Greta Gerwig Reveals Why She’s Intimidated by Narnia Adaptation After Barbie Success: “There’s a slight feeling of reverence”
After making the world swoon over the spectacle that was Barbie, Greta Gerwig is all set to take on her new project, which is none other than The Chronicles of Narnia. She will be shaping this C.S. Lewis masterpiece for OTT mogul Netflix. This is not the first time she will be tackling a major piece of children’s literature.
Previously, she worked on adapting Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Although Narnia is nothing short of a fantasy epic saga, the audience has a firm belief in Gerwig’s capabilities.
However, Greta Gerwig has revealed that she is quite intimidated by the task of adapting Narnia after her stupendous success with Barbie.
Greta Gerwig is “slightly in the place of terror” to adapt Narnia for Netflix
Greta Gerwig is all set to direct The Chronicles of Narnia for Netflix and it is her next big project after the smash hit Barbie. However, she might be facing some self-doubt, as she told BBC Radio 4’s Today program (via. Deadline) that she is slightly terrified of helming the project. She opened up in a candid conversation and said,
“I’m slightly in the place of terror because I really do have such reverence for Narnia. I loved Narnia so much as a child. As an adult, C.S. Lewis is a thinker and a writer. I’m intimidated by doing this. It’s something that feels like a worthy thing to be intimidated by. As a non-British person, I feel a particular sense of wanting to do it correctly… it’s like when Americans do Shakespeare, there’s a slight feeling of reverence and as if maybe we should treat it with extra care. It is not our countryman.”
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This is not the first time she has expressed her fears over this project. The Francis Ha screenwriter had previously appeared in Total Film’s podcast and said she was “properly scared” of directing Narnia because of the magnitude and depth it calls for. However, she saw this as an “exciting” and “extraordinary” opportunity nonetheless.
“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.’ No, I’m terrified of it. It’s extraordinary. And it’s exciting.”
The Chronicles of Narnia began in 1950 with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and follows four British children who escape from the horror of reality that was World War II by entering an alternate dimension. The books have been adapted countless times, including by Disney in three movies: 2005’s The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, 2008’s Prince Caspian, and 2010’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
What did Greta Gerwig have to say about Jo Kay’s Golden Globe Barbie snub?
The Golden Globes had a not-so-golden night due to comedian Jo Kay’s subpar and rather unsavory hosting. While talking about Barbie on stage, he made a distasteful remark comparing Barbie to Oppenheimer, saying the latter “is based on a 721-page Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project, and Barbie is on a plastic doll with big boobies.”
Greta Gerwig, being the champ she is, remained unfazed by such comments and, in a dignified manner, later told the BBC program host that there is no shame in it. She did not at all take it as an insult. Then she went on to illustrate the history of Barbie and how it was conceptualized by Ruth Handler to further put Jo Kay in his place.
“Well, he’s not wrong. She’s the first doll that was mass produced with breasts, so he was right on. And you know, I think that so much of the project of the movie was unlikely because it is about a plastic doll… Barbie by her very construction has no character, no story, she’s there to be projected upon. The insight that [Barbie creator] Ruth Handler had when she was watching her daughter play with baby dolls, is she realised, ‘My daughter doesn’t want to pretend to be a mother. She wants to pretend to be a grown woman,’”
Clearly, Greta Gerwig wins this battle of wit effortlessly.
Barbie will be available to stream on Max (formerly HBO Max).
