Actor and director Greta Gerwig’s upcoming project, Barbie is one of the most awaited movies in 2023. The Academy Award nominee director has been reportedly roped in to direct the latest Narnia franchise for Netflix.
Is Greta Gerwig Directing Narnia?
According to The New Yorker, the Barbie director has already bagged a deal with Netflix to direct The Chronicles of Narnia based on C.S. Lewis’ beloved books. She is set to write and direct at least two films based on the books. This isn’t the first time Gerwig is adapting a book for a movie. She has directed other critically acclaimed movies that have been based on novels such as Little Women and had revealed to Vogue, earlier this year, that Barbie’s screenplay is partially inspired by a 1994 book called Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. She stated-
“My mom would check out books from the library about parenting, and then I would read them… They’re funny and brash and confident, and then they just—stop. How is this journey the same thing that a teenage girl feels? All of a sudden, she thinks, “Oh, I’m not good enough.””
However, speaking to The New Yorker, Greta Gerwig stated that she wouldn’t do another toy film.
“It would have to be something that has some strange hook in me, that feels like it goes to the marrow.”
“I don’t know if there’s a doll that anyone is as mad at.”
Gerwig rose to fame by acting and directing well-received Indie movies such as Frances Ha and Mistress America. With her directorial stint for Barbie, the 39-year-old has been called a “corporate sell-out” which she finds hard to digest. She said that she was “caught off-guard” by such comments and that “adapting Barbie felt as natural as adapting Little Women.”
Which Narnia movie is Greta Gerwig directing?
Currently, there has been no news as to which novel Greta Gerwig will adapt for the two movies. There are a total of seven C.S. Lewis novels based on Narnia. Netflix acquired the rights to The Chronicles of Narnia book series in 2018. The multi-year deal included movies and a TV series adaptation which will be streamed on Netflix.
It will certainly be interesting to see Gerwig adapting the novel in her style and taking the audience through the mystical journey of Narnia. She has certainly proven her directing prowess with critically acclaimed movies like Lady Bird, Little Women, and Mistress America. Soon, the world will get to see Greta Gerwig’s vision in the highly-anticipated Barbie movie which will hit the theatres in July 2023.
Old fans of the Narnia franchise will be eager to see if Greta Gerwig is able to bring a new vision to the story while keeping the theme core intact. It is surely a big task for Gerwig to take on the challenge and deliver the movie from her perspective while also not offending the veteran fans of the hit series.
Previously, Disney has successfully adapted three Narnia books which were released from 2005 to 2010, these include-
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
- Prince Caspian (2008)
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
The movies were a huge success and starred well-known actors such as Liam Neeson, James McAvoy, Tilda Swinton, Will Poulter, Peter Dinklage, Simon Pegg, Ben Barnes, etc. There were only three adaptations of the book series since the success of the subsequent movies started to decline. It was also quite challenging for the directors and writers to adapt the novels for movies. Netflix has also signed Greta Gerwig to work on two movie adaptations, it is unclear if it would continue to adapt the rest of the books or will it depend on the success of the first two movies.
