Hey, religion-beat professionals and news consumers.
I know that it’s hard, right now, but try to ignore the whole “Barbenheimer” phenomenon. That tsunami is really a business-beat story — as Disney and Hollywood hang on for dear life (post-Snow White 2024) in a bitterly divided America.
I am talking about #BarbAslan.
Let’s start here, with the double-decker headline on this totally haunted little story at Entertainment Weekly:
Greta Gerwig says she's 'properly scared' about directing new Chronicles of Narnia movies
The filmmaker is going from Barbie Land to meeting Aslan.
OK, why is she “scared”?
Well, it is a big franchise and the financial risk to Netflix will be substantial. And then there is the fact that Narnia believers rank right up there with Lord of the Rings fans, when it comes to long attention spans and a fierce dedication to sweating the details.
What kind of details? Well, consider this headline from The Guardian, during an earlier Chronicles of Narnia media storm: “Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion.”
Thus, how does the EW story handle the obvious Christian images and themes in Narnia, when writing about Gerwig — Barbie, Little Women, Lady Bird — guiding the latest video version of these classics by C.S. Lewis? Think of it this way: What would Screwtape say?
That’s easy. The editors totally ignored it. Here is the overture:
Greta Gerwig is sharing her nerves about leading the charge on a new series of Chronicles of Narnia movies.
The Barbie director has been tapped to write and direct at least two films for Netflix based on the beloved C.S. Lewis novels, and she admitted during a recent podcast appearance that she's "terrified" to start developing them.
"I haven't even really started wrapping my arms around it, but I'm properly scared of it, which feels like a good place to start," Gerwig told the Total Film podcast. "I think when I'm scared, it's always a good sign. Maybe when I stop being scared, it'll be like, 'Maybe I shouldn't do that one.' No, I'm terrified of it. It's extraordinary. And it's exciting."
Her vision for her career, however, extends much farther than the reaches of Barbie Land or Narnia's Wild Lands of the North. "I hope to make all different kinds of movies in the course of the time I get to make movies, which — it's a long time, but it's also limited," she explained. "I want to do big things and small things and everywhere in between, and having another big canvas is exciting and also daunting."
Narnia fans are going to love this next Gerwig byte, when she was asked if she would consider taking a shot at handling a James Bond movie: "Oh my God. We're going to just stick with some lions and some dolls for the moment."
That’s that, for now. But you know that gender wars, modernized plots and #triggerwarning debates are dead ahead. Can Narnia books be used in public schools these days?
Reporters who want to get ready for the storm can start paying attention to lots of online websites, starting with NarniaWeb.com and the YouTube channel “Into the Wardrobe.”
From the viewpoint of Hollywood players, the looming controversy can be summed up with this quote from C.S. Lewis himself, care of the Deseret News:
“The Chronicles of Narnia” are one of Lewis’s most famous works along with his theological books like “Mere Christianity.” Lewis, a convert to Christianity, once said about the series, “The whole Narnian story is about Christ,” per Reuters. He described Aslan as “an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question: ‘What might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia?’”
In the world of cancel culture, Lewis would have to be at the very top of the list that modernists, progressives, etc., would want to keep away from children. Here is a summary from a secular source, as in Yahoo! Entertainment.
The headline assumes that anything Narnia will be controversial, as opposed to simply being a classic series of fiction for young readers that has sold about 120 million copies in nearly 50 languages: “The Chronicles of Narnia — The controversy behind CS Lewis's book series explained.”
Brace yourselves.
Lewis's use of Christian imagery has since drawn criticism to the series, for example His Dark Materials author (and known atheist) Phillip Pullman disparaged the novels as "propaganda" in 2002.
At a book event, per the Guardian, Pullman said he'd read Lewis's work as a teacher and "realised that what he was up to was propaganda in the cause of the religion he believed in".
On the other end of the spectrum, in 2010 Liam Neeson, who voiced Aslan in the Disney films, drew some criticism for saying the lion is not meant to only represent Jesus.
Per Reuters, he said in a press conference: "Aslan symbolises a Christlike figure, but he also symbolises for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries."
This led to backlash from those in the Christian community, who feel Lewis's religious views are integral to understanding the meaning behind the books.
The “Christian community” believes that? How about Lewis himself, as well as the critics who have hated him for decades?
Stay tuned. #BarbAslan looms ahead.
FIRST IMAGE: Uncredited feature art at GeekFeed.com feature, “Barbie’s Greta Gerwig to Reboot Chronicles of Narnia for Netflix.”