{"id":17031,"date":"2021-09-15T07:24:29","date_gmt":"2021-09-15T11:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=17031"},"modified":"2021-09-15T15:28:11","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T19:28:11","slug":"the-most-reluctant-convert-c-s-lewis-biopic-in-theaters-november-3rd-more-bates-family-on-uptv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2021\/09\/the-most-reluctant-convert-c-s-lewis-biopic-in-theaters-november-3rd-more-bates-family-on-uptv.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The Most Reluctant Convert&#8221; C.S. Lewis biopic in theaters November 3rd + More &#8220;Bates&#8221; family on UPtv"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 09\/15\/21<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><iframe title=\"THE MOST RELUCTANT CONVERT: THE UNTOLD STORY OF C.S. LEWIS  | OFFICIAL TRAILER\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AWEjo6pr2Qk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Chronicles of Lewis.<\/strong> A new film following the spiritual journey of the author of the beloved fantasy novel series <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia\"><strong><em>The<\/em> <\/strong><i><strong>Chronicles of Narnia<\/strong><\/i><\/a> releases as a special event in theaters nationwide on November 3. Directed by<strong> Norman Stone<\/strong> <strong>(BBC\u2019s <i>Shadowlands, The Narnia Code<\/i>)<\/strong>, <b><i>The Most Reluctant Convert<\/i><\/b><i>: <b>The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis <\/b><\/i>stars <strong>Max McLean<\/strong> <strong>(<i>Mark\u2019s Gospel<\/i><i>,<\/i><i> The Screwtape Letters<\/i>)<\/strong> as the middle-aged writer looking back on the events that moved him from vigorous debunker of Christianity to become arguably the most influential Christian writer of the past century. The actor says \u201cThis story has a remarkable ability to engage audiences regardless of their religious belief. Lewis applied his formidable and self-deprecating wit to engage audiences about his own trying and painful experiences.\u201d<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The film, adapted by McLean, is based on the hit U.S. play <strong><i>C.S. Lewis on Stage: The Most Reluctant Convert<\/i><\/strong>. Before the pandemic, the show had been performed 287 times in 64 cities and on college campuses since its 2016 premiere. With extended runs in New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C. <i>The Most Reluctant Convert<\/i> has been seen by more than 100,000 people. The play and the film are based primarily on Lewis&#8217; memoir, <i><strong>Surprised by Joy<\/strong>,<\/i> which is licensed from <strong>The C.S. Lewis Company<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The movie introduces <strong>Eddie Ray Martin<\/strong> as the childhood Lewis who loses his mother to cancer and then renounces his faith. <strong>Nicholas Ralph<\/strong>, star of the <strong>PBS Masterpiece<\/strong> hit <i><strong>All Creatures Great and Small<\/strong>,<\/i> plays Lewis as a young man who has a terrible relationship with his father before as he heading off to witness the waste of human life while in the trenches of France during World War I. It was there that he concluded \u201ceither there was no god behind the universe, a god who is indifferent to good and evil, or worse, an evil god.\u201d Yet, Lewis could not really accept the materialist view that meaning, rationality, or purpose, were just the accidental results of physics and biochemistry.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis later becomes a fellow at <strong>Oxford University<\/strong>. He went on to become one of the 20<sup>th<\/sup> century\u2019s great thinkers as he battles with his demons and, ultimately, finds faith. The film explores the impact his notable friends <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/J._R._R._Tolkien\"><strong>J.R.R. Tolkien<\/strong><\/a> (played by <b>Tom Glenister<\/b> of <strong><i>Doc Martin<\/i><\/strong> and <strong><i>Vera<\/i><\/strong>), <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hugo_Dyson\"><strong>Hugo Dyson<\/strong><\/a> (played by <b>David Shields <\/b>of <strong><i>The Crown <\/i>and<\/strong> <strong><i>Doctor Who<\/i><\/strong>) and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Owen_Barfield\"><strong>Owen Barfield<\/strong><\/a> (played by <b>Hubert Barton<\/b> of <strong><i>Jekyll &amp; Hyde<\/i><\/strong> and <strong><i>Deep Blue Sea<\/i><\/strong>) had on the dedicated atheist as he was forced to question his own disbelief. Worldwide, Lewis books have sold nearly a quarter of a billion copies.<\/p>\n<p>The drama was filmed in 18 locations in and around Oxford, England. The film is produced by F<strong>ellowship for Performing Arts<\/strong> in association with <strong>1A Productions<\/strong> and distributed by<strong> Trafalgar Releasing<\/strong>. Executive producers are<i> <\/i><strong>Matthew Jenkins (<i>Murder on the Orient Express<\/i>)<\/strong> and <strong>Ken Denison<\/strong> <strong>(<i>The Lion King &#8211; Broadway<\/i>)<\/strong><i>. <\/i>Tickets go on sale today <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cslewismovie.com\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p><strong>UPtv renews <em>Bringing Up Bates<\/em> for Season 11.