One of the things you may have noticed if you've been clicking through to some of the set pictures and videos that have been emerging from social media over the last few weeks, is that the people on the ground taking those photos have often been told by the crew that they are shooting a project with the working title of "Ordinary Time".

Now obviously working titles of this nature are a very common tool in movie production, and are designed purposefully to distract attention away from the production. Often however they contain hidden meanings - so for example, Walden's LWW used the working titles of "The Hundred Year Winter" and "Paravel" (as well as a Production Company name of "Lamp Post Productions").

So what does "Ordinary Time" mean and why have they chosen it for the working title? Well, I have two theories about that...

The first is the fact that in the Christian Church calendar, "Ordinary Time" refers to the period between Easter and Christmas i.e. the entire part of the year that isn't associated with either of those two major Christian feasts. Therefore, given that LWW is thematically associated with both Easter and Christmas, i think its possible that the title of "Ordinary Time" has been selected as a playful reference to the fact that MN is not LWW, and they are not starting with the book that many people perhaps expected they would. Given that Greta Gerwig attended Catholic School whilst growing up, I think its highly likely she would be familiar with this particular terminology.

The second theory is that it is a reference to a line of dialogue from the book. In Chapter 13, Jadis tempts Digory with an apple from the Tree of Life, along with the promise of immortality, to which Digory responds:

"No thanks," said Digory, "I don't know that I care much about living on and on after everyone I know is dead. I'd rather live an ordinary time and die and go to Heaven."

Given that this is probably the most thematically significant moment of the book, it absolutely makes sense to me that Greta Gerwig would use part of it for the working title. Even just reading the line now, the use of the phrase "ordinary time" really strikes me, given that Lewis did not opt for the perhaps more natural phrase "ordinary life".

I obviously can't prove that either of these theories are correct, but I absolutely believe that the working title of "Ordinary Time" is a deliberate choice (and not just something totally random like Prince Caspian's working title of "Toastie"). Therefore i think i found it comforting to know that even in spite of all the changes to the time period etc, that Greta Gerwig might have selected a working title with such purposeful religious and thematic relevance to act as the central core message and guiding principle for those working inside the production (i.e. this is something she selected for them, not for us).