Walden Media President says "The Pressure Is Insane" for Narnia
10/05/05
Here's an excerpt from an interesting interview with Michael Flaherty, president of Walden Media (one of the companies producing the Narnia films--the other is Disney), detailing some of the stresses, expectations, and history of bring The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to the big screen.
Narnia: 'The Pressure Is Insane' (excerpt)
You said the Narnia conversations started in 2000. Where did it go from there? Did you just put it on the back burner?
Flaherty: No, it was definitely front burner. We needed to track down where the rights were, and that took up most of 2001—speaking with Douglas Gresham and the C. S. Lewis estate. Phil and Douglas had many great conversations, and I think Phil really won Douglas's trust and confidence that he would make a faithful adaptation.
Which couldn't have been easy, because they're pretty protective of Lewis's estate.
Flaherty: Very protective. And I'm grateful that Douglas gave us the chance, because when they were talking to us, we hadn't released a single film yet.
Why the partnership with Disney for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?
Flaherty: Because the marketing and distribution of films is such an enormous undertaking. With this film, we have full creative control, while Disney is in control of the marketing and distribution. They're certainly proving that there was no better studio to take this and really create a great franchise with it. We couldn't be happier with the job that they've done.
But hiring the filmmakers and making all the big decisions is all Walden?
Flaherty: All Walden. And that was all in place before we closed any deal with Disney.
Many evangelicals boycotted Disney for a while. And Narnia is very dear to that audience, so there's some irony that Disney is involved. Was that discussed before you partnered with Disney?
Flaherty: What was discussed was that we just need to make a faithful adaptation of this book. That's our sole prerogative. We wanted a guarantee that we had control over that, and Disney really understood that. Everyone was on the same page in terms of making a faithful adaptation out of this.
So if people have gripes about the film adaptation, they should come to Walden, not Disney.
Flaherty: Absolutely. We're trying to build a brand for Walden as something that parents, pastors, teachers and librarians are really comfortable with. So if they see our logo on a movie poster, they'll know that they're going to get a certain experience. We hope that with Holes and Winn-Dixie, people are starting to get an idea.
What's your personal involvement in the film?
Flaherty: I was involved early in terms of the script development, until everyone was comfortable with it—and the key decision person there was Douglas Gresham in terms of the final certification about it being faithful.
I read somewhere that nobody affiliated with this movie is allowed to spit without Douglas Gresham's permission. Is that an accurate description of his creative control on this film?
Flaherty: That quote is sort of a mischaracterization of how it works, because it's such a great collaboration between everybody. I don't think anyone lords approvals over anybody else. I think whoever said that, what they were trying to say was that nobody wants to move forward with this if Douglas doesn't feel comfortable with it.
Do you think he feels a lot of pressure of being the conscience of C. S. Lewis, of actually representing him in this process?
Flaherty: What's awesome about the production is that everybody feels that pressure. Everybody knows this is a monumental responsibility. Everyone knows that that book is a little lower than angels, and that we have to be as close to perfect as humanly possible. That's where we raised the bar to.
