With "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" coming to theaters next week, one might wonder what C. S. Lewis would think about his books being adapted for film. Well, wonder no more. Here is a letter to a former BBC producer Lance Sieveking, giving his thoughts to such a venture.The Kilns,
Headington Quarry,
Oxford
18 Dec. 1959
Dear Sieveking
(Why do you ‘Dr’ me? Had we not dropped the honorifics?) As things worked out, I wasn’t free to hear a single instalment of our serial [The Magician’s Nephew] except the first. What I did hear, I approved. I shd. be glad for the series to be given abroad. But I am absolutely opposed – adamant isn’t in it! – to a TV version. Anthropomorphic animals, when taken out of narrative into actual visibility, always turn into buffoonery or nightmare. At least, with photography. Cartoons (if only Disney did not combine so much vulgarity with his genius!) wld. be another matter. A human, pantomime, Aslan wld. be to me blasphemy.
All the best,
yours
C. S. Lewis
Having seen the trailer I suspect that if C.S. Lewis knew the level of computer generated special effects available to the modern filmmaker, he might have said something different.
Comments anyone?
Sources: BBC, Nthposition
8 comments:
hey, very interesting. although i agree with you..he probably couldn't imagine the things they'd be able to do these days. I guess we'll have to just watch it though to see if it has turned into buffoonery or nightmare or blasphemy! yikes! steve mentioned he's getting a group together friday night @ colossus, i think...
I posted before, but I guess for some reason it didn't make it.
Gotta love that British wit coming out of Lewis... Imagine a mikey mouse & donald duck version of Narnia - yikes!
I actually think he's got a good point, though, considering his time. I read Tolkien's answer to the same qn he got about putting his books to film. He felt the same way about his LOTR series. I think you can never capture all the imagery and imagination that these men poured into their stories. Even the best films still can't bring it all out. I loved the LOTR trilogy on film, but I still found that Peter Jackson could have done a better job bringing out everything.
Anyways, I'm sure this new film will be much different that the BBC TV series.
Btw, 'ahem'Dec 9 is our church's Christmas program... 'ahem'
Rich A
The ministers are getting in on the action, though how we have the time on a Saturday night, I don't know...
Did anyone see the nine-minute trailer that there is out there - you can find it at
http://www.tv4.se/player/categories.aspx?progId=32353&itemId=%20&treeId=30141&displayTreeId=
From what I've seen, I'm not too optimistic about the film though we're planning on seeing it as a family. Hopefully there is more to the dialogue than the kind of typical Hollywood stuff in the trailers (Numbers do no decide battles - No, but I bet they help)
The LOTR series was able to capture some of the heart and soul of the books, even though it was written, produced, and directed by non-Christians. I think they respected the original material and they paid homage to the art. Since Narnia is really much more explicitly Christian in its fantasy, I'm more pessimistic about what unbelievers will do with it. I'm betting on being disappointed, and hoping that I'll be surprised :)
Mark S.
yes, I have seen the 9 minute one. I am looking forward to the movie. I would have to agree with you, though, that if he was here in this day and age that he would probably say something differant.
I downloaded the nine minute trailer but we didn't watch it yet because narniaweb.com warned that it has lots of spoilers.
Regarding what unbelievers might do to the film, I read somewhere that "The Emperor Beyond the Sea" in the book becomes the "Four Spirits" or something like that. If it's true, it changes the Monotheistic framework of Narnia to a Pantheistic one.
For more on the films see my latest post...
I haven't seen any previews but i read something on them & I saw the pictures on http://www.youngstarnews.com/ysn/movies/narnia.htm and i must say i think the sets & costumes lok awesome. Having already seen another movie of them I really want to watch this one. The characters look really well cast.
I am seeing it next thursday!!!
so are we!
(hopefully!)
mom and dad are actually watching it right now... for his birthday.
very intersting post... it's kind of intruiging what he says about blaspheming aslan...
but i'd have to agree that if he knew the things they can do on nowadays...
his stepson is supervising the whole thing, right? so if Lewis was really against it wouldn't he know?
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