@coracle 

Walden also kind of made Susan a warrior-queen in Prince Caspian. It was not even fitting for her character, given her title as "Queen Susan the Gentle."

I could see The Silver Chair as a good option for Greta's first film, where Jill can be a confident and partner on the quest.

The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe could also be a good one. She can capture the essence of where Lucy first encounters Narnia, and incorporate Susan's gentle and mother like nature.

The Magician's Nephew could also be a good option for her. Polly would not be an action girl, but she could be a friend that sticks by Digory.

Not to be too negative, but I personally don't think it'd be a good idea at all to start with The Silver Chair, for many reasons. I think it would be a detriment to the original story because you'd be removing all context for people who don't know the source material. For example, you'd be exploring Eustace's arc backwards and no-one would care when Caspian died because we've spent no time with him. It just wouldn't make much sense. It's why I think the film they were going to make of it was doomed to begin with.

Again, I feel there are only two options for the first entry into this new reboot; The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe or The Magician's Nephew. No other novel would make sense, and to be honest, logistically speaking, even The Magician's Nephew is pushing it somewhat.

Posted by: @rillianix

Not to be too negative, but I personally don't think it'd be a good idea at all to start with The Silver Chair, for many reasons. I think it would be a detriment to the original story because you'd be removing all context for people who don't know the source material. 

I think if you are starting with "Silver Chair" you are effectively doing it as an unofficial sequel to the Walden trilogy.

Similar to how "The Rings of Power" is technically nothing to do with the Peter Jackson LOTR films, but at the same time leans heavily into the same visual aesthetic and relies very much on the audience understanding who Galadriel, Elrond and Sauron are from those movies.

@icarus yes, that was my idea. 

The other thought I had is that nobody has said Greta would be making the First Two films. Might someone else start with the Pevensie trilogy?

Posted by: @coracle

The other thought I had is that nobody has said Greta would be making the First Two films. Might someone else start with the Pevensie trilogy.

I have had the same thought coracle. Netflix has said next to nothing about any of this. I'm not aware that Netflix has even confirmed Greta Gerwig's participation, though it went through all the official movie news channels with no retractions. 

I'm strongly suspicious that the ball is rolling on adapting all of the books into movies/series, similar to how Disney has run their Marvel project. And if that is the case, there very well may be more than one director/writer out there right now working on different properties. We just don't know who they are yet. 

@coracle I see what you mean now, although I doubt they'd do that to be honest. Never say never but it'd be a rather strange business decision considering how long its been, and a waste of the source material Netflix could put their own spin on. I know there might be some out there who'd be happy without another adaptation of the three Walden did do, but still.

As for whether or not there are other writers/directors working on different properties @fantasia. Again business wise I'm not sure that'd be wise, considering they don't even know whether this will be a success or not. Sure, they've seemingly got Greta Gerwig working on two projects, but Netflix are known for how ruthless they are with cancelling their own projects after just one season, my advice would be to steady themselves and see how Greta's work does first - if they were even considering getting the ball rolling on other projects at the same time, which I'm personally hesitant to wonder. No point making promises they're not sure they can keep.

Posted by: @fantasia

I'm strongly suspicious that the ball is rolling on adapting all of the books into movies/series, similar to how Disney has run their Marvel project. And if that is the case, there very well may be more than one director/writer out there right now working on different properties. We just don't know who they are yet.

Last year, I had the idea that they might be doing something along these lines...

1. MN movie (by Greta Gerwig)
2. LWW television series (by other people)
3. HHB movie (by Greta Gerwig)
4. The rest of books as series, with maybe SC as a film (again Gerwig?)

For what it's worth, I personally haven't seen any indication that other projects, like television series, are currently in the works. The last indication we had of that was Matthew Aldrich attending a showrunner's program with the WGA a couple-ish years ago, and he's currently working on developing a film in the DC Universe for Warner Bros. It's possible that someone has taken over for him, though — someone with a storytelling style that would vibe better with Gerwig's films.

Before I let her loose on Narnia, I'd like her to publicly state that she understands the Christian basis of the stories, and will do nothing to ignore, remove or discredit this.

One can hope....

Posted by: @coracle

Before I let her loose on Narnia, I'd like her to publicly state that she understands the Christian basis of the stories, and will do nothing to ignore, remove or discredit this.

I don't know if this addresses your concerns or not, but this article (specifically the last third) is a good read for anyone who is curious about Gerwig's familiarity with Christianity or how it might impact her storytelling. (Beware of some spoilers for her film Lady Bird, though.)

