The fantastical, faith-laced stories of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien have captivated readers for decades. And in the last 15 years or so, big-screen adaptations of their beloved Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings franchises have raked in a mindboggling $6.4 billion combined.
Audiences, it seems, have a voracious appetite for these two men’s work. And now a new film is bringing them to the big screen yet again. The movie Tolkien & Lewis promises to unpack the writerly bond between two Oxford dons, digging deep into their well-chronicled camaraderie as well as the competitive conflicts that at times threatened to rend their relationship.
Now, you might think that a biopic focusing a the friendship between two fabled academics might be a bit stodgier stuff than their respective fantasy series. But that may not be the case. The $18 million movie from British production company Attractive Films is being directed by Simon West, whose other directorial credits include actioners The Expendables 2 and Con Air. And Attractive has described the film 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.”
About that rivalry, Attractive Films exec Wernher Pramschufer told Christianity Today, “Lewis becoming the poster boy for Christianity upset Tolkien. And obsessive genius Tolkien is blocked, terrified of finishing The Fellowship of the Ring, for fear of the strange, psychotic visions which torture him.” Christianity Today reports that the film is being aimed at a faith-based audience and is scheduled to arrive in theaters next Easter.
Meanwhile, Fox Searchlight has announced plans for a film with the working title of Tolkien, which Entertainment Weekly reports will focus on his service in the British Army during World War I and his subsequent professorial tenure at Oxford while writing The Lord of the Rings. At this point, however, no budget or director has been announced.
Whether we get just one movie focusing on these extraordinary storytellers’ lives or two, however, it looks as if fantasy fans have more to look forward to as Tolkien and Lewis’ fascinating legacies continue to inspire even more big-screen storytelling—albeit perhaps with fewer lions, wizards and rings of power.
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