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But does that feel just a whole lot bigger here?

Flaherty: Without a doubt.

As Lucy peers into the wardrobe, Christians worldwide will be peering at this film, with the highest of expectations

Because it's not just librarians and parents, it's this whole subculture.

Flaherty: It's my pastor. Do you know what I mean? It's every accountability partner I have. I mean it's … Yes, the pressure is insane.

When I heard they were making The Lord of the Rings into movies, I remember thinking, Don't screw it up. But I also decided that if I got hung up on every jot and tittle, every single line of dialogue, I wouldn't be giving myself a chance to enjoy the films. Once I got over that, well, I absolutely love those movies; Peter Jackson got the big things right. Do people need to approach Narnia the same way? Should we insist on every single detail just as Lewis wrote it, or should we mainly be concerned that you got the big things right?

Flaherty: I think it's the latter. But at the same time, with it not sounding like a cop-out, it's just two different mediums—books and film. There's no other way around it. Holes and Winn-Dixie are incredibly faithful adaptations, but there's still things you need to do to bring the story to life. Ditto with Narnia. We didn't lift dialogue 100 percent from the book and put it into the script. But I'm confident in saying that people should have properly high expectations that this will be the faithful adaptation they had hoped and prayed for.

Probably the biggest concern for Christians is that Aslan isn't dumbed down to just an awe-inspiring lion, but that he remains an apparent Christ figure.

Flaherty: I think that's evident to some people in the book, and it's not evident to others. If it's evident to you in the book, it's going to be evident to you in the film. I think that's the officially sanctioned diplomatic answer! (laughs)

What did you learn from Peter Jackson and the Lord of the Rings films that you might apply to the Narnia franchise?

Flaherty: The biggest thing we learned from Peter was the importance of a visionary director who had an insane love for the property. So that's what we got with [Narnia director] Andrew Adamson, who consumed all seven of these books and read them millions of times. And for decades, he has been envisioning and dreaming of how he would bring those to the screen.

What are you most excited about when it comes to the release of this film, and what are you most nervous about?

Flaherty: What I'm most excited about is already happening: Last week, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list. And Holes and Winn-Dixie actually went to No. 1 on the bestseller list too. Walden's whole purpose is to lead people back to the book and to get them not only to love that book, but to develop a general love for literature.

In terms of what I'm most anxious about, I guess I'm just trying to follow Paul's advice in Philippians 4, which was to be anxious about nothing and pray about everything.

Do you think I'm going to let you get away with that answer? (laughs) Seriously, are you nervous about box office numbers? Anything?

Flaherty: Now that we know we're going to deliver this fantastic, faithful adaptation, I think we've all accepted the fact that after that, things that are out of our control. Disney's run a perfect marketing campaign. Andrew has delivered what we think is a perfect film. After that, there's not much more that we can do.

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