Guillermo del Toro's The Chronicles of Narnia

Posted by: Peter Sciretta

Did you know that Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro was originally asked to direct The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? Now how cool would have that been? Instead we got that watered down children's version.
The director revealed to CNN that he turned the offer down because, as a lapsed Catholic, "he couldn't see himself bringing Aslan the lion back to life."

"I'm not proselytizing anything about a lion resurrecting. I'm not trying to sell you into a point. I'm just doing a little parable about disobedience and choice," del Toro said. "This is my version of that universe, not only 'Narnia,' but that universe of children's literature."

"I do think there is far more an immoral position in creating a movie like 'Free Willy,' where I'm telling a kid, you know, 'If you swim next to a ... killer whale, she'll become your friend.' ... No! She will eat your ... guts and spit you out!" del Toro said. "...If my child watches my movies by accident, they will not try to think the world is a safe place, which it's not. Children should know the dangers of the world and not be neurotically isolated from them."

Pan's Labyrinth (Film's second best film of 2006) is in theaters now.