'Narnia' to be très Chick?

The Telegraph ran this piece yesterday claiming that Disney has hired a public relations company to market The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe directly to Christian organizations, with executives themselves attending private meetings to assure believers that the Christ allegory will be left intact.

Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ has taken than $600 million (£311 million) at the box office since its release last year, principally because of the large number of Christians who went to see the film. Similarly, the animated adventure The Polar Express, which received poor reviews, became a hit after producers emphasised its Christian credentials.

In an effort to ensure that the Narnia film reaches a similar audience, Disney has hired Motive Marketing, a public relations company that specialises in reaching out to faith groups and was widely credited with the success of The Passion of the Christ. It has shown clips from the film to representatives from church groups and religious media. The strategy has already met with enormous success.

My understanding of the novels was that Lewis came up with the characters first and later formed them into a Christian allegory, which is what made the Narnia books at least feel like more than just an Identikit petting zoo. Considering the recent track record of evangelical cinema, I doubt they'd jeopardize a $100 million production on anything too overbearing anyway; perhaps they're just kissing up.

Side note: I can't imagine a better actor in the world to play the White Witch than Tilda "Fahrenheit 9/11 is sophisticated cinema" Swinton.



Thankee: Portal of Evil News

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