On This Week’s Show: Stargate, Serenity, and Sci-Fi to Sci-Fact
This week, the studio crew and guests talk movie and TV news!
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Warner Bros has circulated warnings about an email phishing scam masquerading as a call for actors for the next Harry Potter movie
News Bytes:
- Sci News: New Scientist Magazine has listed their Top 10 Best SciFi Ever list
- Disney hopes to reach wide demographics with the upcoming Narnia film event
- Sci-Fi to Sci-Fact: The Universal Translator
- Uncle Sam rants about the current trend of mindlessness in some recent scifi, fantasy and horror offerings
Movie Talk: Universal seems to already be talking about a hoped-for Serenity sequel, based in info from an interview by Jeremy Neish of FireflyMovie.com
TV Talk: Amanda Tapping may be splitting time between SG-1 and Atlantis
What’s Coming Up in the Future:
- The Director’s Cut of Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects is coming to DVD on November 8
- Fan Boys movie, a comedy about a group of Star Wars fans on a quest to Skywalker Ranch, has been acquired and is tentatively scheduled to begin filming on February 1.
If you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know.
See you in a week with fresh, new content!
Christianity in Narnia & Lord of the Rings
Of the two, Narnia is the most overtly Christian. Aslan is an obvious Christ figure (he even says that he exists in a different form in our world). This is apparent in (spoiler) in his death, resurrection and taking on the sins of the children in “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe”. But you can miss it, especially if you’re young when you read it. The Christianity is however, blatant in the last book “The Last Battle”.
Tolkien was much more suble. Christianity is most obvious in “The Silmarillion”, but is never as easy to spot as in Lewis.
The primary difference between Lewis’ writings and those of Tokien is that Lewis worked in allegory and Tolkien thought that to write allegorically was too “obvious”. Tolkien approached his writing from the standpoint of creating myth–but not just any myth. Tolkien used the term “true myth”; by this he meant that while the characters and events are not real or historical, they *are* true in the sense that the universe created is based upon a universal truth. Tolkien explicity said that the Lord of the Rings was a Christian–and specifically Catholic–work, unconsciously at first, but then consicously in the revision. The central themes of LOTR are mostly the same central themes seen in Christian thought–self-sacrifice, doing what is right regardless of the personal cost, each person having a part to play in the Grand Scheme of Things, and most of all, a reality that is beyond what we can know with our senses–a supernatural reality, one of good and evil. However, Tolkien also wanted the stories to be good just as stories. If taken on the surface, yes, LOTR is a tremendous story. If one chooses to, however, there is enormous depth to this work.
Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is pretty obviously religious to an adult audience. If you were 10 when you first read it, like I was, you probably didn’t pick up on any of that. If you read it now (and it’d only take you a few hours), simply keeping Aslan = Christ in mind will make the allegory pretty clear. The think the previous commentors are right. LOTR is more… thematic in its Christianity. They uphold certain principles, ones that we probably don’t even really notice as having a religious context because it’s so normal for us. Narnia is more a character replacement. In this scene we see the Passion reenacted. And in this scene we see the Ressurection reenacted. etc.
Regarding movie revenue: the theatres get a small cut off the ticket sales, but their main money comes from concessions.
Smaller movie houses (as opposed to chains) have to pretty much “rent” a film from the distributors.
That’s why they don’t want to see people coming through the doors with that bag from McDonald’s.
Popcorn, sodas, water are things that cost pennies in massive bulk, but bring BIG profits to a theatre.
Regarding Chronicles of Narnia.
While not as much in the later books, Lion is Christian theology, specifically Anglican theology. It is not in your face but it is there.
I could go into a bit of detail on this but how about this for evidence. The church I attended as a child used the old cartoon version of that book in Sunday school classes.
Hey, the shows great I listen in all the time and I love your work. Maybe it would be good if you guys can be the first, that I know of anyway, to broadcast all of your podcasts 24 hours a day via a shoutcast (winamp radio) server. So we can listen in on new and old episodes of the slice of scifi, the dragon page and extra’s. I just thought how great it would be if I could just click on a dedicated channel of all your episodes. maybe even have time slots for them. Ok. Thanks.