+JMJ
Thanks for sharing, MrBob!
I note the mention of concern about the "controversial" nature of The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle. The censoring of that which is perceived to be "controversial" in beloved stories is exactly what we would hope that filmmakers and producers would avoid if we hope to see good film or TV adaptions of CofN. In our days of political correctness and cancel culture, it would not surprise me if Netflix pushes for a sterlized, even deChristianized, Narnia. It is for this same reason that I am not holding my breath over the new Middle-earth series from Amazon.
Unfortunately, I don't know if we've really had any good screen adaptions of either Lewis or Tolkien since CofN: The Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe in 2005. In my opinion, LWW's sequel, Prince Caspian was a disgrace and Voyage of the Dawn Treader far from impressive. "Voyage" especially seemed to downgrade Aslan from a Christ figure to a Puff-the-Magic-Dragon mentor. (I think especially here of his "you doubt yourself" mantra that he repeats to Lucy when she identifies her envy of Susan. Where was that untame lion, that wielder of Christ-like authority, that we have come to love? Furthermore, the rich Christian symbolism of Aslan's appearing to Reepicheep and the rest as a lamb at the end of the book is vetoed). What is more, Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy was dismally awful and got worse with each succeeding film. There are so many problems with these films that I need not go into here. But, notably, for our purposes, Thorin Oakenshield's character went through a disappointing makeover. His relationship with Bilbo, his long windedness, his courage, his stubbornness, and his conversion are supposed to be monumental, but the film's Thorin is so stare-into-the-screen hollywoodesque with poor dialogue and character development that these attributes, where they were not neglected, were too weakly communicated. One real downer is that the Jackson crew neglected Thorin's following words at his death: "I go now to the halls of waiting to sit beside my fathers, until the world is renewed" (see The Hobbit, chapter 18). This significant reference to salvation history should never have been neglected.
I think that we Christians could add to our prayer intentions the production of good films that are faithful adaptions of our beloved Christian authors' works. Thus, we should also pray for good directors and filmmakers who do not fear the mob and courageously persevere in making that true art that gives glory to God.
