Screwtape Coming to Big Screen

I posted this on the Line earlier today, but I wanted to share the exciting news with my own blog readers, too.

Luther at the Movies reports that The Screwtape Letters is going to be made into a movie.

First it was The Chronicles of Narnia. Now The Screwtape Letters—C.S. Lewis' often-imitated but never equalled epistolary masterpiece—is coming to a theater near you at some point in the not-too-distant future, God willing.

LATM goes on to ponder who should play Screwtape (Jack Nicholson? Willem Dafoe? Sir Anthony Hopkins?) And then the more important question:

Will his nephew, Wormwood, be portrayed? Will someone have the audacity to write return letters, from Wormwood to Screwtape, which, in the book, are only inferred from Screwtape's replies?

Whatever choices are made to take Screwtape from book to big screen, one thing seems certain: This film will not lack in quality. Gene Veith notes:

And the portents are very promising: Walden media (the pro-family media group with big pockets that is funding the Narnia movies) is putting up the money; Lewis's stepson Douglas Gresham (who ensured the fidelity of the Narnia movies) is involved; and Ralph Winter (the promising Christian director who made it big in the mainstream with movies like "Fantastic Four") is producing.

I consider The Screwtape Letters my favorite of Lewis' works. I also greatly enjoyed Lord Foulgrin's Letters and The Ishbane Conspiracy, novels by Randy Alcorn based on the same premise. The story illuminates the subtle ways the enemy gains a foothold in a believer's life. I love the tagline on the back cover of Alcorn's book: "Know your enemy. Read his mail." I hope the film, which I await eagerly, will reach a modern audience with the spiritual insight that comes from knowing who your enemy is.

HT: Justin Taylor