Steven D. Greydanus interviews the men behind Prince Caspian.

And he finds them making some rather dubious claims.

Unlike presidential candidates, the films’ producer, Mark Johnson, doesn’t even want to talk about change … at least when it comes to Narnia.

“I’ve produced a lot of movies based on books,” he said, speaking at a New York press event with other Narnia filmmakers. Citing titles from The Natural to The Notebook, Johnson said, “We made big changes in all of those in order to adapt them to film. It’s clear with The Chronicles of Narnia that you just can’t tamper with them that way. They’re too important to too many people. They are in many ways written almost filmicly. I think the themes and just the world of Narnia … you tamper with it, you make changes at your own risk.”

Is this spin? Well, yes. The fact is both films “tamper” with the books … Prince Caspian even more than the first film…

I can’t wait to read Greydanus’s review of the film. Nobody I’ve read thought more carefully about the deviations of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, changes that weakened the character of Aslan considerably.

Alas, right now only subscribers can read that piece, which is called “Lewis Lite.” The intriguing teaser reads “Prince Caspian Is Inspired by the Second Narnia Book but Fails to Adapt It.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, at the C.S. Lewis blog, (via The Hogs Head) Dr. Michael Ward interprets some of what Prince Caspian (the book!) is all about. Man, I’d love to read Greydanus’s assessment of that!

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