Greta Gerwig’s enormous success with Barbie is not unknown. She is easily one of the most accomplished directors of her generation. Naturally, she is also one of the busiest. Only recently wrapping, a triumphant awards season for Barbie; Gerwig has yet another demanding project on her plate.
Gerwig is helming the adaptation of C.S Lewis’ highly popular Narnia novel for Netflix. Something she had previously confessed to be a rather daunting task. But lo and behold, she finally has an update on how things are going with the highly anticipated film.
Greta Gerwig Has An Update On Her Upcoming Film
Speaking with Deadline, at the Vanity Fair Oscars After-Party, Greta Gerwig confirmed that things are finally in motion for the Narnia film. She revealed that the film is still in the early stages of pre-production.
Gerwig said she’s set to return to London to resume work on the film. She hasn’t yet appointed the creative heads of the various departments who will bring the magical land of Narnia and Gerwig’s vision of it to life. It won’t be until the end of this year or at the beginning of next year that Netflix’s first Narnia film will start filming.
This film will adapt the first book of C.S. Lewis’s eponymous book series, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Gerwig has signed a two-film deal with Netflix (via CBR), bringing the magic of the first two Narnia books to screen.
Greta Gerwig Confessed Her Fear Of Helming A Project Like Narnia
Gerwig wrote the script for this film before she even started working on the script of Barbie (via CBR). And yet she expressed herself to be scared of it. As she said on the Total Film podcast earlier this year (via Deadline):
“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, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t do that one. But yeah, no. I’m terrified of it. It’s extraordinary and it’s exciting.”
Previous attempts at adapting this literary series have yet to be very successful. Hence, it is quite an ambitious endeavor on Netflix’s part to bring these comics back to the screen.
Netflix Has Big Plans In Bringing Narnia Back
The streaming service acquired the rights to the films as early as 2018 (via Rolling Stone). And they move ahead with a certain faithfulness in the C.S. Lewis-created world.
Speaking with Time, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos talked about his plans with these films saying:
“It won’t be counter to how the audience may have imagined those worlds, but it will be bigger and bolder than they thought.”
The details and nuances of this film series remain unknown but it might end up becoming Netflix’s biggest fantasy project.
