Hopefully you've all been able to see the news story I've added to the homepage about a list of movies which potentially could be some of the films that Greta Gerwig has been using to discuss her cinematic influences with the existing cast and crew on her Narnia film.

Whilst we can't say anything for certain about them, the two films which struck me the most were 'The Lady Eve' (1941) and 'All About Eve' (1950) - two unrelated films about titular characters named "Eve".

In both cases, as far as i can tell, the choice of the character names are a deliberate reference to the biblical character of Eve, and the theme of temptation, as evidenced by the poster for 'The Lady Eve' with its Apple and Serpent design.

The other quote that then sprung to mind was this one from Greta Gerwig herself about how she always seeks to weave religious themes into her movies:

"In other movies that I’ve written and in this one (Lady Bird), I always have — and I do think honestly it reflects my four years of theology. I always have some religious story threaded underneath that people can pick up on or not pick up on. I don’t need them to, but it helps me as an organizing principle because even if you don’t believe in the stories, they are very old stories, and they do speak really deeply to people and their psychologies and how they deal with life.”

Greta Gerwig - January 2018.

Therefore if Greta, by her own words, always seeks to find a religious story to form the organizing principle for her films, then it stands to reason she would be drawn to the biblical parallels of The Magician's Nephew - not just the moment of creation, but also the garden, the serpent, the apple... and Eve.

I also don't think its unfair to say that, of the many other socio-cultural themes that Greta tends to weave into her movies (many of which we have already discussed at length on these forums, such as childhood, growing-up, and inter-generational dynamics) that feminism and the female experience of life are undoubtedly up there. I can therefore easily see that she would be drawn to the story of Eve and her role in shaping feminine identity - as i believe is the vague thematic basis for the two films above (at least from a cursory read of Wikipedia's analysis).

Therefore, if there's a realistic possibility that the character of Eve is something that Greta Gerwig as a filmmaker might be drawn to, i have to ask, who is the "Eve" of Magician's Nephew?

Jadis is clearly the serpent, and the apple is clearly the apple....therefore does that make Digory the Eve?

He's definitely the one who is tempted by a serpent in a garden with an apple.... although he notably rejects it. He does however succumb to his curiosity by ringing the bell and awakening Jadis, so maybe that's it?

Obviously it should go without saying that Narnia is not a direct allegory, and not everything has a one-to-one mapping, but if "Eve" was the thematic thread that Greta Gerwig perhaps intended to pull on, what would that mean or look like in a Magician's Nephew adaptation?