On a quick side note, I'm surprised no-one so far has seemed to ask her about the Narnia projects at the premieres for Barbie?

Posted by: @col-klink

I see no reason to believe she would have the same admiration for C. S. Lewis or any other random author or that she would have the same respect for any random book that she has for Little Women.

Fair enough.. a neutral perspective is fine, but there is definitely no evidence for people to jump to the exact opposite conclusion (that she would actively disregard the source material) based on zero evidence. I personally would assume that someone who is careful and diligent in one adaptation would also be careful and diligent in another adaptation, even if the stakes are fundamentally less personal for them in the second.

Since a sample of one is not a great pool of data to pull evidence from, perhaps we should also consider her Barbie movie in the context of being an adaptation...

A Barbie movie is definitely something she could have taken in any direction she liked, and at one point before she joined the project I believe the idea had been to do a somewhat subverted take on the material with Amy Schumer cast in the lead role. More of an edgy take on the source material.

Yet Greta Gerwig's Barbie is unapologetically Barbie. She didn't take it in a gritty Indie film direction like Ladybird, nor try and elevate it into something grander like Little Women - she made a Barbie movie that is Barbie through-and-through. There is clearly so much care and attention that has gone into the casting, costumes and set design to ensure that it is the purist take on Barbie that she could possibly have achieved.

This is again for me a good sign that she's not a director who is simply going to stamp their own signature style over whatever project it is, regardless of source material, but is someone who tailors their approach to meet the task at hand.

Posted by: @jasmine_tarkheena

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.

Maybe I missed something, but is this intended to be a follow-up to the other movies or to reboot it entirely? If they could find a dopple-ganger for Will Poulter they could attempt to make this as a follow-up to the early 2000s movies. I always wanted those movies to be finished.

@azog-the-defiler Yeah, though I think they want to start over. Since we don’t know what 2 Narnia movies will write and direct yet, we kind of had to talk whichever book it may be. 

Posted by: @rose

IMO, it reads about the same as Neil Gaiman saying that C. S. Lewis inspired him to become a writer:

"C.S. Lewis was the first person to make me want to be a writer. He made me aware of the writer, that there was someone standing behind the words, that there was someone telling the story. I fell in love with the way he used parentheses — the auctorial asides that were both wise and chatty, and I rejoiced in using such brackets in my own essays and compositions through the rest of my childhood. I think, perhaps, the genius of Lewis was that he made a world that was more real to me than the one I lived in; and if authors got to write the tales of Narnia, then I wanted to be an author." -Neil Gaiman

Maybe your interpretation of Gerwig's introduction is correct; she's definitely a self-proclaimed feminist and it seems to be a topic that she has a lot of interest in, from what I can tell. But I think we should be slow to read everything she says through the lens of feminism, too.

I hope this isn't too off-topic, but I have never seen that Gaiman quote before, and I find it relatable in an oddly specific way. Not only did Lewis inspire me to write, he also imparted a love for parentheses in younger me. I remember getting teacher comments in red ink saying that I used too many brackets in my writing, and it's all thanks to Lewis!  

Posted by: @fantasia

 

I respect your opinion Tigryph. I know for me personally, I've 100% turned into a wait and see kind of person.

 

I never expected to get Lord of the Rings movies out of the guy who directed The Frightners. I never expected to get The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe from the guy who directed Shrek. 

 

On the flip side, I didn't expect to get The Hobbit Trilogy out of the guy who directed Lord of the Rings and I didn't expect to get The Voyage of the Dawn Treader out of the guy who directed Amazing Grace. 

 

I am 100% on the fence and far more nervous about Netflix than I am about Gerwig. We shall see....

This is where I'm at. I watched Ladybird for the first time the other night and, while I thought it was a well-made film, it didn't immediately make me think Gerwig is perfect for Narnia. But, as you say, I could have said the same about Jackson or Adamson, given their previous work.

That said, I find the quality of a lot of streaming shows leave a lot to be desired - the impetus behind a lot of the Star Wars stuff, for example, feels like it's to fill Disney+ with disposable "content" rather than artistic inspiration. That was my worry for Narnia, but I am now confident we won't get that. I don't think Gerwig would make a Narnia movie if she didn't have passion and vision for the project.

Posted by: @jasmine_tarkheena

Yeah, though I think they want to start over.

That's a bit disappointing 😔 . I've been looking forward to seeing the early 2000s movies fininished since TVotDT. I wonder if Gretta's will be as good as the older ones🤔. I wonder what the purpose of the reboot is. They left us with Aslan saying "Narnia may yet have need of you yet" but apparently cinematic Narnia never needed them again after that.

I haven't seen Barbie or her other films, so to anyone who has, how good were they? It seems like younger directors seem to lack the talent of the older ones such as Peter Jackson but I'm hopeful that isn't the case with her.

Also, is there a thread you could direct me to where I might learn about Douglas Gresham's involvement in the new films?

Posted by: @azog-the-defiler

 

It seems like younger directors seem to lack the talent of the older ones such as Peter Jackson but I'm hopeful that isn't the case with her.

Peter Jackson was 38 when he started shooting on The Lord of the Rings.

Greta Gerwig is 39.

@azog-the-defiler Barbie hasn't been release yet, although at the moment it's getting some quite positive early reviews. As for her other films, Lady Bird and Little Women, I personally think they're both brilliant and really good showcases of her writing and skill as a director. With Narnia, I think she'd do a good job at maintaining what the book has provided, whilst adding nuance and depth.

