The trailer above is to a five part documentary film series that the movie makers hope to sell to Netflix or Amazon. It is the adaptation for the small screen of Joseph Laconte’s history, A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918. Judging from the participants in this trailer, most notably Malcolm Guite and Michael Ward, and from the quality of the recreations shown, it looks to be a series well worth watching.
I have learned, though, that the film-makers need money to finish off Part One and to make the sale to the streaming movie platform owners. If you wish to contribute or just to learn more about the project, check out the on-line pitch here.
If you’d prefer to hear the author speak on the topic of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and how their experiences as soldiers in WWI shaped their lives and their friendship, not to mention the Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia, you can just watch the talk below. Enjoy!
There’s a third children’s fantasy writer who was a lieutenant at the Somme, and whose books have been teaching friends and love since the 1920s: A. A. Milne. The Pooh books are parables.
My dad read the Pooh books to me and my sister before we were old enough to read for ourselves, in the 1950s. I did not know then that Milne had survived the Somme, or about parables used in the Sermon on the Mount in the New Testament, but this RWR podcast made me think about all that. Thank you.