Lewis' stories (or Tolkein's, for that matter). It's not "a product of the times" nor an attempt to appease a certain audience... It is rather the point of the story, in fact. If that sort of thing turns you off, then by all means, you are invited not to watch it.
They have the torch. ILM was real good at envirnments, hardware, and explosions. WETA seems to bias in the direction of organics. Nifty turn of style and public taste.
I concur. As an avid Atheist I'm not interested in whether this movie somehow ties into Christianity. I even find some the Bible stories interesting. I'm just looking for a movie with a good story - regardless of where it originated.
I read some of these books when I was younger and thought they had a good story and plot. I wasn't concerned with the religious connotations.
Even J.R.R. had mentioned that he got some of his ideas from the King Arthur lore.
-Valiss
I guess you never read "The Inklings" .. they were essentially part of the same writing club including other notables like Dorothy Sayers and Charles Williams (master of Dante) .. I believe GK Chesterton also had some influence here, and Owen Barfield had some good ideas that Lewis latched onto.
This is much more about the ideas that formed the foundations for later fantasy and science fiction.
Personally I'd like to see a good rendition of "Til we have faces"
From what I recall of the Narnia series which was already created (I don't remember who did it, only that it was shown on PBS), 4 and 5 can be combined relatively easily... won't flow as well as a normal movie, but you can get all the important story elements together.
Doug
Venn ist das nurnstuck git und Slotermeyer? Ya! Beigerhund das oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!
"Actually...I don't think you can explain away the Christian element in Lewis' stories (or Tolkein's, for that matter)."
I don't think that anything needs to be "explained away" (why should it?). People simply need to accept things as they are, and enjoy. Not everything in the world needs to be changed.
Dude, I've read the Narnia series and liked it.....but in putting LOTR and Narnia on the same level is like putting War & Peace on the same level as Tales from the Brother Grimm.
While both fantasies were written by British authors who were friends and happened to work together, that's about the end of that. Tolkien detested allegory of any kind, whereas the whole Narnia series were just that. Tolkien created a rich mythology with a deep history, whereas Lewis simply took the Christian mythos and branched out a bit. The characters are deeper in LOTR and the sheer weight of the history behind the stories by Tolkien was immense.
To sum up, one is an epic tale (or mythos), whereas the other is a children's story.
Kids *are* reading the books. There have been numerous articles in national newspapers discussing kids reading as a result of some blockbuster movie adaptation in addition to Harry Potter such as Lord of the Rings.
I think the point of the article I read in the NY Times was that pre-teens were more open to read other books at the recommendation of their parents after reading (gasp!) Harry Potter. Why knock it?
It's more character driven than a lot of the other Known Space novels, and the big alien artifact is just interesting scenery to showcase the thinly veiled abstracts of human nature aliens hanging out with humans in glass ships. I just shudder when Hollywood gets hold on science fiction, success stories be damned I still remember Starship Troopers and the various other sci-fi movies that have been completely hacked by people who apparently "can't get" the important bits of what really aren't all that complex bits of fiction. Narnia will probably sidestep any of the growth/morality issues of CS Lewis in favor of jokes from the Badger voice-over of Eddie Murphy. Once they get past that, since they're already in love with PK Dick, I'd like them to do The Man In The High Castle.
But the worst are evangelical atheists. The only motivation there is for you to be godless just like them so you won't be happier than they are.
As an atheist, I think I can say that the ones that "evangelize" are just sick of having Christianity stuffed down their throats (at least here in America).
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
To sum up, one is an epic tale (or mythos), whereas the other is a children's story.
I strongly disagree. I'm a fan of both LOTR (I've read it 7 times and it was my FIRST book I've read once I learned how to read), and a fan of Narnia Cronicles (which I actually have read only 3 times).
Both of them are excellent tales for children and I'm going to read them both once again. But this time aloud, for my cute little daughter when she goes to sleep.
#
#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
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note to mods... making "Profit!!!" comments '+5, funny' only encourages more...
