Weekly Non-Christian Opinion Roundup

The Wall Street Journal has finally covered the Narnia story. Naturally, their piece focuses on the business aspects of the project. They don't come up with anything particularly new, but you might be interested in their particular spin.

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The Times Online (UK) details the scope of British Christian efforts to help promote the upcoming Narnia movie. In closing the article on a cautionary tone, though, I think the authors pull a quote from Colin Duriez out of context—and I doubt he'll be too happy about it.

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The Economist (UK) is running a lengthy feature on Walden Media financier Philip Anschutz. As with most secular features on the billionaire, the focus is on Anschutz' conservative agenda. The article is titled, "God's Media Mogul." But this article also includes some Hollywood insider scuttlebutt concerning Walden's track record with films, too.

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Well, the opinion that really counts is in. OneNews (NZ) reports that former Disney head Michael Eisner has seen the film and predicts it will do LOTR-type worldwide boxoffice. (Of course, Disney passed on LOTR while Eisner was there, so what does he know? Heh heh. That's a joke, really. Obviously, if I knew as much as Eisner, I wouldn't be blogging, would I?)

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In yet another article emphasizing how un-family-like the upcoming film will be, The Sun (UK) reports that Tilda Swinton's own kids declined to see her performance. Just too dang scary. (Swinton plays the White Witch.)

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Says John Hiscock, a reporter for The Telegraph (UK) who's seen the finished film, "The religious references are there - Aslan is a Christ-like figure who offers himself as a sacrifice to save a young human sinner - but the younger audiences are likely to see it as just a dramatic part of the story."

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Disney is now positioning their publicity campaign for the film as "classy." Marketing reps told the Hollywood Reporter's Gail Schiller that "Even the promotions themselves are not overhyped in the way that sometimes promotions can be." Hmmm.

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"Disney thus has been attempting a tricky dance that involves assuring Christian higher-ups that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe stays true to Lewis' Christian roots while telling everyone else that the movie has mass, secular appeal," says the Chicago Tribune. "The question now is whether Disney can have and eat its secular and religious cakes. In a cultural climate that pits 'red' vs. 'blue' states, conservatives vs. liberals and the religious vs. the secular, one group's embrace of a movie might reflexively trigger an opposite reaction from another." I guess we'll know soon enough whether mainstream audience view the film as a Christian "Trojan Horse," as the article quotes Dick Staub as saying. The Trib article is exhaustive and thorough, and reflects mainstream concerns about the film pretty well. And it's got some juicy Gresham quotes, too, like this one regarding comparisons of The Passion of the Christ to Narnia: "That's a little like comparing a slaughterhouse to a loving family. Each is valuable to mankind, but I know darn well where I'd want to spend my time."

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Meanwhile, the Denver Post addresses speculation that "a holy war is waging over Disney's much-anticipated holiday blockbuster, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." Colleen O'Connor does a nice job of rounding up opinions from the center of the aisle and the secular side, and concludes with a quote from us folks here at HollywoodJesus. "Whether or not you like (Lewis') agenda, The Chronicles of Narnia works as literature. The test of the film is whether Narnia succeeds as cinema. If so, it will be successful whether or not Disney throws the right amount of money at it, or whether the evangelical community gets on board. Evangelicals are as bored with bad art as the next audience."