Narnia movie already doomed for failure? Aslan to be female???

[wonderings]

Not sure how true this is, but a friend sent me this link:

EXCLUSIVE: Meryl Streep In Talks To Join Greta Gerwig’s ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ Films

Netflix’s highly anticipated The Chronicles of Narnia film franchise is set to kick off with a film adaption of The Magician’s Nephew.

www.nexuspointnews.com

To summarize the link, Meryl Streep supposedly in talks to play Aslan. If that is true then the whole thing in my mind is doomed for failure. They did mention Daniel Craig for Uncle Andrew, that is casting I think would be good, I can see him as quick Uncle Andrew. What I cannot see, and what would keep me from watching would be the identity politics and gender swapping that is the Hollywood way these days. I truly hope it is not true and hope that they see wherever else these things have been done they have been wrought with failure. Narnia movies/series will fail if they deviate from the core of what Lewis wrote. And you cannot get more foundational then Aslan. Making him female is just not an option for this story if they care at all about them. Again I really hope this site is unreliable and this proves to be untrue.

 

[~Lava~]

I have seen this too, I have had my reservations about Greta Gerwig and this is on par with some of my imagined worst-case scenarios. I was kind of hopeful because Magician's Nephew was the one I didn't think she would screw up too bad

 

[Sven-El]

Allow me to help alleviate your concerns. I understand them, and when I saw the initial headline I had them too, but being a fearless writer for this site< I did what any good journalist does, and dug a little deeper.

There are a few things about this article that point to it being either someones early April Fools Joke, or a Clickbait article,

1: Nexus Point News is NOT a credible source of information. Up until this story broke I never heard of them. When I did a Google search the first result that came up was a different page that dealt with environmental news. Typically, major casting announcements are reported by either a respected industry insider, like Variety or Deadline, or a respected media outlet like Collider.

2: Nexus Point News does not provide any sources in their reporting, further hinting towards it possibly being clickbait or an April Fools Joke. Variety, Deadline, and Collider all site sources in reporting and none of them are talking about this.

3: Given Streeps age (75), and Netflix looks eager to play "the long game" with the franchise and given the fact it's roughly two to three years between installments of a series ( longer if your Netflix considering the lag time between seasons of Stranger Things....Not to say the kids are getting a little long in the tooth, but it was reaching a point I was certain that one of them would be the spokesperson for Safe Step Walk in Tubs and the other would be reminding me to sign up for Medicare by the time the final season dropped it was taking so long), I doubt they'll want to cast a performer that old in such a pivotal role.

4: Upon further investigation I found that the CS Lewis company has prevented stage productions from casting a female as Aslan. They still have veto power when it comes to casting choices for the production.

5: If true, it would undermine everything that Gerwig has said about how nervous she is about this production and how she wants to respect and honor Lewis and his work.

6: The Netflix exec has talked extensively about how much Lewis's work means to his fans and to Christians and seeking to honor that. Fact is, after the failure of Snow White, I get the impression that for a time studios are going to be a little careful when it comes to adapting beloved IPS if they hope to appeal to actual fans.

7: The film is only in preproduction phase with no roles announced. Traditionally in hybrid productions like this, or the original Narnia series, the voice over roles are the very last to be selected. Last time around Aslan was not only the last one picked, but had o be recast because the original actor, Brian Cox lost weight and his voice changed as a result.

By the time filming starts Aslan will either be an oversized plush Lion from FAO Schwartz standing in for Him...or Wilson the Volleyball from Cast Away.

Also, moderators, can we move this thread to The Narnia on Netflix section? This feels more like it belongs in the rumors and general discussion, than news.

 

[~Lava~]

Allow me to help alleviate your concerns. I understand them, and when I saw the initial headline I had them too, but being a fearless writer for this site< I did what any good journalist does, and dug a little deeper.

There are a few things about this article that point to it being either someones early April Fools Joke, or a Clickbait article,

1: Nexus Point News is NOT a credible source of information. Up until this story broke I never heard of them. When I did a Google search the first result that came up was a different page that dealt with environmental news. Typically, major casting announcements are reported by either a respected industry insider, like Variety or Deadline, or a respected media outlet like Collider.

2: Nexus Point News does not provide any sources in their reporting, further hinting towards it possibly being clickbait or an April Fools Joke. Variety, Deadline, and Collider all site sources in reporting and none of them are talking about this.

