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Hatcher was dumfounded when she read Hanselman's assessment. "I was literally pacing when I saw it. It was outrageous," she told Christianity Today. "They thought they were going to dictate what was going to be said. That was crazy."

Zondervan subsequently withdrew its contract because, according to Hatcher, "Simon felt that the script did not fit in with his marketing plans."

Hatcher made other attempts to develop the book with HarperCollins, but says she was stonewalled. Bruce Edwards, a professor of English at Bowling Green State University and author of several Lewis books, was actively involved in writing the initial script. He told CT that "layer after layer of constraint was being placed" by HarperCollins and the Lewis Co. on Hatcher's documentary, which has a budget of $550,000.

According to Hanselman's memo, Edwards's point of view is problematic. "Bruce Edwards has written about Narnia being essentially Christian books—as many hold them to be—but the documentary should not make this connection in any way," Hanselman wrote. "Narnia should come across as one of the great creations of fantasy literature, with roots in general myth and folklore." Hanselman said Adley would require that the Lewis estate give its approval and have a "stake" in the project in order for it to "move forward."

Adley's reactions to the controversy have been brief. "It's fatuous to suggest that we're trying to take the Christian out of C. S. Lewis," he told The New York Times. "We wouldn't have made the effort that we have with Mere Christianity if we felt that way. … I'm trying to get more people to read."

Adley declined CT's requests for an interview. HarperCollins did not allow either Hanselman or Bolinder to comment on the record.

Hanselman said that, as with the Hatcher project, HarperCollins and the Lewis Co. "need to get that script and offer a similar assessment." But Nicholi—who has already paid the Lewis Co. for permission to quote from Lewis's works—says such an assessment is unwelcome. "It's been clear that since we are raising our own funds, we have control," Nicholi told CT. Nicholi is raising $3.6 million for his project. He has already received a $500,000 grant from pbs, providing that the original producers of the film maintain creative control.

Hatcher claims HarperCollins and the Lewis Co. have determined to remake Lewis's image to boost book sales and related income. "Their plan is to market [Lewis] as a great thinker, not a Christian. There's nothing wrong with marketing him to a broader audience," she says. "But they're trying to suppress who he was."

"What is wrong with trying to get people outside of Christianity to read the Narnian Chronicles?" argued Douglas Gresham, Lewis's stepson, on the MereLewis e-mail list. "Did [Jesus] take his message only to the Pharisees and Priests or did he 'secularise' it , try to make it available to a wider audience, by teaching the sinners and ordinary folk in the streets and fields? In today's world the surest way to prevent secularists and their children from reading [the Narnian chronicles] is to keep it in the 'Christian' or 'Religious' section of the bookstores or to firmly link Narnia with modern Evangelical Christianity."

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August 6 2001, Vol. 45, No. 10