Dr. Michael Ward Has “Hopes” for Greta Gerwig’s Narnia Movie
Dr. Michael Ward, author of Planet Narnia, spoke at Melrose Station in Minneapolis today. During the Q&A, he briefly mentioned Writer/Director Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Chronicles of Narnia movie adaptations:
I understand that Greta Gerwig is making new Netflix adaptations of Narnia. I have hopes because I thought that Greta Gerwig’s Little Women was excellent. And if she can do for Narnia what she did for Little Women, I’ll be pleased.
Dr. Michael Ward
He also quickly gave his thoughts each of Walden Media’s Chronicles of Narnia movies:
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was passable. Prince Caspian was, through gritted teeth, acceptable. But Dawn Treader was an absolute disaster, I thought. It really rubbished this masterpiece of a book.
Dr. Michael Ward
Listen to Dr. Michael Ward’s 2020 guest appearance on the Talking Beasts: The Narnia Podcast, as well as our discussion about his book The Narnia Code.
It’s interesting to hear the thoughts about the movies, of a Narnia scholar who is older than the Talking Beasts cohosts. I suppose in my opinion, the “gritted teeth” about PC could be about the major changes to the characters of Peter, Caspian and Susan. The changes in timeline don’t bother me.
I’m also glad we have Gerwig’s Little Women already. It shows she can adapt a classic children’s book in a delightful way.
I’m not watching the video because I’m not interested in reading about Michael Ward’s opinions on the three existing Narnia movies. You see, he’s the kind of fan who’s all “this is the real meaning behind each Narnia book and if you think it’s about something else, that’s because you don’t understand C. S. Lewis.” I’m glad the average Narniawebber is not like that! As it happens, I don’t think they’re about the same things as he does, so I don’t care if he doesn’t like the movies. (If he does like the movies…well, that’s nice since it’s generally nice to hear about people enjoying movies and surprising coming from someone who seems like such a stickler.)
However, I am interested now in hearing if Michael Ward likes the upcoming Narnia movie because it sounds like both he and I admire Greta Gerwig’s screenplay for Little Women. Maybe that means if he admires what she writes for Narnia, I will too. 🙂