A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War hopes to tell the story of how WWI impacted the lives of the young C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien influencing their epic fantasy battles. The series to be released for streaming is in production based on the book by Joe Loconte. The book’s author was featured on the January 23, 2020 episode of Fox New Radio podcast Lauren Green’s Lighthouse Faith.
“We are looking at a documentary film series that we will hopefully sell to Amazon or Netflix. Boil it down to three words: war, friendship, and imagination. Because it is the crucible of war, both the first world war and the second world war that makes possible this remarkable friendship between these two incredible authors. And then it is their friendship that really makes possible the creation of their great imaginative works and the way that they encourage each other over years to pursue their calling as writers and these great stories they tell. So the film will impact us.
We have episode one in the can and are in post production mode now. An hour long each. We think in a month or so we can go to Amazon and say, ok we’ve got episode one we’re sending both of them into war telling separate stories really. They haven’t met yet in WW1. I’ll give you a little teaser for your audience. By the time we get to the end of episode one we are going to make it clear to the audience that their lives are going to converge and they may well have in 1919 as we are going to suggest in the film. Lewis as a student finishing his degree and Tolkien as a young instructor. It is conceivable that they would have crossed each other on an Oxford street. Watch the film when it comes out. You’ll look for the last few moments and see that almost meeting of Tolkien and Lewis. I’m giving away too much, but that will set up for the rest of the series and their friendship.”
Joe Loconte author of A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War
Last year’s Fox Searchlight film Tolkien told a similar story focusing on the young J.R.R. Tolkien during WWI. Although there have been multiple failed film projects to tell the story of the C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien friendship, none of them have made it this far into development. The project’s official website HobbitWardrobe.com has released a trailer with clips from the first episode. The series is self funded while it awaits a distribution deal with Netflix (who will be releasing the new Narnia series) or Amazon (who will be releasing the new Lord of the Rings spin-off series).