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"yiv0103500877mcnImage\" src=\"https:\/\/ecp.yusercontent.com\/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmcusercontent.com%2Fb02ee5e691d85740453aa588e%2Fimages%2Fb9e54d37-506d-674b-0790-742e9775ffe9.png&amp;t=1631643721&amp;ymreqid=ae7ac87d-528e-3d6c-1ce9-460001016500&amp;sig=339PI6rnNgDJE2kn_5HtLQ--~D\" alt=\"\" width=\"564\" align=\"middle\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The new run of episodes will premiere Thursday, Feb. 10 at 9 PM ET. The popular family reality series centers on <strong>Gil and Kelly Jo Bates<\/strong> and their 19 kids. The new season will feature not one but two Bates wedding as son <strong>Nathan Bates<\/strong> says &#8220;I do&#8221; to his girlfriend <strong>Esther Keyes<\/strong> and daughter <strong>Katie<\/strong> weds her fianc\u00e9 <strong>Travis Clark<\/strong>. Season 11 will also highlight <strong>Carlin<\/strong> and <strong>Whitney<\/strong> continuing to grow their <strong>Bates Sisters Boutique<\/strong> business.<\/p>\n<p>Noting that the show&#8217;s 10th season was its highest rated yet, <strong>UPtv Content Strategy and Programming V.P. Hector Campos<\/strong> says \u201c<em>Bringing Up Bates<\/em> continues to outperform its prior seasons in the ratings because the Bates are beloved by our viewers and fans who watch the series weekly and engage with the family on social media,\u201d adding &#8220;We repeatedly hear from viewers how much they appreciate the Bates family and that they look forward to spending time with their favorite large family each week for an entertaining and uplifting safe haven on television.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, UPtv will continue to offer fans opportunities to interact with the Bates directly through weekly editions of <strong>Facebook Live<\/strong>. Additionally, the network will be launching a gift card giveaway to the Bates Sisters Boutique during the season. Viewers can watch all prior seasons ahead of the season 11 premiere on UP Entertainment\u2019s streaming service, UP Faith &amp; Family.<\/p>\n<p><em>Bringing Up Bates<\/em> is produced by <strong>Figure 8 Films (<em>Kate Plus 8<\/em>).\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em><span class=\"st\">Encourage one another and build each other up &#8211; <\/span><\/em><span class=\"st\">1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 09\/15\/21 Chronicles of Lewis. A new film following the spiritual journey of the author of the beloved fantasy novel series The Chronicles of Narnia releases as a special event in theaters nationwide on November 3. Directed by Norman Stone (BBC\u2019s Shadowlands, The Narnia Code),&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,9,24,1],"tags":[12423,12411,7632,12402,12414,7749,12435,12429,635,12420,12417,12399,12405,12393,12432,12408,12390,12396,8824,12426,5957],"class_list":["post-17031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","category-books","category-christianity","category-movies","category-uncategorized","tag-1a-productions","tag-all-creatures-great-and-small","tag-bringing-up-bates","tag-eddie-ray-martin","tag-fellowship-for-performing-arts","tag-gil-and-kelly-jo-bates","tag-hector-campos","tag-hugo-dyson","tag-j-r-r-tolkien","tag-ken-denison-the-lion-king-broadway","tag-matthew-jenkins-murder-on-the-orient-express","tag-max-mclean-marks-gospel","tag-nicholas-ralph","tag-norman-stone-bbcs-shadowlands","tag-owen-barfield","tag-pbs-masterpiece","tag-the-most-reluctant-convert-the-untold-story-of-c-s-lewis","tag-the-narnia-code","tag-the-screwtape-letters","tag-trafalgar-releasing","tag-uptv"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;The Most Reluctant Convert&quot; C.S. 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Directed by Norman Stone (BBC\u2019s Shadowlands, The Narnia Code),&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2021\/09\/the-most-reluctant-convert-c-s-lewis-biopic-in-theaters-november-3rd-more-bates-family-on-uptv.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2021-09-15T11:24:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-09-15T19:28:11+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/ecp.yusercontent.com\/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmcusercontent.com%2Fb02ee5e691d85740453aa588e%2Fimages%2Fb9e54d37-506d-674b-0790-742e9775ffe9.png&amp;t=1631643721&amp;ymreqid=ae7ac87d-528e-3d6c-1ce9-460001016500&amp;sig=339PI6rnNgDJE2kn_5HtLQ--~D"}],"author":"John W. 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Lewis biopic in theaters November 3rd + More &#8220;Bates&#8221; family on UPtv"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/","name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - John W. Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17031"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17160,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17031\/revisions\/17160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}