The First Time Douglas Gresham Read the Screenplay for The Silver Chair

Gresham and Stratton (in costume as Nurse)

Nicole Stratton, Artistic Director at the Logos Theatre, recently talked about her experience working with Douglas Gresham (step-son of C.S. Lewis) on scripts for their Narnia stage productions. During a livestream on the Narnia Fans Facebook page, she was asked if she knew anything about The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair movie.

“[Gresham] had somebody for Jill,” Stratton said. “Looking at somebody very seriously for Jill.” (36:05) She did not specify when that conversation took place.

She also told the story of the first time Gresham read the script (36:36)…

According to Stratton, “people” from the production presented the script to Gresham in a restaurant and they were “hiding” when he walked in (out of nervousness). They carefully watched his reaction as he read every page. There was a certain scene involving Puddleglum that Gresham mandated had to be included or else he would not green-light the movie. (Based on past comments, we can assume it was Puddleglum’s famous speech from chapter 12). As the scene neared, Gresham stopped reading and began praying. “And then,” Stratton said, “the Spirit said to him to turn the page.” And on the next page, Gresham saw the scene.

“He told us [The Silver Chair] was one of the best scripts he had seen for the movies.”

Last we heard, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair will hopefully begin production later this year.

Listen to our exclusive interview with The Silver Chair screenwriter, David Magee.

It is not to late to get discounted tickets for The Logos Theatre’s final run of Prince Caspian in Taylors, South Carolina. Watch an exclusive clip.