3: Given Streeps age (75), and Netflix looks eager to play "the long game" with the franchise and given the fact it's roughly two to three years between installments of a series ( longer if your Netflix considering the lag time between seasons of Stranger Things....Not to say the kids are getting a little long in the tooth, but it was reaching a point I was certain that one of them would be the spokesperson for Safe Step Walk in Tubs and the other would be reminding me to sign up for Medicare by the time the final season dropped it was taking so long), I doubt they'll want to cast a performer that old in such a pivotal role.

4: Upon further investigation I found that the CS Lewis company has prevented stage productions from casting a female as Aslan. They still have veto power when it comes to casting choices for the production.

5: If true, it would undermine everything that Gerwig has said about how nervous she is about this production and how she wants to respect and honor Lewis and his work.

6: The Netflix exec has talked extensively about how much Lewis's work means to his fans and to Christians and seeking to honor that. Fact is, after the failure of Snow White, I get the impression that for a time studios are going to be a little careful when it comes to adapting beloved IPS if they hope to appeal to actual fans.

7: The film is only in preproduction phase with no roles announced. Traditionally in hybrid productions like this, or the original Narnia series, the voice over roles are the very last to be selected. Last time around Aslan was not only the last one picked, but had o be recast because the original actor, Brian Cox lost weight and his voice changed as a result.

By the time filming starts Aslan will either be an oversized plush Lion from FAO Schwartz standing in for Him...or Wilson the Volleyball from Cast Away.

Also, moderators, can we move this thread to The Narnia on Netflix section? This feels more like it belongs in the rumors and general discussion, than news.

Thank you

 

[Sven-El]

You are most welcome. Happy to be of help.

 

[wonderings]

Allow me to help alleviate your concerns. I understand them, and when I saw the initial headline I had them too, but being a fearless writer for this site< I did what any good journalist does, and dug a little deeper.

There are a few things about this article that point to it being either someones early April Fools Joke, or a Clickbait article,

1: Nexus Point News is NOT a credible source of information. Up until this story broke I never heard of them. When I did a Google search the first result that came up was a different page that dealt with environmental news. Typically, major casting announcements are reported by either a respected industry insider, like Variety or Deadline, or a respected media outlet like Collider.

2: Nexus Point News does not provide any sources in their reporting, further hinting towards it possibly being clickbait or an April Fools Joke. Variety, Deadline, and Collider all site sources in reporting and none of them are talking about this.

3: Given Streeps age (75), and Netflix looks eager to play "the long game" with the franchise and given the fact it's roughly two to three years between installments of a series ( longer if your Netflix considering the lag time between seasons of Stranger Things....Not to say the kids are getting a little long in the tooth, but it was reaching a point I was certain that one of them would be the spokesperson for Safe Step Walk in Tubs and the other would be reminding me to sign up for Medicare by the time the final season dropped it was taking so long), I doubt they'll want to cast a performer that old in such a pivotal role.

4: Upon further investigation I found that the CS Lewis company has prevented stage productions from casting a female as Aslan. They still have veto power when it comes to casting choices for the production.

5: If true, it would undermine everything that Gerwig has said about how nervous she is about this production and how she wants to respect and honor Lewis and his work.

6: The Netflix exec has talked extensively about how much Lewis's work means to his fans and to Christians and seeking to honor that. Fact is, after the failure of Snow White, I get the impression that for a time studios are going to be a little careful when it comes to adapting beloved IPS if they hope to appeal to actual fans.

7: The film is only in preproduction phase with no roles announced. Traditionally in hybrid productions like this, or the original Narnia series, the voice over roles are the very last to be selected. Last time around Aslan was not only the last one picked, but had o be recast because the original actor, Brian Cox lost weight and his voice changed as a result.

By the time filming starts Aslan will either be an oversized plush Lion from FAO Schwartz standing in for Him...or Wilson the Volleyball from Cast Away.

Also, moderators, can we move this thread to The Narnia on Netflix section? This feels more like it belongs in the rumors and general discussion, than news.

I had heard this about the site as well after I posted, though I did not delve too deeply. My fears are not completely elevated that Netflix is going to screw this up. This is what everyone is doing and being faithful to classic works of literature does not have a strong track record. The same verbiage was used for Rings of Power. All the talk of how they are fans of Tolkien and the deep respect for the lore, but then while saying that they produce and praise the utter garbage that would have Tolkien spinning in his grave if he were to see it. Again I so hope I will be wrong on this, but the only streaming service that I would have any faith in adaptation would be Apple right now, and that is purely based on the Silo series which has been incredibly faithful to the books.