NARNIA "Very Different" Greta Gerwig Movie(s) Wants Meryl Streep As Gender-Swap Aslan

[Eric Paddon]

But I have no doubt they'll get Russell Moore and the frauds at Christianity Today to endorse it.

To be honest, I have never been enamored with the Narnia series even though I am a great admirer of Lewis. I've always been put off by the casual dismissal of what happens to Susan in "The Last Battle" as Lewis's worst failing as an author and of course much as I am not a fan of "fantasy" type entertainment in the Legend-Dark Crystal vein, there's too much of Narnia that reminds me of that genre that keeps me from connecting with it (though I can handle a good audio adaptation of "Magician's Nephew" and "Lion Witch and The Wardrobe" because they function as a two part story by itself that makes the point sufficiently). For me, Lewis's greatest work of fiction was his space trilogy, specifically the first two novels "Out Of The Silent Planet" and "Perelandra" which have NEVER been given any kind of dramatized telling, not even in radio, whatsoever.

[Paul MacLean]

But I have no doubt they'll get Russell Moore and the frauds at Christianity Today to endorse it.

No doubt. I wonder if Gerwig will pepper it with sex humor as she did Barbie.

To be honest, I have never been enamored with the Narnia series even though I am a great admirer of Lewis.

Lewis' books are what introduced me to "sword and sorcery" (tho I suspect Lewis probably wouldn't have endorsed that particular term for the genre).

I really liked the adaptation of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Some great talent was on-hand, and those young actors were all inspired casting. As much as filming in New Zealand had almost become a cliché by the mid 2000s, I felt it suited this subject, as Lewis' Narnia was a kind of fantastical mirror image of "Olde England". The New Zealand landscape looks at once very similar yet very different to that of Britain. My only real misgiving was Harry Gregson-Williams' score.

But obviously Disney and Walden Media looked at Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and figured Narnia was another a cash cow that would generate hundreds of millions over the course of a decade. Clearly they also believed (as did the studio behind The Golden Compass) that any director (regardless of experience) would do, because the popularity of the book would drive ticket sales.

It proved not the case -- as even Percy Jackson was a disappointment, despite the guiding hand of Potter director Chris Columbus (who had copious hits to his credit).

I've always been put off by the casual dismissal of what happens to Susan in "The Last Battle" as Lewis's worst failing as an author...

That honestly never bothered me. In fact I found it an effective metaphor regarding lost faith. I've seen many friends (and at least one relative) go the way of Susan.

[Monterey Jack]

No doubt. I wonder if Gerwig will pepper it with sex humor as she did Barbie.

I gasped out loud at Margot Robbie's last line in Barbie, sitting as I was in a theater full of little girls.

[Eric Paddon]

I've always been put off by the casual dismissal of what happens to Susan in "The Last Battle" as Lewis's worst failing as an author...

That honestly never bothered me. In fact I found it an effective metaphor regarding lost faith. I've seen many friends (and at least one relative) go the way of Susan.

I don't object to the idea of it as a plot point. It's just that Lewis deals with it in such a casual, dismissive fashion that comes from out of left field and doesn't have enough development as an idea. Lewis had to answer a lot of irate letters over this point.

[jkholm]

I find the Narnia books to be...OK. I quite enjoy The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, find Dawn Treader pretty good but can barely remember most of the others. I've never read The Magician's Nephew or The Last Battle. My pastor would be mortified if he knew. There's barely a Sunday goes by without him mentioning either Lewis or Tolkien in his sermons. (Probably helps that Lewis was Anglican and I attend an Anglican church.)

Lewis was a Medieval scholar and his understanding of that world and its literary tradition informed much of his writings, including Narnia. I'm sure if I knew more about the medieval worldview that guided Lewis's thoughts, I would appreciate the books more. All that is to say that I doubt Gerwig is immersing herself in Medieval symbolism in her preparations for the movie. At best the movie might retain the basic plot but with the symbols removed and at worst, it will be unrecognizable from the source.

