Posted by: @davidd

Greatest fear:
...''Remove problematic ideas that Lewis presented".

Are there any particularly problematic ideas in Magician's Nephew though? If this were LB or HHB, there would certainly be room for debate, but MN for me is pretty unproblematic... if anything i think it comes off pretty favourably in terms of gender representation.

Posted by: @icarus

Are there any particularly problematic ideas in Magician's Nephew though? If this were LB or HHB, there would certainly be room for debate, but MN for me is pretty unproblematic...

Well, it might be considered anti-science, I guess. Uncle Andrew is a stereotypical evil scientist, complete with crazy hair, and Digory's "original sin" is arguably scientific curiosity re: the bell and the hammer. There might be filmmakers out there (I don't know if any of them are working on this movie) who'd want to add a benevolent scientist character to balance out Uncle Andrew.

But, again, I don't know if these filmmakers care that much about the portrayal of science. It's nowhere near my greatest fear. 

It feels like a stretch to label that problematic.

Id go so far to say that one of the most enduringly popular tropes of all cinema is the idea that human's preoccupation with technological progress is to our detriment, and that a return to simpler ways which are more closely attuned to nature is preferential. 

Posted by: @icarus

Are there any particularly problematic ideas in Magician's Nephew though?

Not that I am aware of, but there can always be something.

(I love The Horse and His Boy, but I think the portrayal of the Calormenes in a movie would need to be done in such a way as to avoid any racial slurs. Given that the Calormenes are meant to originally be descendants of the Archenlanders, and hence indirectly descended from King Frank and Queen Helen - I think it would make sense to represent the Calormenes with the exact same racial diversity that is used for the Narnians and Archenlanders. If they update The Horse and His Boy so that it does not unintentionally degrade any race / people group, I would be all for it.  That was not what I was meaning.) 

I heard someone insinuate once that any Christian theme / influence in these stories is problematic. I just do not want the Magician's Nephew to be updated for the sake of some fashionable agenda.

I think I would also add that my greatest hope with be (and I believe @fantasia and @gp would be with me on this) is to really put emphasis on the despair and the hope. That is, near the end, like when DIgory gives his sick mother the apple and when she is recovered, take the time to feel the joy.

The despair is Digory’s mother is sick to the point of death and the joy is she’s healed. They should not be like, "Oh, okay. We can end the story there", and the credits start rolling. No, no. They should take time to feel that, even include the scene where Digory's mother is playing with Digory and Polly. That's what Narnia really enhances on. It’s the hope that comes through despair. So I think the filmmakers should emphasize that moment.