N.D. Wilson is working on a screenplay for C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce. He talks to Justin Taylor about it.
How do you take a set of episodes and turn them into a coherent story while being faithful and without ruffling too many feathers?
Oh, I’m not afraid to ruffle feathers. But any nervous fans out there should know that I’m as dog-loyal to Lewis and his vision as any writer could be. Where I’m adding and expanding and shaping, I am constantly trying to check myself against Lewis’ broader imagination as represented in his collected works—not simply this little volume.
I will admit that when I began the adaptation, I felt like I was jumping off a cliff into (hopefully deep) mysterious waters—you can never completely predict what will happen on impact. But now that I’ve impacted and finished the first draft of the script, I can say that (as a Lewis fan), I’m really, really happy with it. And from here, I hope it only gets better.
I’ve watched all of the Narnia movies, just because I really have no choice but to see whether someone can do Lewis justice. They’re all OK, but they don’t quite work for me. It would be terrific if someone could do a good job on “The Great Divorce.”
I clicked through to the interview and then further to the Rob Bell parody video that the author recommended, which was hilarious.
I watched it too and loved it. I needed to watch the Rob Bell video first though.
Yeah, you know, I didn’t watch it, but I can so easily imagine!