[Eric Paddon]

I find the Narnia books to be...OK. I quite enjoy The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, find Dawn Treader pretty good but can barely remember most of the others. I've never read The Magician's Nephew or The Last Battle. My pastor would be mortified if he knew. There's barely a Sunday goes by without him mentioning either Lewis or Tolkien in his sermons. (Probably helps that Lewis was Anglican and I attend an Anglican church.)

Lewis was a Medieval scholar and his understanding of that world and its literary tradition informed much of his writings, including Narnia. I'm sure if I knew more about the medieval worldview that guided Lewis's thoughts, I would appreciate the books more. All that is to say that I doubt Gerwig is immersing herself in Medieval symbolism in her preparations for the movie. At best the movie might retain the basic plot but with the symbols removed and at worst, it will be unrecognizable from the source.

I think you can handle "Magician's Nephew" which is the prequel setup story to Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and has more scenes in the "real world" since its all about how the young Digory (the Professor of Lion) first found entry into the other realm, how Aslan created Narnia and how the White Witch of Lion etc. came to be (and there is an amusing sequence of her ending up in the present-day London of the 1890s).

[AndyDursin]

Oh it just gets better and better!


https://deadline.com/2025/03/netflix-da ... 236324702/

[Paul MacLean]

I think you can handle "Magician's Nephew" which is the prequel setup story to Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and has more scenes in the "real world" since its all about how the young Digory (the Professor of Lion) first found entry into the other realm, how Aslan created Narnia and how the White Witch of Lion etc. came to be (and there is an amusing sequence of her ending up in the present-day London of the 1890s).

Agreed. I enjoyed "The Magician's Nephew" as much or more than "Lion, Witch" and "Dawn Treader". "The Last Battle" is also excellent.

Oh it just gets better and better!

https://deadline.com/2025/03/netflix-da ... 236324702/

Who's he going to play? The White Witch?

[AndyDursin]

Well there we go. Staying home confirmed. lol

[Paul MacLean]

I'm so tired of this "gender swap" crap.

I didn't mind Starbuck being changed to a woman in the 2000s Battlestar Galatica. I thought it was awesome actually, because it is wasn't really agenda-driven (and it did work well dramatically).

But casting a lesbian in the lead of Jesus Christ Superstar, and now Meryl Streep as what was a male character in a much-loved book by a Christian author.

Can't these people see that woke entertainment invariably tanks (while The Chosen has hundreds of millions of viewers)?

[Monterey Jack]

Additionally, one of the key moments in Aslan's Jesus-like "scouring" is having his mane cut off, and female lions don't have manes.

[Eric Paddon]

I didn't mind Starbuck being changed to a woman in the 2000s Battlestar Galatica. I thought it was awesome actually, because it is wasn't really agenda-driven (and it did work well dramatically).

I did! And to be honest, I think it was agenda-driven when Moore followed that up by making the one other macho male figure of the series, Commander Cain, a sadistic lesbian female. The original series already had a strong female warrior (Sheba) who didn't check her femininity at the door when she was flying equal with the men. To me it was an opening salvo in a trend where if you embodied anything obviously masculine......out it would go.

A couple years ago we had a so-called "revival" of "1776" which is one of the greatest musicals ever, and all of these male historical characters were now played by females. Total desecration.

And this is just the latest sign of the disease in our popular culture and why I wouldn't mind if the whole industry just disappeared.

[Paul MacLean]

I didn't mind Starbuck being changed to a woman in the 2000s Battlestar Galatica. I thought it was awesome actually, because it is wasn't really agenda-driven (and it did work well dramatically).

I did! And to be honest, I think it was agenda-driven when Moore followed that up by making the one other macho male figure of the series, Commander Cain, a sadistic lesbian female.

I always saw Lloyd Bridges' Cain as a heroic-but-flawed character, whose ego prompted him to arguably villainous acts (destroying the Cylon tankers, sacrificing the Pegasus and his entire crew in attacking the base ships). Certainly his crew were of dubious moral fiber (as they drew their weapons to prevent the fuel distribution to the fleet).

As such I didn't find it far-removed from the original character when Cain was shifted into a sadistic despot. I actually thought the Michelle Forbes character was an unflattering and surprisingly anti-gay and anti-feminist role for a mainstream TV series. So it didn't seem agenda-driven to me.