...that one would probably be very hard to make into a good movie
There's no doubt that "The Last Battle" and "The Magician's Nephew" could be challenging to represent cinematically; but I don't think anyone would disagree that the two are critical to understanding the underlying allegory.
Only my opinion, but I think "difficulty in making the film" should not be the primary criteria for deciding whether to make the film. Using the "difficulty" argument, one could easily conclude that Tolkien's trilogy should never have been made. Instead, asking one's self which of the stories are core to C.S. Lewis's message and life's philosophy may be better guides in determining which of the 7 books to pursue.
Ack! No, don't do that. The books are fantastic, but the movie is absolute dreck. It's really, really terrible.
I mean, you can watch it if you want, but please don't expect it to live up to the movie. It really won't.
If Hollywood (New Zealand-wood?) is going to jump on the Fantasy Bandwagon, at least let them make a movie from another kick-ass series like Dragonlance.
The Lion, Witch Wardrobe. Sheesh, what's next, A Wrinkle in Time? Let's hear it for grade-school fiction!
And please, no responses about how Dungeons and Dragons sucked (i.e. therefore Dragonlance will suck and/or won't be made). Some people thought that LotR was going to turn out like Willow - well, we know now how wrong they were.
I read some of these books when I was younger and thought they had a good story and plot. I wasn't concerned with the religious connotations.
They do indeed have a nice story and plot; I thoroughly enjoyed them when I was a younger reader. However, I also re-read them as a college student--and was frankly astonished at the religious allegory my young mind didn't see the first time. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing--and I'm a longtime atheist--but it seemed a lot less like "fantasy" and a lot more like "religious propaganda." I think that you'll find these books to have a different focus depending on your religious awareness--and if you went to the movie as an adult after only have read the books as a young child, you would be pretty appallled at the Christian overtones, even if faithfully adapted.
I think, for this reason, that these movies will not escape religious criticism as the LOTR series did. Either the director will adapt the books faithful to a young-child's perspective, heavy on the fantasy and light on the Xtian, which will piss of the Xtians and CS Lewis scholars--or the director will maintain the Xtian overlay in fact in the books, and adult viewers will wonder where all the Xtian crap came from, and wonder why their cherished childhood memories were perverted to serve some Xtian purpose.
It'll be interesting to see how this goes down--but before you say that the religious overtones are minimal, read these books again, as an adult.
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I agree. I am not a Christian, but I also enjoyed these books and LOTR. When I was in Uni, I decided to learn more about stories from the bible, so I took a bible as literature course and I really enjoyed it. I thought most of the stories were quite interesting.
The truth is, so many books in the sci-fi/fantasy genre are inspired by biblical stories - especially the classic ones. This may be a reflection of the authors growing up at a time in the West where Christianity filtered through more throughly into everyday life. It is also arguable that themes in the bible mirror creation myths and legends from different cultures (I am thinking mostly of Old Testament). But ultimately, the theme of good versus evil transcends religion, as it is a reflection of humanity and an indication of an individual's ability to choose how to conduct their own actions.
I think the development of Christian fundamentalism in the past few decades have really given Christianity a bad name. Although I am not a Christian, I do respect people who are, for the bottom-line of the religion is to do good for society and helping each other. But some people have really perverted those ideals and started using them to justify their own bigotry and intolerance.
-B
and is planning 'revised' Cristianity-free versions of the books as well
You must be kidding. They're going to write Aslan out of the series? CS Lewis didn't include this stuff in an off-handed way--Xtian elements are critical to his story-line. I sure as hell won't buy those books, even as an atheist. An author has the right to say what he intends to say, without being sterilized for later generations.
Kind of reminds me of some warnings from Bradbury, as a matter of fact. Who's next? Take the Raven from Poe? Take the Cthulhu from Lovecraft? Will Dracula be beaten by group hugs, in a "modernized" version?
I would like to see links to these rumors, actually, so I can lend my voice to the protest. Removing the Xtian elements in CS Lewis is like removing the logic from Sherlock stories.
