Scott Stuber, Chairman of Netflix Film, has dubbed filmmaker and actor Greta Gerwig “one of the great titans” of the movie business.
During a keynote interview with Variety’s Executive Editor Brent Lang this week, Stuber praised the BAFTA-award-wining director and teased a project the pair are working on around the recreation of the Chronicles of Narnia film franchise.
“If you don’t know her she’s truly one of the greatest people, not just an artist but a human being. She’s just got this great soul,” said Stuber, the former top Universal executive who joined Netflix in 2017.
Onstage for the Variety Business Managers Breakfast at LA’s Four Seasons on November 8th, Stuber said he first started conversations with Greta Gerwig around Narnia back in 2019.
“When we had Marriage Story and she had Little Women we had quite a of time on the awards trail together, at dinners… And she grew up from a Christian background; the C.S. Lewis books are very much Christianity-based and so we just started talking about [Chronicles of Narnia].
“[…] It was just a great opportunity and I’m so thrilled that she’s working on it with us, and I’m just thrilled to be in business with her,” he added. “She’s an incredible talent and she already is one of the great titans of our business, but she’s going to trail-blaze in an amazing way.”
Stuber said the number of Narnia films Gerwig will partner with Netflix on is still currently being devised.
“We’re looking at the canon to look at, ‘how do we tell it right?’. Obviously Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe is the preeminent one, but there’s such an interesting narrative form if you read all of them. So that’s what she’s working on now with Amy Pascal [owner, Pascal Pictures].”
The conversation took place about seven hours before SAG-AFTRA ended its nearly four-month strike against Netflix and other major Hollywood employers.
Gerwig’s most recent smash hit Barbie, which she co-wrote with Noah Baumbach, is a box office smash that has so far grossed more than $1.4 billion.