Posted on 12/12/2005 2:24:26 PM PST by truthandlife
After coming up dry on such costly movie flops as "Around the World in 80 Days" and "Sahara," Hollywood's highest-rolling wildcatter is looking for his first gusher.
And once again, Philip Anschutz is risking big.
The Denver-based multibillionaire, who made a fortune in oil, natural gas, railroads, telecommunications and real estate, has spent $90 million — half the film's $180-million budget — to produce the screen adaptation of the children's classic "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."
But whether the movie, which opens Friday, will produce the lucrative family-oriented franchise that Anschutz hopes for depends on how skillfully he and his partners at Walt Disney Co. have tapped the well.
Anschutz's independent production company, Walden Media, and Disney, which cofinanced the film, are banking on religious moviegoers and secular fans alike to make "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" — adapted from the beloved book by British theologian and literary scholar C.S. Lewis — a giant hit.
Such a windfall would give the 65-year-old Anschutz, whose vast assets include Staples Center, the Los Angeles Kings hockey team, the San Francisco Examiner and Regal Entertainment Group, the world's largest operator of movie theaters, something he needs more than money: credibility as a savvy investor in the movie business.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
I liked the recent "Sahara".
The book was better though.
If I recall correctly, Sahara opened with a picture of Bill Clinton in the opening credits. It was a "man is ruining the environment" movie with a UN doctor as the heroine and a multimillionaire industrialist killing innocent poor folk.
I can't stand that kind of movie.
It's AWFUL when Hollywood gives us "messages" (unless it's "Munich" and "Syrania".)
"80 Days" was an awful turkey. "Sahara" was enjoyable. "Narnia" should make Big Bucks!
My personal favorite of a movie produced by Walden Media is "I am David", which tells a story about a young boy who run from communist camp concentration. It's based on Anne Holm's novel, "North to Freedom".
"Narnia" has grossed 65 million domestically, 107 million total (including US) worldwide, as of 11 Dec 05.
I am David was a wonderful movie. I heartily recommend it to all.
Narnia was very enjoyable and as a fan of the Chronicles, I thought it was one of the best movie adaptations of a book I've seen.
They may not get any Academy Awards, but who the hell cares...AA's are just for the nutbag liberal section of America. (Particularly if Brokeback Mountain get's an award).
I'm with you on David as a quality but little noticed movie. I saw it as a DVD, because it was linked to something else I rented at NetFlix.
"Anschutz, a religious Christian who has vowed to make wholesome entertainment that doesn't rely on sex, foul language or violence to sell tickets, controls the rights to all seven books in the Narnia series."....
" After years of complaining about the content of movies, Anschutz told the students, "I decided to stop cursing the darkness … and instead do something about it by getting into the film business"
Finally another Christian steps up to the plate.
It is time for Christians to rise up and become the warriors (of spirit) that Christ intends for us to be.
"Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’" -- Matthew 10:34-36
Oh yeah, I loved it to. I highly recommend this new film. Btw, did u happen to see the 1988 version of Narnia?
Saw Narnia Sunday ....absolutely delightful!
"Anschutz, a religious Christian who has vowed to make wholesome entertainment that doesn't rely on sex, foul language or violence to sell tickets, controls the rights to all seven books in the Narnia series."
CHA-CHING!!!!!
I am writing this urgent message because very soon our children here in the United States and elsewhere in the world are going to experience a bewitching and a deceptive occult indoctrination. On December 9th, 2005, a new Disney movie will be released entitled “The Chronicles of Narnia.” The movie is based on the book by C.S. Lewis entitled The Chronicles of Narnia; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It is a sad fact that mainstream “Christianity” esteems C.S. Lewis as a great “Christian” author and his writings as edifying with profound themes of “Christian” teachings. The C.S. Lewis books can be found in “Christian” bookstores everywhere, and even Dr. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family organization is offering and promoting the works of C.S. Lewis. These same books, however, can also be found in occult bookstores everywhere!
As a former witch, astrologer, and occultist who has been saved by the grace of God, I know that the works of C.S. Lewis are required reading by neophyte witches, especially in the United States and England. This includes The Chronicles of Narnia, because it teaches neophyte, or new witches, the basic mindset of the craft. Isn’t it strange, though, that many “Christian” churches and organizations have used The Chronicles of Narnia as Sunday School curriculum?
When I saw the release date of this new movie, I was not surprised. December 9th is the 13th day before the witches’ quarter-sabat of Yule. The full cold moon is midway between the release date and the sabat of Yule. The waxing moon is also directly on the equinox on the release date of the movie. This is far too precisely occultic to be coincidental, and the producers of the movie no doubt consulted upper-level witches regarding the perfect day to have the “Chronicles of Narnia” open.
The author of The Chronicles of Narnia, Clive Staples Lewis, was a professor at Oxford University in England where he was supposedly converted to “Christianity” by another Oxford professor named J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien and Lewis would often sit together at a local pub or tavern and converse about their beliefs in the creatures and the activities of the middle earth, a strange realm of a little people and magical powers. Tolkien often referred to Lewis as a “reluctant Christian.” Tolkien, though, was a Roman Catholic in doctrine and found his religion to be perfectly compatible with magic and the world of hobbits and elves.