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I read it with the Magician's Nephew preceding the Last Battle, but after all the other books. I have to say I agree with you. As a kid reading these books, finding out at last, WHY there was a lantern out in the middle of nowhere, and where the Witch came from was just.. well, magical. And since I was into astronomy as a kid I knew what Charn's red sun meant, as well. The idea of all those worlds, in all those pools... the Magician's Nephew has always been my favorite Narnia book, and reading it first destroys the magic of it, I think.
End of lesson. You may press the button.
As the other AC says, the plot of the movie is pretty horrible. They shuffled together bits of the first two books, threw out most of the stuff that would provide some motivation for what the hell was going on, then added in a bunch of cheesiness. The sum total is rather incoherent.
If you are already a big fan of the books, it can be worth seeing. Or if you are interested in pre-computerized animation, definitely watch it, as the amount of (drawing) effort that went into the animation is INCREDIBLE. The drawing was very ambitious. Too bad they didn't spend as much effort having the story make sense. I understand the need to modify books in the process of writing a screenplay, but in this case the story ended up being an excuse for the animation... which wouldn't be bad if the story made any sense.
It looks as if the blatant success of Lord of the Rings may start a trend of drawn out fantasy series being made into movies. If or not these will be successful as well remains to be seen, but I personally think that it will be hard to reproduce LOTR's phenomenon.
Narnia's story line is a lot less continuous than LOTR's, especially when you get past the fourth book.
Since they are making five films, it would almost make sense that they are doing LWW, Prince Caspian, Dawn Treader, Silver Chair, and then Last Battle. This would skip The Magician's Nephew and A Horse and His Boy, which would likely be OK. It is also unlikely that they'll make each movie 3 hours long. They may decide to release two a year.
I wonder how mutilated the stories are going to be though. Narnia's "Christian themes" are considerably stronger than LOTR's. The Last Battle especially forces a lot of things down people's throats. I wonder if things will be changed so that these themes aren't as strong.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
Eh gads, let the knockoffs begin. Somebody makes a successful movie, the entire industry has to crash the party. Ooh, let's all do a disaster movie! OK, now let's all do a Mars movie, now comic books, now fantasy! It's pathetic. Like the scene on Simpsons where the TV execs have a "brainstorming" session: they whip out remote controls and start flipping through the channels for "ideas."
These stories are beautiful in every sense of the word. Unlike Tolkien (and I will and do directly compaire their books because they were great friends and each directly influenced the others work), Lewis is much more direct and, in my oppinion, a much more skilled writer (notice I say writer, not story teller). The amount of imagery, story, and allegory he fit in such small books is dumbfounding....and yet, when you read the books, you aren't overtaken with them at all. They just work.
I have a bad feeling that The Magicians Nephew will be touched upon at the beginning of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I, for one, feel that this would hurt the overall effect of the movie. I really doubt that they'll want to try and tackle the Magicians Nephew as its own movie either...it wouldn't be interesting to the masses. I also don't think they'll make a Last Battle movie because of the overwhelming Christian overtones in it.
In fact, I'm worried that they'll remove ALL these religious overtones. I'm agnostic mind you, but Lewis's message is what really makes this series.
All we can really do is wait and see...and cross our fingers. December 2005 couldn't be longer away....
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
Umm...can you say The Matrix? The series was loaded with references to Neo as some sort of God-like figure (mainly Jesus, I suppose). Granted, a lot of people didn't really like Revolutions, which seemed to lay it on the heaviest, but the allegory was there even in the first one. Perhaps subtlety is the key to making it work on film.
The first ever Ultimate Frisbee video game: here (now
No one's stuffing Christianity down your throat, (especially here in America).
One thing you need to realize in this life is that everyone is different. You will need to grow a thicker skin if you are to avoid being offended by seeing people different than you. That some of these people advertise their differences more than others is beside the point.
A Salvation Army kettle on the street corner shoves nothing down your throat. The Mayor's Prayer Breakfast shoves nothing down your throat. An fish bumper sticker shoves nothing down your throat. Even the evangelist knocking at your door shoves nothing down your throat, because you can always say "go away" and shut the door.
