Greta Gerwig is “properly scared” of her Netflix Narnia movies
"Which feels like a good place to start," the Barbie director said of her plans to tackle the C.S. Lewis classics
Aux News Greta Gerwig
Greta Gerwig is on track to have one of the biggest movies of the year this weekend, as her and Margot Robbie’s neon-pink vision of Barbie finally hits theaters after months of Day-Glo hype. And while Barbie is set to have an extremely strong opening this weekend, handily beating its friendly rival, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Hollywood is a place where the next project is always looming. For Gerwig, that means tackling something she’s “properly scared” of: An old British wardrobe.
Specifically, Gerwig went on the record with Total Film this week about her upcoming adaptations of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books, which she’s on the hook for with Netflix. (To the tune of at least two movies.) When asked about the movies, Gerwig expressed her trepidation about tackling the classic books—and why that’s probably a good thing.
I don’t know. I haven’t even really started wrapping my arms around it. But I’m properly scared of it, which feels like a good place to start. I think when I’m scared, it’s always a good sign. Maybe when I stop being scared, it’ll be like, ‘Okay. Maybe I shouldn’t do that one.’ No, I’m terrified of it. It’s extraordinary. And so we’ll see, I don’t know.
Gerwig—whose career has charted a critically celebrated but eclectic course that’s gone heavy on adaptations with a deeply personal spin—also talked about her future ambitions for her career. “I hope to make all different kinds of movies in the course of the time I get to make movies, which—it’s a long time, but it’s also limited. I want to do big things and small things and everywhere in between, and having another big canvas is exciting and also daunting.”
9 Comments
I don’t usually comment on fashion or what people choose to wear, but what in the wide world of fuck was she thinking with that outfit?
Maybe she finally just got tired of pink, and went as hard in the opposite direction as she could.
Speaking as a mom with a young baby — this is a serious look that says
she isn’t defined by “Barbie,” and also one that’s designed to be
flattering to a curvy body that was recently pregnant and that may still
be producing milk for a young human.
Honestly it’s more the colors that are the problem for me.
No, I’m terrified of it. It’s extraordinary. And so we’ll see, I don’t know.I absolutely don’t see the point in another adaptation of the book, but at least this starting point has some promise to result in something meaningful and worthwhile.
True story: Back in late 2000, Cary Granat was visiting my boss, who was a good friend, and had produced many movies for Cary while he was running Dimension Films, from which he had just exited. I had a desk in my boss’s office. He wasn’t sure what his next move was going to be at his company, Walden Media, except that he had a carve-out in his exit deal with the Weinsteins that allowed him to produce adaptations of classic children’s lit during his 6 year noncompete term. Because the Jackson/Rings movies were in production and Weinstein’s b.s. stake in it was brought up, I told Cary he should get the rights to the Narnia books and set up that series – but that he should also make sure to sell it and get the hell out before at least book 4 when the stories got to be more nakedly New Testament parables. And he totally did just that, bailing at the perfect time, but keeping his passive stake. (I, of course, didn’t see a dime from it.)Greta is similarly extremely smart to only plan from the get-go to stick around for the first two installments. From Silver Chair on, they are leaden and a chore (save for maybe Magician’s Nephew, one of the original “fan-service prequel comprised of origin stories” – for those that stuck it out that long.)
Eh, I didn’t mind A Horse and His Boy so much. It’s been decades since I read it but I remember it being mostly comedic and an interesting look at the events of the first book from a different POV.The Last Battle is to be avoided at all costs though.
mmmm. I’d love to see what a creative, talented, iconoclastic filmmaker could do with the last battle. there are some powerful, weighty themes in it. It just couldn’t at all be done as a straightforward adaptation. Silver Chair is good too.
The Silver Chair is the best one! It’s Lewis’s attempt at a Spenserian romance.