The director of the new Chronicles of Narnia adaptation for Netflix says she was a fan of the series as a child and feels “intimidated” by the project due to its significance.
Greta Gerwig -- who is best known as the director of Barbie (2023) as well as Lady Bird (2017) and Little Women (2019) -- has been given the task of directing Netflix’s real-life adaptation of C.S. Lewis' popular novels.
A release date has not been announced.
“I’m slightly in the place of terror because I really do have such reverence for Narnia,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today. “I loved Narnia so much as a child. As an adult, C.S. Lewis is a thinker and a writer. I’m intimidated by doing this. It’s something that feels like a worthy thing to be intimidated by.”
She added, “As a non-British person, I feel a particular sense of wanting to do it correctly. …It’s like when Americans do Shakespeare, there’s a slight feeling of reverence and as if maybe we should treat it with extra care. It is not our countryman."
NarniaWeb reported that Gerwig will write and direct at least two Narnia films for Netflix. The titles have not been announced.
Scott Stuber, the chairman of Netflix Film, said Gerwig is the right director for the massive project.
“[Gerwig] grew up in a Christian background,” he said. “The C.S. Lewis books are very much based in Christianity. And so we just started talking about it. And like I said earlier, we don’t have IP, so when we had the opportunity [to license] those books or the [Roald Dahl Co.] we jumped at it, to have stories that people recognize and the ability to tell those stories. So, it was just a great opportunity, and I’m so thrilled that she’s working on it with us. And I’m just thrilled to be in business with her. And she’s just an incredible talent."
Disney produced three movies based on the novels more than a decade ago. They were The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010).
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Image credit: ©Getty Images/Slaven Vlasic / Stringer
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