You don't have the choice of living in a world where everyone believes exactly the same as you, but you do live in a world where your "throat" is your own.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
C. S. Lewis and his writings are among the most salvageable things of Christianity. His view on the human condition makes him a British version of Mark Twain in my eyes. C. S. Lewis is most emphatically NOT the sort of oppressive, thoughtless Christian who gives the whole religion a much-earned black eye. Lewis in his own gentle way "calls shenanigans" on many of those aspects of Christian dogma. But he can be just as ascerbic as Twain on theose themes, it's just with a different sensibility.
As a fundamentalist-Christianity-hating reader who would love to see folks like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson magically go away, C. S. Lewis was a major turning point for me in terms of thinking that all Christians must be like Falwell and Robertson. Since I am not a fundamentalist, I will never try and coerce anyone into my viewpoint, but, damn it, if you want a good Christian read, try C. S.
Trends in contemporary Christian thought have to do with recognizing the Bible as what it is: the collected mythology of a particular group of people at a specific place and time in our history. The new view is that doing so is a good thing, and doesn't erase Christianity's merit, but rather salvages its value from the literalism applied disastrously in the past as now. Eternal truths are encoded in *all* mythology, from the Brothers Grimm to the Matrix.
C. S. Lewis could be credited with anticipating this re-mythologizing of Christianity by many decades.
Trivia question: Who converted C.S. Lewis to Christianity? (hint...his own famous trilogy just got made into a famous set of movies starting Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen.)
You can buy the versions PBS showed years ago at Amazon.com. I believe 3 of them were made.
So yes, they make good movies.
Only in the Matrix did they beat you over the head with the rediculous notion that Neo == Jesus (he was far far too flawed to be anything more than a hero).
Those who are familiar with Christian theology will recognize Aslan as Christ without ever being told.
Ben
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To sum up, one is an epic tale (or mythos), whereas the other is a children's story.
Who says one can't be the other?
And for that matter, what's wrong with making a beloved children's story into a film or television series, as long as the makers stay faithful to the author? I don't see you complaining about PBS' treatment of Brian Jacques' Redwall books.
Yes, there's a discrepancy between Narnia and LOTR... but to dismiss a work simply because you're not the intended audience-- or because it's not in a style you prefer-- doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
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Lewis had more apologetic aims with his books, and this is by no means a secret fact. Hopefully they don't temper this angle too much with the movies. Certainly not everybody is thrilled by an underlying Christian theme, but removing it would make the story anemic.
Strongly agreed.
While it's no secret that Narnia was a christian allegory to some extent, I think one of Lewis's most charming features was his ability to do this without seeming preachy. I'm no christian (rather an atheist/agnostic/what-have-you*), but Narnia, and in fact C.S. Lewis's more explicit writings on christianity, are some my favorite and most loved books ever.
It's not just that he was a good writer (though he was). You can sense that he was writing about christianity because it was something he loved very much (and not because he felt the devil's pitchfork in his behind). Morever, he was an academic, and I believe a late convert to christianity, and you feel that he's talking to you, and that he perfectly well realizes that you might -- rationally -- disagree with him (this is in contrast with the more usual, rather condescending, forms of proselytizing). You get the feeling that if you objected, he'd say something like `Ah well; it makes a great story though, doesn't it?'
[* I don't believe in god because I don't think it makes much sense.]
We live, as we dream -- alone....
Lewis is much more direct and, in my oppinion, a much more skilled writer (notice I say writer, not story teller)
One of the most beautiful little passages in "The Lord of the Rings" isn't in the book, but Lewis' blurb on the back promoting it: "Here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron." which is exactly how I feel about that particular turn of phrase. In itself it evokes the same complex emotion (a pang of nostalgia?) that The Lord of the Rings as a whole did.
I notice the beauty of his writing even more in his theological & philosophical books. I'm always struck with the way he can turn a phrase or craft a perfect, striking metaphor to bring his point home. He takes some of the driest theological or philosphical issue and make it read almost like poetry. It says a lot for the kind of classical education in both logic and rhetoric that he recieved.