@rose thank you. I feel a lot better. 

Might look for the movie now, and watch it.

Grace is an essential. 

Posted by: @rose

Posted by: @coracle

Before I let her loose on Narnia, I'd like her to publicly state that she understands the Christian basis of the stories, and will do nothing to ignore, remove or discredit this.

I don't know if this addresses your concerns or not, but this article (specifically the last third) is a good read for anyone who is curious about Gerwig's familiarity with Christianity or how it might impact her storytelling. (Beware of some spoilers for her film Lady Bird, though.)

Honestly, the more I hear about Greta Gerwig (I'm not a great movie watcher and had never heard of her before the Netflix rumour started), the more optimistic I feel about her taking on Narnia — although of course I can't judge properly before seeing what she does with it! But in many ways, I would rather have a director who is not a committed Christian, but who has a generally very positive view of Christianity from personal experience and is sympathetic towards it, than one who is a devout Christian but who might then make the religious elements of the stories too heavy-handed, or let in some personal doctrinal bias that isn't part of the books at all.

(Just as a hypothetical example of what I mean there, I once read a Narnia commentary by a Christian writer who was mostly complimentary towards the books and Lewis's ideas, but who clearly disagreed with Emeth being allowed into Aslan's country despite having worshipped a false god and never having personally accepted Aslan. I can imagine a director with that kind of theological slant deciding to heavily modify Emeth's part of the story or even to leave it out altogether.)

The thing about the Christian basis of Narnia, of course, is that Lewis always deliberately kept it low-key. It's there all the way through if you know what to look for, but he's never explicit about it. Aslan simply tells the children in VDT that he is in our world too under "another name" and they must learn to know him by that name; he never says anything like "Go to church and you will learn more of me there" or "You will find me in the Gospels" or "But in your world I was nailed to a cross and rose from the dead three days later"!! What he means is left open for readers (and potentially viewers) to work out for themselves if they're willing to think about it. And there are definitely some who either miss or ignore that meaning and just enjoy the stories as good fantasy classics for kids. I'm hopeful so far that Gerwig will understand that too and likewise make her films into something that everyone can enjoy, while keeping the deeper message there for those who are open to it.

Posted by: @courtenay

But in many ways, I would rather have a director who is not a committed Christian, but who has a generally very positive view of Christianity from personal experience and is sympathetic towards it, than one who is a devout Christian but who might then make the religious elements of the stories too heavy-handed, or let in some personal doctrinal bias that isn't part of the books at all.

My ideal situation would actually be for the director to be a Christian but for no one, probably including to cast and crew, to know that they're a Christian until roughly a year after the adaptation has been released.  

My reasoning is that a non-Christian director would probably change the climax of The Silver Chair so that rather than the heroes following the signs and freeing Rilian despite their inclinations, Jill and Eustace would do it because they instinctively feel it's the right thing to do. I can even see them having it be the opposite of the signs Aslan would give in that hypothetical version and it ending with him praising the children for following their hearts instead of him. (I can imagine all this very clearly.) 

On the other hand, if the director is a "known" Christian, nobody will go to see the adaptation who doesn't share their beliefs and it will be defined in the public mind by being a Christian fantasy. I don't really like the Narnia stories being classified that way since I think of a Christian book/movie/TV show/whatever as being made by an explicitly Christian organization and only being of interest to Christians. Pretty sure the publishing company for the book is a secular (by which I mean neutral, not anti-religious) organization and there are plenty of non-Christians who greatly enjoy Narnia.

P.S.

I'm sorry this post of mine doesn't have to do with the Greta Gerwig confirmation. I'm afraid I don't have much else to say about that news but I'm still following the discussion and sometimes I just can't resist joining it. 

I think it's important for Greta Gerwig not to diminish the Christian aspect of Narnia, but not make it into a sermon. She should at least study what CS Lewis wrote, and make it so that even secular audiences can enjoy.

If she does The Magician's Nephew, the scene where Digory looks up at Aslan and see tears in his eyes, "My son. I know, grief is great" could show that Aslan has feelings as well.

If she does The Horse And His Boy, there is the scene where Aslan introduces himself to Shasta as "Myself", which indicates how Jesus often refers to Himself as "I Am." Plus, he says it three times, each in a different voice- deep and low, loud and clear, and almost in a whisper.

