'THE LION, THE WITCH, AND
THE WARDROBE'
WILL CAPTURE HEARTS AND IMAGINATIONS
OF PEOPLE EVERYWHERE
Co-Producer
Douglas Gresham, Stepson Of C.S. Lewis, Shares Unique Insights On The
Narnia Film
By Ginny McCabe
 Thursday, August 11, 2005
AUCKLAND,
NEW ZEALAND (ANS) -- Rob Holding,
host of The Home Run on Radio Rhema in New Zealand recently talked on
air to co-producer Douglas Gresham about his role with upcoming Narnia
film, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” (Pictured: Douglas Gresham).
 He discovered that
Gresham took a very hands-on approach and was intimately involved in
the entire production process, and admits he is excited about the films
potential. “I saw a rough cut of the movie in Hollywood, just the other
day, and to be honest, I am absolutely thrilled. It really is looking
absolutely fantastic. To start with, it is visually beautiful and of
course, the story is adhered to, so it is going to be terrific. It’s
wonderful.” (Pictured: Douglas as a
boy).
Gresham knew C.S. Lewis (Jack) personally when he was a child (Douglas
Gresham is one of two stepsons of C.S. Lewis from Lewis's marriage to
Gresham's mother, Joy Davidman.) One of Gresham’s fondest memories of
him was Jack’s sense of humor and wit. “When we look at C.S. Lewis
(Jack) for a moment, most of us get our impression of him not from the
books, but from the ‘Shadowlands’ movie,” noted Holding.
“That’s interesting. You know, ‘Shadowlands’ the movie was emotionally,
in terms of the emotional transitions that the protagonist went
through, was extremely accurate. But in actual terms of the character
portrayal of Jack, himself and the way he was dressed, and so on is
completely inaccurate. It is not historically accurate in any way at
all.
 “Jack, for example, was
not as eloquent as Anthony Hopkins portrayed him in the movie. Jack was
always dressed in scruffy clothes. Jack never drove a car. Jack didn’t
wear a watch and so on. (The way the script was written) Jack was
depicted as a man who surrounded himself with inferior minds to avoid
being challenged, when in fact, the absolute opposite was true. Jack
surrounded himself with the greatest minds available in Oxford of the
day, in both England and in the world, with people like Ron Tolkien and
others. He loved being challenged.” (Pictured:
C.S. "Jack" Lewis).
 Jack (and some of
these great minds) formed a society surrounding Jack, called the
“Inklings.” “They spent their time shredding each others work, as they
read it aloud to one another. But at the same time they maintained an
enormously good friendship throughout their entire lives,” said
Gresham. “The result was works like ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The
Narnian Chronicles’. They went through a fire of refinement by some of
the greatest literary minds of the century.” (Pictured: Joy Davidman - photo by Lottie
Jacobi, 1951).
“The one thing that is always lost in recollections of Jack in movies
and biographies about Jack is his enormous humor and vibrancy of his
wit. You couldn’t be with Jack for more than five or ten minutes
without roaring with laughter. One of the great hallmarks of the
Inklings meetings was the gales of laughter that came as they discussed
each other’s work,” said Gresham.
Holding pointed out the “Christian Analogies” which seem to be depicted
throughout the entire “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” series.
Gresham responded, “Much like the book, you will find in the movie as
much Christian symbolism as you want to. I know lots and lots of people
who have read the book and never dreamt there was any Christian
symbolism in it. I have known Jews (who have made similar comparisons).
This is not a Christian movie, any more than Jack decided to sit down
and write a Christian book. In fact, Jack himself said, ‘We do not need
more people writing Christian books, what we need is more Christians
writing good books.’”
In the same way, Gresham said, “‘The Lion, the Witch, and the
Wardrobe’” is not so quickly to be labeled as “a Christian movie.” “It
is not supposed to be. It is simply a visual telling of ‘The Lion, the
Witch, and the Wardrobe,’ which is beautifully done.”
In the same way, Gresham said that the story of Narnia was not inspired
by a specific “wardrobe.” “There was no specific wardrobe. It was just
a literary device to get the children from one world to another,” he
said.
In addition to writing books and working on movies, Gresham and his
wife founded and operate a ministry in Ireland. “The Lord built this
ministry of counseling and caring,” he said. “We find ourselves working
with people with all kinds of problems and with people from all walks
of life…We also make our home available to missionaries, ministers and
pastors (from all over the world) who need to take a break or a
holiday, and we make it available to them as well.”
With the counseling Gresham does, Holding asked, “What is the number
one problem people have today?” Gresham responded, “We find that most
people in today’s world fall into the lies of secularism and have
dismissed God. The fact that people do not have God in their lives is
the number one problem in the world today…Every third person we meet
has no God in their lives. I don’t know what it is like in your country
(of New Zealand), but in Ireland, the second highest cause of death is
suicide, because people have no God and they have no hope. They have no
knowledge of God or Jesus Christ.
“Quite frankly, I blame the churches for this. The churches have
misdirected people, mis-taught people and have taught people a lot of
rubbish. They have been so separatist for so many centuries that people
are seeing the results in the world of sectarianism and are rejecting
Christ along with the churches. They throw out the baby with the bath
water…It’s (not wholly but) largely caused by the churches and the
misdirection given over the centuries.”
In addition to the movie, Gresham is currently working on a book
called, “Jack’s Life,” which is his telling of Jack’s biography, which
will release in the fall from Broadman and Holman.
He also has hopes to do other movies in the future. “We certainly hope
so. It all depends on how many of you go and see the movie, and how
often you go and see it,” said Gresham. “Obviously, if this movie is a
success, we will go on and make the next one.”
| Ginny McCabe is a
Cincinnati, OH native. She is an entertainment and feature writer for
The Middletown Journal and Journal News (dailies), and magazines
including American Songwriter, Bassics, NRB Magazine, CBA Marketplace,
Christian Retailing, HM Magazine, Relevant Magazine, BGEA, Lifeway.com,
Almenconi.com and Crosswalk.com, among others. Ginny has authored Audio
Adrenaline's book, Some Kind of Journey on the Road with Audio
Adrenaline and Living the Gold-Medal Life: Inspirations from
Female Athletes. She most recently co-authored her third book, Changed:
True Stories of Finding God Through Christian Music, and is working
of a fourth book, which is scheduled to release next year. With over 10
years of marketing and public relations experience, Ginny also works as
an independent publicist at McCabe Media. To contact Ginny, email her
at Gmwriteon@aol.com. |
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