NarniaWeb had a chance to ask Douglas Gresham some of our burning questions about the upcoming film The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. He was very gracious and here’s the interview.
NW: What were your duties as a co-producer on the film?
Douglas Gresham: One of our producers on set one day was introducing me to someone who asked “What does he do on this project?” His reply was “He’s to blame”. (laughs) Actually I am responsible for consultation on all aspects of the production as a sort of in house Narnia expert. This extends to all spin-off materials, like toys, games, books and so forth. I work with the games guys from the companies contracted to Buena Vista, the Merchandising guys from Disney, the Publishing teams at HarperCollins and represent the C.S. Lewis Company as their Creative and Artistic Director. Making the movie has been a dearly held ambition and project for me for about thirty years (my children remember me dreaming, scheming, planning, and talking about it all their lives) so every aspect of it is important to me. I suppose I represent Jack [C.S. Lewis] himself as a sort of creative ambassador. The aim of this is to use my abilities, knowledge and experience to make this movie as good as we can possibly make it.
NW: Knowing C. S. Lewis personally, do you think that he would insist that the books were adapted exactly as he wrote them or that he would be open to the filmmakers’ ideas as long as they did not obscure the meaning of the stories or change anything essential to them?
DG: That’s a tough question. I know that Jack would want to protect the integrity of each of the books, and preserve very carefully the messages that each is intended to convey. I also know that Jack was not enamored of film as a medium of communication because he felt that too little care was taken about what was being said in the movies that he had seen. Also, one of the hardest things to do is to preserve the literary integrity of a book when adapting it to either stage or film, and it is probably far more difficult with film. I think though that Jack would be amazed and fascinated with the wonderful technology that has been developed recently but perhaps less than delighted with the uses to which it has been put. I hope we address that failing to some extent with LWW.
NW: Which character do you think most matches their description in the books?
DG: Hmm, now that is a tough one because I think they all do – that was part of what we set out to achieve. Will just is Peter, Anna is absolutely Susan, Skandar plays Edmund to perfection (we teased him that when he got to the part where Edmund suddenly turns into a good guy, we would have to teach him how to act, as he had just been himself up until then) and Georgie is perfect as Lucy. Tilda plays the White Witch superbly and James is a brilliantly true to character Tumnus.