Douglas Gresham

"It has been my ambition to make a really good film of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the other books in the Chronicles of Narnia series for about 25 years, and by the grace of God I now have some very fine executive talents working with me … to make my dream a reality," says C. S. Lewis's stepson, Douglas Gresham.

Over the years Gresham has toured the world speaking about the man he fondly calls "Jack" and worked as an adviser to the C. S. Lewis Company (which handles the Lewis Estate), while also running a ministry in Ireland called Rathvinden House. But the past year has found much of his time devoted to dealing with Hollywood as he works on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as co-producer and "a sort of resident, in-house Narnia consultant to the project. I have been involved in the scripting process and the production from the very first day."

Gresham acknowledges that Lewis himself was not a fan of the medium of film, and Gresham also recognizes that some of the previous attempts to translate Wardrobe into a movie have been less than spectacular. He knows that preserving the legacy of the beloved fantasy series is never easy.

"Preserving its integrity, its messages, its magical literary quality, and its dignity, while avoiding vulgarization and overexploitation of them, these are daily challenges," he says.

Yet Gresham promises this big-screen version of the tale will be like a "leather-bound, gilt-edged classic on a shelf full of tattered paperbacks." He adds, "I think that even Jack would be amazed and fascinated with the wonderful film technology that has been developed recently but perhaps less than delighted with the uses to which it has been put. I hope we address that failing to some extent with this film."

Coinciding with the release of the movie, Gresham has released a book, Jack's Life. He says, "It's a book about a man whom I loved and whom I still miss every day. What people will find in this book that is not in others [about Lewis] is an intensely personal portrait of Jack the man rather than 'C. S. Lewis the great scholar / teacher / philosopher / apologist.'

I think Jack probably would far rather we remember Jesus Christ through his work than remember C. S. Lewis for the work."

Kris Rasmussen is a writer based in Michigan.

See also the related article entitled Straight Out of Narnia

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