Emerald Fennell has announced plans for filming at several iconic Oxfordshire landmarks in preparation for her daring new take on C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Fennell says her adaptation, titled The Lion*, The Witch* and the Wardrobe*, will not be a one-to-one adaptation of Lewis’ text, but rather her own experience of the story, based on having a crush on Aslan as a 14-year-old girl.
When asked how she would explore the themes of Lewis’ text, such as the nature of good vs. Evil and the story’s overtly Christian allegory, Fennell responded, “listen, all I know is that teenage Emerald thought ‘wow, that is one hot lion.’” Principal photography of Jacob Elordi as Aslan in a full fursuit has already sparked controversy, as has Fennell’s decision to include explicit love scenes between Aslan and the White Witch, played by Margot Robbie.
In another departure from the text, Mr. Tumnus (Timothee Chalamet) will be rewritten as an insatiable satyr rather than a faun, and the Pevensie siblings will all be played by actors in their thirties, so that Fennell can include a steamy romance between the Witch and Edmund (rumoured to be played by Barry Keoghan). The resulting love triangle, according to Fennell, will be the main motivation behind the final battle for Narnia.
Filming will take place on location in Oxfordshire to pay tribute to Lewis’ roots in the area. Among the settings slated for the film’s production are Christ Church Meadow for the film’s battle sequences, Blenheim Palace for the court of the White Witch, and the dungeons of Oxford Castle for a montage Fennell would only refer to as “the Turkish Delight Orgy”. Charli XCX has been signed on to produce the film’s soundtrack, with lead single ‘I’m Gonna Die (In This Wardrobe)’ set to release over the coming month.
At Headington Quarry’s Holy Trinity Church, where C.S. Lewis is buried, engineers have installed a generator so that Mr. Lewis’ spinning can provide a sustainable source of electricity. Fennell closed her statement with “watch out, Tolkien, I’m coming for you too.”