Charles Davis writes “(from Tuesday March 2, 2004–The Guardian)
“The CS Lewis children’s fantasy classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is to be made into a Disney film, it was announced
today.
The tale of four children who find a world of fawns, witches and talking lions at the back of an old wardrobe will hit cinemas in time for
Christmas 2005, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“Like JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings saga and JK Rowling’s Harry Potter adventures, the Chronicles of Narnia, of which the The Lion,
the Witch and the Wardrobe is the second book, has the potential to become a series of films.”
sorry but cringing
Sorry, but I am cringing at the idea of Disney handling C.S. Lewis’s material.
Re:sorry but cringing
You and me both.
Wonderworks did a charming live action production for BBC years ago, not only of Lion… but also of Prince Caspian & Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and of The Silver Chair. http://imdb.com/title/tt0094500/
By the way, it is NOT the second book in the series. Lewis later went back and told the story of the beginning of Narnia in The Magician’s Nephew (the sixth book), but The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrode is still the first book.
Re:sorry but cringing
I have to agree. Remember what they did to The Black Cauldron?
To comment further:
1. I just can’t get used to this newfangled re-ordering of the books. To me, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will ALWAYS be the first book, not the second. I don’t care about the chronology. The Magician’s Nephew works just fine as a prequel. I loved the sensation of discovering the “historic events” that led up to the stories I had already read.
2. For heaven’s sake, it’s “fauns” — not “fawns”! The Guardian should know better.
Narnia book order
You’re right about the original order of the books (as I noted in my other comment, posted simultaneously to yours), but somebody in recent years has proclaimed that the books be re-ordered to reflect the chronology of their events. I have never been sure if there was any authoritative basis for this (for example, Lewis always wanted them in chronological order and was thwarted in life, or some such), or if it was just the whim of some busybody publisher. Does anybody know?
Re:sorry but cringing
As for the re-ordering of the books, I have to confess that when I read them aloud to my daughter last year, we read them in the new-fangled narratively chronological order. I had never read them before, and while I knew that we weren’t reading them in the order they were written, we didn’t mind.
Nonetheless, I understand your reaction, MockTurtle. I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy several times in high school and college, and it made a strong impression on me. Seeing Peter Jackon’s three films has been a trajectory of increasing disappointment for me, not so much because of plot ommissions but because of changes to the characters and their relationships. With certain kinds of literature, the way in which one first encounters it seems to matter a great deal in subsequent encounters.
Re:sorry but cringing
Yes, but look how the critics pan the film if it actually follows the book–The Passion of the Christ, for example.