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. 🙂
Based on what Greta Gerwig has shared about what she’s drawn to about Narnia ( that’s not schematic: “I’m interested in embracing the paradox of the worlds”), I wonder if she has thoughts on Michael Ward’s Planet Narnia theory. It’s very much the opposite!
Personally, I think hearing from a Lewis scholar is always interesting, and since he would tend to more of a purist, it’s good that he seems to Greta Gerwig could do a great job with these books.
I actually don’t think Greta Gerwig is going to take a similar approach to Narnia that she took to Little Women-and I don’t mean that as a bad thing! With Little Women, she took a story that’s more emotionally driven-or at least which people think of as emotionally driven-and approached it in a more intellectual way. I don’t mean that as a bad thing either! I found it an interesting change of pace that actually made me rethink the book a little bit and it still had plenty of tearjerking and heartwarming moments. But when talking about Narnia, she’s described it as “dreamlike” and “not schematic” and she’s said she considers this a big part of what makes Narnia compelling. So I’m guessing she’s going to structure her adaptation in a less strategic and more intuitive way than she did with her Little Woman retelling.
I would have expected him to be more negative. Glad he’s feeling optimistic!
Well, that summation of the Walden version of LWW has got to be the first time I’ve agreed with Michael Ward on something!!! His “Planet Narnia” theory is, I don’t hesitate to say, a total load of hogwash, as anyone who actually understands C.S. Lewis can tell at once. And as others here have said, Greta Gerwig’s view of Narnia is that it’s NOT “schematic” (she’s right), which is the total opposite of Ward’s much touted theory. But it’s interesting to know that someone who is a “known name” in the field of Narnia commentaries has a positive view of what Gerwig could potentially do with her adapations.
Fair assessment of VDT but a bit harsh on PC and LWW. I have hopes as well for Gerwig’s Narnia!
The Dawn Treader movie was not perfect, but I don’t think it was as bad as Dr. Ward has made it out to be. It has some good special effects and the acting by Will Poulter as Eustace was quite good. The movie’s story could have followed the book more closely, but that was true of all three Walden films. Movies will always have critics that are too hard on them. To me they are just people with different opinions and nothing more.
“There’s a right bit more than hope. Aslan… is on the move”