The Alliance for Christian Media in Atlanta has optioned the film rights to The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis to Beloved Pictures in Hollywood. The Alliance acquired the rights from the estate of C.S. Lewis in 1982 and has worked for years to see the story come to the big screen. The Alliance, formerly the Episcopal Media Center, is known for its Emmy Award-winning films for television including the original animated The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the made-for-TV version of Shadowlands starring Claire Bloom. This represents their first foray into feature film production.

In The Great Divorce the narrator boards a bus on a drizzly English afternoon and embarks on an incredible voyage through Heaven and Hell. He meets a host of supernatural beings far removed from his expectations, and comes to some significant realizations about the nature of good and evil. It was published by C.S. Lewis in 1945 and is among his most popular works of fiction.

Beloved Pictures has attached David L. Cunningham to direct the film. His credentials include To End All Wars (Twentieth Century Fox). Bob Beltz, Special Advisor to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, and the Academy Award-winning Ray is Executive Producer.

“This is a thrilling moment in the life of our ministry. We have been close to the works of C.S. Lewis since 1958 when his later published book The Four Loves was recorded by him in London for broadcast on The Protestant Hour (now Day1),” said President and Executive Director of the Alliance, Canon Louis “Skip” Schueddig,

Over the years the organization has contributed to religious media in numerous ways through its national radio and Internet program Day1, its pioneering television PSA’s and distribution of hundreds of media resources, including those of Trinity Television, to churches throughout the country.

For more information contact Canon Schueddig at lschueddig@day1.org or 800-229-3788.