Posted by: @icarus

Fair enough.. a neutral perspective is fine, but there is definitely no evidence for people to jump to the exact opposite conclusion (that she would actively disregard the source material) based on zero evidence. I personally would assume that someone who is careful and diligent in one adaptation would also be careful and diligent in another adaptation, even if the stakes are fundamentally less personal for them in the second.

People seem to like Gerwig's movies because they feel personal. I'm not convinced she could adapt something that didn't resonate in some way with her personal experience. But, hey, maybe The Chronicles of Narnia do resonate with her personal experience somehow. Like Fantasia was saying, we just have to wait and see. 

Posted by: @icarus

Since a sample of one is not a great pool of data to pull evidence from, perhaps we should also consider her Barbie movie in the context of being an adaptation...

OK, can I ruffle some feathers here? I think The Barbie Movie looks fine, good even, but I think if it didn't have Gerwig's name attached, people wouldn't be getting excited about it. To me, it just looks like a generic fish-out-of-water fantasy-comedy along the lines of Splash, Elf and Enchanted. And the title is very much in the vein of The Lego Movie and The Emoji Movie. I don't think that's a bad thing and the commercials do hint at philosophical thought behind the script. But I am getting the impression that Gerwig is someone who gets automatically credited for brilliance. Hope that doesn't sound angry. If I could get automatically credited for brilliance, I'd accept it.  

This thread is hopping today!

Posted by: @rilianix

On a quick side note, I'm surprised no-one so far has seemed to ask her about the Narnia projects at the premieres for Barbie?

Thanks for asking about that! I just found a clip from a red carpet interview and she's asked about Narnia at the end. She doesn't say anything directly in response, but smiles and nods:

Posted by: @azog-the-defiler

Maybe I missed something, but is this intended to be a follow-up to the other movies or to reboot it entirely? If they could find a dopple-ganger for Will Poulter they could attempt to make this as a follow-up to the early 2000s movies. I always wanted those movies to be finished.

At this point, there's been no confirmation about the films she's doing. Some news outlets have called her involvement a reboot, but as far as I know, there's no clear evidence of that. (To be fair, reboot is a really vague term!)

Posted by: @rose

 

At this point, there's been no confirmation about the films she's doing. Some news outlets have called her involvement a reboot, but as far as I know, there's no clear evidence of that. (To be fair, reboot is a really vague term.)

"Reboot" is kind of a broad category. Batman Begins is a reboot, because it ignores the existence of the first four Batman films. The same for The Amazing Spider Man, because it ignores the existence of the the first three Spider man movies.

A "reboot" could either restart or pick up where the story left off, but with a whole new look. And yes, we have no proof of whether Greta Gerwig will be rebooting Narnia- starting over with LWW or even start with MN.

@rose Oh amazing, thank you for sending that our way! 🙂

As for your take on her automatically being credited for brilliance @col-klink, I'd say well when you're the writer/director of such a film that's to be expected, and the same goes for her other two movies, she's wrote and directed them so its seems only right to credit her as such if you like them and think they've achieved something brilliant.

And honestly I think in general it's something to be positive about because too often writers and even sometimes directors specifically can get lost behind the glitz and glamour of its main cast and production.

@rose Thanks so much for the interview clip. Man, what a tease! We came so close to hearing her plans for Narnia, only to get put off. But that's par the course for those following news of Netflix's Narnia by now.  

Posted by: @icarus

Peter Jackson was 38 when he started shooting on The Lord of the Rings.

Greta Gerwig is 39.

 

I'm referring to the fact that PJ lived in a time without CGI and the modern conveniences of movie-making. I tend to think that the people who lived in the past were smarter than those who are alive today since they had to put so much effort into things that would be simple for us. For instance, what artists do we see that rival the ones of the Renaissance, and what writers rival those of the 19th and 20th centuries? They didn't have paper and pencils at their fingertips but they far surpassed anyone who is alive today. Gretta Gerwig may be talented by today's standards but someone who lived in a less convenient time would be even more so.

@rose 

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This is the source in regards to pushing several agendas in regards to gender/sexual identity. There were a few other sources from the cast- but it was squashed fairly quickly prior to the movie's release since the recent films leaning on that particular point of promotion haven't done very well in the last few years. (Gerwig quickly tried to set the record straight by saying it was a "Humanist" film.)

As for the feminist first remarks- I should have stated that it was my way of compiling her sentiments through multiple interviews. She is quoted as saying, "“In the films I’ve made and the films I hope to make, I hope that there’s a 16-year-old girl watching them, saying, ‘She’s got it all wrong, I’ve gotta make my own!’” she says. “That it sort of gives a passport to whoever the next group of artists are. I still get infuriated when I look at lists, not just of filmmakers, but of musicians, novelists, painters, and it’s just, ‘Guy, guy, guy, guy.’ I love so many of them, but I want more. I want more of my gender expressing what it means to them to be alive.” (Source) She seems to focus first on gender then on qualifications- it's hard to find her discussing her work without eluding to it.

Either way, I have very little faith in the director and Netflix as a whole- both have put their feet in their collective mouths a few too many times. Again- I hope I will be surprised and I hope I can eat some humble pie on this. I would do anything for Narnia hype again and something to look forward to. :3

@ fantasia

I hope you're right! I'm kind of a hope for the best, expect the worst kind of a person~ XD