Recently, Douglas Gresham was interviewed for a podcast called “Your Story.” The specific episode title is “Episode 46: Doug. C.S. Lewis, Narnia, Film Making and Christianity.” This particular interview is causing quite a stir in people, as their nerves are already running high that the film is going to be “vastly different” to the book, and this interview appears to confirm that there are “big changes” to the story. I’ve gotta tell you though: regardless of what your worst fears are about the translation of book to screen, we’re still getting The Voyage of the Dawn Treader on the big screen. Period. It’s going to be epic and fun, it’s going to be magical and delightful. Sure, it’s going to have changes, but what adaptation doesn’t?
Anyway, here are a few excerpts, transcribed by icarus.
Ian Kath: These movies, how well are they sticking to the originals, the books?
Douglas Gresham: Well, The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe was very close to the original book because the book was written in such a way that lent itself to being transcribed into the film medium. Prince Caspian we had to make some fairly major changes because the book isn’t written that way. In this movie there are a lot of differences in it also to, as Hollywood says, “derive the plot.” I’m ambivalent as to whether they’re necessary or not, I don’t really think so. But that’s the way they wanted to do it, and it was either that or not make a movie, so I said “well go ahead and do it.” It will be very interesting to see the audiences reactions.
[…]
Ian Kath: It’s an amazing amount of work that we’ve put into this, and I just love what we’ve done, and if the story is as good as the work and the passion that we’ve put into it..
Douglas Gresham: I think the story in the book is better but it’s still a great story.
Ian Kath: I don’t know the story.
Douglas Gresham: You should read it, you should read all of the Narnian chronicles, but yeah I think it’s going to be a great movie. It’s a fabulous movie.
[…]
Ian Kath: Is the next one scripted yet?
Douglas Gresham: Oh no no. We haven’t got that far yet. We haven’t even decided exactly which one we are going to do yet. There are several reasons why we would go with The Silver Chair, but then there are other reasons why we might go with something else. One of the reasons for Silver Chair, I’m voting for going with Silver Chair, one of the reasons is that we have found an absolutely fabulous young actor to play Eustace.
There are a couple of things to point out. One: Douglas Gresham says that “it’s still a great story.” Two: He says “…I think it’s going to be a great movie. It’s a fabulous movie.”
I’m the eternal Narnia movie optimist, always looking for the good things in the Narnia movies that we get. I’m not a Narnia book purist, as many of you know, based on my reviews of the previous two Narnia films, as well as the countless other things I’ve said about the act of making a book into a movie. Believe me when I say that when Douglas Gresham says that they’ve had to make changes to “derive the story” from the book, it’s not a negative thing. In fact, it’s a very good thing.
We can all concede that there may be changes that we don’t really agree with, but knowing that it’s this or nothing… I choose this. For one thing, I’m not going to be too upset (or even upset at all) about too many changes. To me, if they miss a couple of important elements (and in my book, there are only two), then they’ve missed out on a couple of very vital things. It seems to me that they’ve at least gotten one of those two in there, and I have yet to learn if the other has made it in. If both of those things are in, they can change practically anything else, and I’ll still walk away happy.
We, the audience of these films, can either panic about our own nightmares about changes from book to screen, or we can be proactive at learning why changes are made from book to screen. The Princess Bride is a great example, because the books’ author wrote the screenplay, and it is different. Same for the movie Holes.
I could write a book about why things change, and I was very nearly going to right here, because I know there is, what I consider, an over-reaction from some of the audience over a quote that isn’t really saying anything at all. Folks: if you go in with a negative attitude, you walk out with a negative attitude. If you’ve been on retreats, and have put yourself into them, you can get a lot more out of them, than if you’re negative the entire time. It’s the same with a film that you’re likely going to love. You just have to give yourself that chance. Don’t feed on the mob mentality. It’s not the end of the world. You have, so far, seen three real pictures from the film, and no footage. That’s not the same as having seen the movie. Let’s not jump to conclusions and wait for the credits to roll before we start to pick the movie apart. But until that time, let’s have fun knowing that more Narnia is coming.
One more thing: if these films do nothing other than introduce someone to the world of Narnia, and they go to the library or bookstore and read the books: isn’t that worth it all?
You can listen to the podcast at Your Story.
Big thanks to icarus for the find and the hard work transcribing portions of the interview.