Posted by: @col-klink

My ideal situation would actually be for the director to be a Christian but for no one, probably including to cast and crew, to know that they're a Christian until roughly a year after the adaptation has been released.  

Bit of a big ask there, but yes, it would be nice...  

My reasoning is that a non-Christian director would probably change the climax of The Silver Chair so that rather than the heroes following the signs and freeing Rilian despite their inclinations, Jill and Eustace would do it because they instinctively feel it's the right thing to do. I can even see them having it be the opposite of the signs Aslan would give in that hypothetical version and it ending with him praising the children for following their hearts instead of him. (I can imagine all this very clearly.) 

I don't know that that's necessarily true; the BBC certainly didn't change it (unless I'm remembering wrongly!). Not all non-Christians necessarily believe in a "follow your heart and be true to yourself and everything will be OK" ethos. I gather a bit of that got into the Walden films (I haven't seen the two later ones but have heard occasional comments about them), but this is going to be a fresh start with a different director who at least has had a positive grounding in the basics of Christian theology — although of course we don't know who will direct SC if Netflix gets as far as that one! But SC isn't a simplistic and preachy story with a message of "have blind faith in what a religious figure tells you and do everything he says without questioning"; it's got a lot of depth and complexity to it as our heroes at first repeatedly miss the signs but still end up going where they need to go anyway, and when that last sign comes up, it isn't at all an easy matter of what's right and what's wrong. The concept that sometimes you have to do something that does NOT seem like a good idea to human instinct (like freeing a raving madman who could potentially kill you), but there turns out to be a higher reason for doing it — that isn't completely alien to people outside Christianity, and there's no particular reason why a director should change it, unless he/she is so biased against Christianity that he/she probably shouldn't be directing a Narnia film in the first place.

On the other hand, if the director is a "known" Christian, nobody will go to see the adaptation who doesn't share their beliefs and it will be defined in the public mind by being a Christian fantasy. I don't really like the Narnia stories being classified that way since I think of a Christian book/movie/TV show/whatever as being made by an explicitly Christian organization and only being of interest to Christians.

The Narnia stories have never fallen into that category, precisely because that's not what Lewis intended them to be and it's not how he wrote them. They've always been published by mainstream publishing houses and are widely acclaimed as children's classics that can be enjoyed by everyone, whether or not they take an interest in the religious basis that the author was coming from.

Pretty sure the publishing company for the book is a secular (by which I mean neutral, not anti-religious) organization and there are plenty of non-Christians who greatly enjoy Narnia.

It's currently HarperCollins, which is one of the "Big Five" publishers — the five largest English-language publishing houses in the world. They keep most if not all of Lewis's non-fiction religious writings (such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, The Problem of Pain and The Four Loves) in print as well.

I agree this is getting a bit off the topic of the Greta Gerwig news, but it's hard to discuss all that much about her when we haven't yet seen what her actual plans for Narnia might be, so...  

Posted by: @courtenay

I don't know that that's necessarily true; the BBC certainly didn't change it (unless I'm remembering wrongly!). Not all non-Christians necessarily believe in a "follow your heart and be true to yourself and everything will be OK" ethos. I gather a bit of that got into the Walden films (I haven't seen the two later ones but have heard occasional comments about them), but this is going to be a fresh start with a different director who at least has had a positive grounding in the basics of Christian theology — although of course we don't know who will direct SC if Netflix gets as far as that one!

I don't like to stereotype either. But have there been any recent mainstream movies, shows or books in which characters were praised for following orders from an authority figure? I can't think of one, at least, not one from Western culture. Maybe there's been some from Eastern storytellers. 

I agree that neither of the two Narnia movies Gerwig is going to work on will be adapted from The Silver Chair. I hope they're not anyway. The only reason I can think of for Netflix doing that is they want their series to be a continuation of Walden Media's. That would be problematic since the only Walden Media Narnia movie mainstream audiences remember is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Silver Chair has practically no connections to that story. It's a direct sequel to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader which mainstream audiences do not remember. I'd be scared if Netflix did that, they'd bend over backwards to make SC relate to LWW somehow. 

So, I actually chose to talk about The Silver Chair specifically because I hoped that would indicate that I was casting aspersions on directors in general, not on Greta Gerwig specifically. I doubt she'll be closely involved with the adaptation of that book. (Well, maybe if she enjoys working on two Narnia movies so much that she wants to do as many as possible, but that's getting really speculative. )