The story of the Narnian Chronicle known as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is one of clandestine occult mysticism and is not Sunday School material unless your Sunday School is a defacto witch coven. The story involves a child from the normal everyday or mundane world. This girl, Lucy, who hides in a wardrobe as she is playing a game, suddenly finds herself transported to another world very unlike her own. It is a world of intelligent, talking animals and strange creatures. The little girl soon finds herself having tea with a faun. In witchcraft and ancient Roman pagan mythology, a faun is any of a group of rural deities, which have the bodies of men and the horns, ears, tails, and legs of a goat. The Roman god Faunus was also the god of nature and fertility and was connected to sexual lust. Here let it be noted that in the Narnian Chronicle Prince Caspian, this same strange land the little girl finds herself in is also populated by gods and goddesses; such as Bacchus, the god of drunken orgies, and the Maenads, who were frenzied women driven to madness in the orgiastic cult of Bacchus.
The main character of the book is a lion named Aslan, which is the Turkish word for lion. Aslan the lion is the character that “Christian” teachers say is the Christ figure, but witches know him to be Lucifer. The lion, Aslan, appears in all seven of the books of The Chronicles of Narnia. The following are quotes regarding Aslan the lion:
“At the name of Aslan, Lucy got the feeling you get when you wake in the morning and realize it is the beginning of spring.”
“When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death; and when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.”
“He’ll be coming and going; one day you’ll see him and another you won’t.”
“It was a lion, huge, shaggy; and bright it stood facing the rising sun.”
“Aslan swings his head around scattering golden gleams of light as he does so.”
Remember, Aslan the lion is esteemed to be the “Christ figure” by so many “Christian” teachers, but with that in mind, consider the following quotes from The Chronicles of Narnia.
“The crowd and dance round Aslan (for it had become a dance once more) grew so thick and rapid that Lucy was confused. She never saw where certain other people came from who were soon capering among the trees. One was a youth, dressed only in a fawn skin, with vine leaves wreathed in his curly hair. His face would have been almost too pretty for a boy’s, if it had not looked so extremely wild. You felt, as Edmund said when he saw him a few days later, ‘There’s a chap who might do anything, absolutely anything.’ He seemed to have a great many names – Bromios, Bassareus, and the Ram were three of them. There were a lot of girls with him, as wild as he. There was even, unexpectedly, someone on a donkey. And everybody was laughing: and everyone was shouting out, ‘EUAN, EUAN, EU-oi-oi-oi.’”
Those strange words EUAN, EUAN, EU-oi-oi-oi are an ancient witches’ chant used to invoke the power and presence of the god of drunkenness and addiction, who is named Bacchus. But wait, as the story goes on, it gets worse as the witchcraft increases and becomes more obvious. Consider the following: “‘What is it Aslan?’ said Lucy, her eyes dancing and her feet wanting to dance. ‘Come children’, said he. ‘Ride on my back today.’ ‘Oh lovely!’ cried Lucy, and both girls climbed on to the warm golden back as they had done no one knew how many years before. Then the whole party moved off – Aslan leading. Bacchus and his Maenads leaping, rushing and turning somersaults, the beasts brushing round them, and Silenus and his donkey bringing up the rear… Then three or four Red Dwarfs came forward with their tinder boxes and set light to the pile, which first crackled, and then blazed, and finally roared as a woodland bonfire on midsummer night ought to do. And every-one sat down in a wide circle around it. Then Bacchus and Silenus and the Maenads began a dance, far wilder than the dance of the trees, not merely a dance for fun and beauty (though it was that too), but a magic dance of plenty, and where their hands touched, and where their feet fell, the feast came into existence. Sides of roasted meat that filled the grove with delicious smell, and wheaten cakes and oaten cakes…”
The above is clearly a description of a witches’ sabat of Midsummer or the Summer Solstice, and it is described as such in perfect detail. Certainly by now enough is known to denounce this work as satanic and antichrist.
Was Clive Staples Lewis a Christian or a blasphemer? In his book The World’s Last Night and Other Essays on pages 98-99, Lewis said, “Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place… certainly the most embarrassing verse in the Bible.The one exhibition of error and the one confession of ignorance grow side by side. That they stood thus in the mouth of Jesus himself and were not merely placed thus by the reporter, we surely need not doubt… The facts, then, are these: that Jesus professed himself (in some sense) ignorant, and within a moment showed that he really was so.”
Lewis also said in Reflections on the Psalms, page 129, “… as I believe, Christ… fulfilled both paganism and Judaism.” Lewis was also quoted in a biography as follows: “I had some ado to prevent joy and myself from relapsing into paganism in Attica! At Daphni it was hard not to pray to Apollo the Healer. But somehow one didn’t feel it would have been very wrong – would have only been addressing Christ sub-species Apollinis.”
In closing this urgent message, I pray that our true and dear Lord Jesus Christ will have mercy on the deceived and sleeping remnant, and that they will come fully awake and rise up against this subtle attack of Satan. The apostle Paul warned us in II Corinthians 11:14-15 as follows: “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteous-ness; whose end shall be according to their works.” May God help us all, and may he especially protect our children from witch-craft in the churches is my prayer.
Pastor David J. Meyer
Published By:
Last Trumpet Ministries
PO Box 806
Beaver Dam, WI 53916
USA
Printable Version (PDF Format - Requires Adobe Reader)
I just saw it. Brilliant movie. Followed the book and did not shy away from the Christian allegory. I've been getting a little burned out on the CGI special effects, but these supported the storytelling admirably. If they follow up properly, this could be the rebirth of Disney. Imagine a kid's movie with no fart jokes or cheap sexual puns, but that will enthrall adults as well. Each frame in the movie could be hung on the wall as a painting. It's beautiful.
Oh fer cryin out loud.
I think it will be a profitable series, if the rest are done with the same quality as the first. The next in the series will be cheaper to do with all the groundwork done for the first
Pastor David J. Meyer is entitled to his opinion, as am I.
And in my opinion, he's full of crap.
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