Paul Fischer caught up with the film’s director in New York.
Question: Was it hard to be true to the book, doing the adaptation?
Adamson: Yes and no. I actually set out really not to make the book so much as my memory of the book because I realized in reading the book as an adult that it was kind of like the house that you grew up in, much smaller than I remembered. And I wanted to catch the more epic story that I remembered which I think was expanded by my experiences over 30 years, by the fact that I had read all seven books, and that the world had actually expanded C.S. Lewis in writing all seven books.
Question: How influential was Lewis’ stepson and did you 2 see eye-to-eye on everything?
Adamson: Douglas Gresham was actually a huge cheerleader. He had wanted to make this movie for 15 years and wanted to find somebody who was gonna to make the book in a way that he felt C.S. Lewis had intended, and we shared that in common. So we always tended to agree on most things. He was a huge asset and at times when I was adapting, particularly in the writing process, when I could call him up and say, look does this take anything away from what Jack intended or does this addition change things too much? The only thing we really debated at any length was what I considered a sexist aspect of the book. It’s when Father Christmas gives weapons to the kids, and says to the girls, I don’t intend you to use them because weapons are ugly when women fight. I just came off doing two films which I think were empowering to girls — the Princess Fiona character I think is an empowering character — and I said to Doug, I understand that C.S. Lewis might have had these dated ideals, but at the same time there’s no way I could put that in a film . . . He wasn’t really expressing his own ideas so much as C.S. Lewis and the way I got around it, I think, is that I said — he wrote this book before I met your mom. And if you look at his books actually after he met Joy, there are a lot more strong female characters. I think he had more exposure to strong female characters after that point. And Doug really was the one who came to the sort of compromise that worked, which is just Father Christmas saying — I hope you don’t have to use them because battles are ugly affairs. And that could apply to both girls and boys.
[read the rest at Dark Horizons]
