A Couple of Interviews with C.S. Lewis’ Stepson Douglas Gresham, regarding Dawn Treader

Douglas Gresham is C.S. Lewis’ stepson and also the man responsible for the Narnia films finally coming to the big screen.  He’s taken part in a pair of very insightful interviews that will help you understand just how much work goes on behind the scenes that you and I don’t know about until we’re told these things.  Some people think that you can just go out and shoot a movie, and don’t understand the whole process that goes into it.

In the second interview he states that he believes that the end of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is “one of great endings in movie history” and I completely agree with him.

Here’s an excerpt from the one from Crosswalk.com:

Can you give an example of something in the adaptation of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader that you took issue with or fought for or didn’t want changed from book to screen?

Well there are so many.  Always when you translate a book from the sort of medium of print into a movie, you’re going to have to make changes.  What happens in these things is that there’s a sort of group of people—almost an informal committee—that decide what to do and what to put into the screenplay and so forth.  And being a complete and utter Narnia fanatical purist, any comma they moved to me is an anathema.  So I argue pretty strongly for what I believe in.  And we always come to a compromise situation.  So there are always things that I would rather not have done, and there are always things the director probably would not have done.  And he’s moved in my direction, and I’ve moved in his.  This is the sort of cooperative process in making a movie from a book.  And I think it probably doesn’t infringe on people’s consciousness when they see the movies as much as it does on mine when I’m actually making the movies.  I work very hard to make my points and some of them are understood and some of them are not and so forth.  But we always work as sort of a team to eventually come out with something that results in usually a first-class film.

Do you think C.S. Lewis would approve of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader‘s leap from page to screen and the end result?

I’m very wary of ever saying of how Jack would think about things.  Of course he died in 1963, and he hasn’t had the 50 so or years of life to change his attitudes as I’ve gone through.  So I’m not prepared to say what Jack would think or would not think.  I’m prepared to say if he had watched what we had done with Aslan and Reepicheep and characters like this on-screen, he would be utterly thrilled.  His great fear was that the Narnia Chronicles would be done sometime in cell animation, in a cartoon type way and he hated that.  And so I’m very, very happy that we’ve been able to do it in such absolute realism.  I mean that lion walking around the screen could be a real lion in the zoo.  And I’m very glad we’ve been able to give him the majesty and dignity that he needs.  And the same with Reepicheep and the other animal characters from Narnia.  I think Jack would absolutely love what we’ve been able to do there.

Was there a time when anyone was trying to get these films made in that cell animation type of way?

Yes, of course, there was a time.  But I’ve been trying to make these movies since long before this modern technology of computer generated imagery even existed.  And there were people who came up with ideas that I said “no” to.  I think the Holy Spirit of God held this whole process up until the technology had been developed sufficiently to do it justice.

Read the rest on Crosswalk

And here’s an excerpt from the interview with Examiner.com’s Mike Parker:

Parker – It is probably premature to ask, but will there be another Narnia movie?

Gresham – That depends on you. If everyone goes to see the film, and takes all there friends, and all of their enemies – we’re supposed to love them, too – then we will have the box office clout to go to our investors and with a clear conscience ask for the funds to make another film.

Parker – Last words?

Gresham – I think people should understand that this movie returns us to the great beauty, wonder and magic of Narnia, but it is also about temptation and how we face it; it is about love and loss. I personally think the ending of the movie is one of great endings in movie history. I think that people are going to love this film. I encourage them to see it.

Read the rest on Examiner

10 Comments

  1. Sooo, he didn’t say that Jack would be happy. It seems like he has mixed feeling about it. As do I. I agree. Reep and Aslan are great. Lucy is great…and the others are great, but as actors…I can’t really see Narnia as much in the others.

    • Well… there’s a pretty major flaw in what you’re saying here. He never comments on what Jack would think of it, and will not. As for his own feelings, he’s not mixed at all. He’s very proud of it.

      • Oh, I think he is proud! please don’t get me wrong. It’s just… I want so bad to think that Jack would like it all! And I think he would like allot of it…for sure!

        I am not going to get too upset about the differences. I will just enjoy the movie. At least they are not messing up the Bible…that is when my blood really gets pumping! 🙂

        Thanks for pointing that out, Paul.

  2. Great interview! I love the line about taking your friends and your enemies to see the movie! Only 15 more days! Happy Thanksgiving!

  3. I think he was quite honest on the whole “what would Jack think” thing. He can’t say because he is not Jack and Jack’s been gone for decades now.

    I feel kind of sorry for Douglas sometimes… he obviously cares about the books but the hard fans (like me) are always bashing him about the movies, forgetting that if wasn’t for him, we might not have any movie at all. And even with their many many flaws, the movies do have gained new fans for the books.

  4. Oh, Douglas. Just when I was standing up for you, I read that you are the one responsible for the “chronological order” of the chronicles. grrr

    • Well, in all honesty, the chronological order of the books made a lot more sense than the publishing order, but I really think that if that was such a big issue, they would be making the films in chronological order, not publishing order. Gracious, you’re mad at him over THAT?!

      Thanks for posting the interviews!

  5. Dear Brother Douglas Gresham,

    I just turned 84, on Jack’s 112th birthday. You see I was born on his 28th. I was 21, on the day U.N. conceived Israel by a 33 to 13 vote. Jack began his 50th Jubilee year on that day in 1947. My mother was born june 1895 in a Farmhouse in Goshen, IN and my Father was born in Bethleham, PA,Sept. 1898
    On my 48th DOB, I dedicated my life to HIM and deceided to sell my Pharmacy and be a lay minister. I am an Ass. Pastor of a small church for 18 yrs. My Messianic wife of 58 years just met Jesus 30 days ago [Patia Anne[Hosea] Colver. My forefather Edward Colver came from London in 1635 with John Winthrop Jr. as a Wheelwright & Millwright. I believe I am called to be a part of your ministry. How can I help you?
    I have only shared a small part of my calling since 2-14-87.
    In His service, Bob Colver

  6. Even with the differences between the books and movies, which are inevitable, I think that overall they are all quite excellent and thank Douglas for going to bat to keep them as close to the books as possible, and for having them made at ALL! I just hope and pray that they make the last 2, (The Magician’s Nephew & The Last Battle) because I think they’re the best, next to the first (LW&W)!

    I would like to share a short true story of a student I taught for 2 years. He was going through a tough time in his life and was pretty difficult, not listening to MUCH of what I taught. But I started reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, as well as The Magician’s Nephew to my classes (4th & 5th grades, pullout reading programs) and this boy sat in rapt attention!

    Five years after he graduated (just before the first movie came out) he came back to the school to pick up his younger cousin, and I went over to talk to him. Within 2 minutes he was asking if I still read “those books” to my students! Then he asked if he could get them at a library or buy them. I asked if he’d like me to write down the information for him and he enthusiastically said YES! As it turned out, I had an extra set of all 7 at home, so I gift-wrapped them, with a letter I wrote to him explaining that Aslan is Jesus (what he alluded to when he told the kids at the end that they needed to learn the name he had in THEIR world)! I also told him that the movie of the first one was coming out soon, and he was SOOOO excited! I still get goose-pimples when I think about that incident. I hope Douglas Gresham hears about it – I know it would be a great encouragement to him as well, to keep on pursuing the making of the films for future generations.

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