The original series already had a strong female warrior (Sheba) who didn't check her femininity at the door when she was flying equal with the men. To me it was an opening salvo in a trend where if you embodied anything obviously masculine......out it would go.

I admit, it might have been better had they taken the female Starbuck and her accompanying characteristics and just called her Sheba, or Athena.

And Katie Sackhoff's Starbuck did exhibit a softer side, having romantic relationships, caring for a child (albeit under coercion at first) and even growing her hair long!

[Eric Paddon]

I've yet to find an original series diehard who thinks Cain's insubordination was "villainous." The backstory with Cain in that episode is that here's the greatest warrior in history with a big ego, and he wasn't there when the big moment of Destruction took place in the pilot forcing the flight to the stars. For him, he can't let go of the old war and there's a sense that he needs to do something grandiose to make up for his own failing of before and do something that he thinks will make a real difference for the long-term. His crew I don't think was of dubious moral fiber either. They were loyal to a fault and not ready to adjust but when an attack interrupted the proceedings, they dropped the conflict to work together. In the end, they volunteered to stay with Cain on his final act which was to get the danger of endless Cylon pursuit off the backs of the Fleet and the way the series unfolded with the Cylons playing a diminished role in the series (the result because the writers were fed up with ABC's censorship edicts that kept them from depicting them as genuinely threatening) the act become in the end more noble. Plus, he was always loving and decent to those he cared most about as with Sheba. There is none of the sadism and moral failings of the Forbes character and when that infamous rape scene took place that was when one of the leading (at the time) original series message boards that had even invited Ron Moore to participate in the past (and he did) openly declared enough and banned Moore's show from any further discussion. It just came off as another middle finger by Ron Moore to the original series mythos and fanbase for the sake of extending a middle finger just as the Starbuck is female change had (compounded by Sackhoff's own arrogance with her "I'm Starbuck, deal with it!" declaration).

Making Colonel Tigh a dysfunctional drunk was rather tellingly something that only came once you decided a white bread actor was going to play the role instead of a black actor like Terry Carter. Another example of where the WOKE DEI agenda of the series was quite clear to me.

All of this does show is how after 20 years, there has never been any kind of reconciliation between the two fanbases because to be honest, the new series fans either hate the original with the same arrogance epitomized by Harlan Ellison's hypocritical declaration of "Moore took the worst series ever and made it the best" (so much for his alleged principles about what other people do to other people's work!) or if they like the series, it's generally with the condescending put down of treating it like kiddie-fare not worthy of being taken seriously in terms of its potential for great storytelling as found in its template. When I read recently that any would-be efforts at another reimagining think Moore's blessing is needed because Moore arrogantly has tried to claim he is the "Creator" of a property called "Battlestar Galactica" that is when he sinks to even greater depths in my eyes.

[Paul MacLean]

All of this does show is how after 20 years, there has never been any kind of reconciliation between the two fanbases because to be honest, the new series fans either hate the original with the same arrogance epitomized by Harlan Ellison's hypocritical declaration of "Moore took the worst series ever and made it the best" (so much for his alleged principles about what other people do to other people's work!) or if they like the series, it's generally with the condescending put down of treating it like kiddie-fare not worthy of being taken seriously in terms of its potential for great storytelling as found in its template..

Well, I liked both series, so perhaps I am a "living reconciliation"!

Despite their sharing a basic premise, they are very different, and unique.

The original takes a cue from Star Wars, with its clear-cut good guys and bad guys, a sober and responsible male lead, with a wild and reckless sidekick, an elder, white-haired patriarch steeped in religious traditions, John Dysktra supervising the effects, recruiting a "name" orchestra to record the music, etc.

The later version (despite the occasional dogfight) is far-more influenced by Blade Runner, with its flawed, more morally-ambiguous characters, artificial humans who believe they are human, moody sets, bullets in lieu of laser weapons (the Colonials even refer to the humanoid Cylons as "skin jobs").

I find them both interesting in their own way. The later version doesn't ruin or cancel-out the earlier for me. I see them as somewhat analogous to the original Star Trek vs. Star Trek: The Next Generation.