Cs lewis jrr tolkien movie sequels

by Ethan Gilsdorf

Oxford–I had vowed to take Dead Man’s Walk. To sneak into Gothic-trimmed courtyards. To wander beside the shadow of J. R. R. Tolkien, the father of modern fantasy, and listen for remnants of his voice.

I had come to see the dim pubs where he drank up inspiration and to visit the homes where he scribbled The Lord of the Rings, one of the biggest-selling and most-beloved books of all time.

Alas, I heard the trail was unmarked. Shrouded in rumor and false steps. I would have to find my own path.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) lived in Oxford on and off for some 50 years: first from 1911-15 as a student, then from 1917-19 as a tutor and staff member of the New English Dictionary, and lastly as a professor of medieval languages and literature from 1925-59. Aside from spending some retirement years in the suburbs and the seaside town of Bournemouth, Tolkien haunted Oxford nearly his entire adult life.

For three decades, Oxford was also full-time home to Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963), author of The Chronicles of Narnia and Christian writings like The Screwtape Letters. From 1917-1920, C.S. Lewis attended Oxford, then onward from 1925 taught as a Fellow at the university’s Magdalen College (pronounced “maudlin”) until his departure in 1954.

Lewis and Tolkien first met in 1926 at a Merton College English Faculty meeting. Initially Lewis noted some apprehension: In his diary, he wrote of the “smooth, pale, fluent little chap” that there was “no harm in him: only needs a smack or so.”

But the colleagues soon discovered they shared a like-minded interest in languages, poetry, myth and storytelling. They both avoided contemporary culture, neither had a car nor would drive one, and both largely ignored politics and the news. And in their fledgling efforts as novelists, they served as each others first readers. “T

British fantasy literature has two towering figures: J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia. The two were longtime friends, and now their relationship will be the subject of a new movie: Tolkien & Lewis, an $18 million drama, will be produced by UK-based production outfit Attractive Films and directed by Simon West, known for The Expendables 2, Con Air, and a certain Rick Astley music video.

Attractive describes the movie as “a drama fantasy set in war torn Britain in 1941 revealing the faith, friendship, and rivalry between J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.”

The two writers had a lot in common: Both taught at Oxford, both fought in World War I, and both preferred not to spell out their names. Their relationship was friendly for years, but turned famously fraught. Through late-night conversations, Tolkien, a religious Catholic, convinced Lewis to return to the faith; Lewis’ writing took off afterward, and he’s now best known for his books that are instilled with Christian themes, like the Narnia series and The Screwtape Letters. But Lewis then became a much-criticized unofficial spokesman for Christianity, which strained his relationship with Tolkien and Oxford. And while Tolkien struggled over the Lord of the Rings manuscripts for years, Lewis’ Narnia books were bestsellers.

Tolkien & Lewis could end up in direct competition with Tolkien, a project from Fox Searchlight and Chernin Entertainment. That movie, announced last year, is supposed to be a biopic of Tolkien, covering his time in World War I and as a professor, but no budget or director has been announced.

Thirty years ago, Anthony Hopkins starred in Shadowlands, a movie about the romance between C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman Gresham.

Now, he’s starring in another movie about C.S. Lewis… but this time, instead of playing Lewis himself, he’s playing Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis.

The film is called Freud’s Last Session, and it’s an adaptation of a play by Mark St Germain that imagines a fictitious meeting between Freud and Lewis, the latter of whom is played this time by Matthew Goode (Downton Abbey, etc.).

I am unfamiliar with the play, but this is how Variety describes the film:

“Freud’s Last Session” is set on the eve of the Second World War, when at the end of his life, Freud (Hopkins) invites “The Chronicles of Narnia” author C.S. Lewis (Goode) to debate the existence of God. Interweaving past, present and fantasy, the film explores Freud’s unique relationship with his daughter Anna (Liv Lisa Fries), and Lewis’ unconventional relationship with his best friend’s mother.

So, not exactly “Tell me about your mother,” but “Tell me about your friend’s mother”…?

For what it’s worth, Freud died on September 23, 1939—just a little more than three weeks after the war began—so he was definitely at the end of his life when this movie takes place. (Freud was 83 when he died; Hopkins is currently 85.)

Lewis, for his part, had only just started to become a well-known writer when this movie takes place; Out of the Silent Planet, the first book in his space trilogy, came out one year earlier, in 1938, but most of his most famous works still lay in the future—and that includes the Narnia books, which did not start coming out until 1950. (Lewis was a few months shy of 41 when the war began; Goode is currently 45.)

So this film will be able to look back at Freud’s entire life and work, but it’s going to have to be a bit more creative when it comes to Lewis. It can’t just cite his most famous works as though they a

Look for “Did you know” articles on NarniaWeb on the first of every month.

Sometimes stories begin with a single image of a faun and a lamppost (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). Sometimes stories begin with a challenge and a coin toss. C.S. Lewis‘ Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength) began with the latter.

In 1936, Lewis and his friend J.R.R. Tolkien had not yet published what would become their most famous works. However, they were already encouraging each others’ writing, and eventually issued each other a challenge: one of them would write a story about space-travel, and the other would write a story about time-travel. Who would write which story was determined by a coin toss. Lewis got space, and Tolkien got time.

For Lewis, the result was the first book in the Space Trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet (1938). Interestingly enough, the main character, Elwin Ransom, is a philologist like Tolkien.

Tolkien’s attempt at time travel was never finished, but there are echoes of the story in his other writings. The main basis of the plot, which was supposed to lead up to the fall of Atlantis, instead became the basis for the fall of Númenor, an important part of the history behind The Lord of the Rings. The full fragment can be found in The Lost Road and other Writings.

Lewis continued his space story a few years later. His first attempt at a sequel involved time travel, but was never completed (the unfinished manuscript was published posthumously as The Dark Tower). Instead, Lewis followed up with more space travel in Perelandra and That Hideous Strength.

If you would like to know more, Tolkien mentioned the conversation that led to that challenge more than once in his letters. And Diana Glyer, a leading expert on the Inklings, wrote in Bandersnatch about how much the supportive relationship be