The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis
June 14, 2022
An elder C.S. Lewis looks back on his remarkable journey from hard-boiled atheist to the most renowned Chrsitian writer of the past century. The Most Reluctant Convert features award-winning actor Max McLean as the older Lewis and Nicholas Ralph – breakout star of PBS Materpiece’s All Creatures Great and Small – as young Lewis. Beautifully filmed in and around Oxford, this engaging biopic follows the creator of The Chronicles of Narnia from the tragic death of his mother when he was just nine years- old, through his strained relationship with his father, to the nightmare of the trenches of World War I to Oxford University, where friends like J.R.R. Tolkien challenge his unbelief.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBd8bYTMoTKlUAk4IVyb16Q
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBd8bYTMoTKlUAk4IVyb16Q
Written for the screen and directed by two-time Emmy and BAFA winner Norman Stone (BBC’s Shadowlands), The Most Reluctant Convert brings to life the spiritual evolution of one of the 20th century’s sharpest minds and keenest wits.
About Max McLean –
Max McLean is an award-winning actor and founder and artistic director of New York City-based Fellowship for Performing Arts.
Max adapted for the stage The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis Onstage: The Most Reluctant Convert, The Great Divorce, Genesis, and Mark’s Gospel. His recent writing and producing credits include Martin Luther on Trial.
As an actor, he created the roles of Screwtape in New York, on national tour and in London; C.S. Lewis in The Most Reluctant Convert on national tour, in an extended 15-week run in New York and in the upcoming film version premiering nationwide Nov 3; Mark in Mark’s Gospel; and Storyteller in Genesis. Max received the Jeff Award – Chicago theatre’s highest honor – for his performance of Mark’s Gospel.
He has been nominated for four awards from the Audio Publishers Association for his narration of The Listener’s Bible. His creative work has been cited with distinction by the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, and CNN to name a few.
About Norman Stone –
Norman Stone began his professional career in television as the youngest producer/director to be working at the BBC, and soon established himself as a top film maker with his highly acclaimed film A Different Drummer about the blind and deaf Christian poet, Jack Clemo. Four years later, he created Shadowlands, the gripping film drama on the love and loss of C.S. Lewis, which earned two BAFTA awards, an International Emmy, and the coveted ‘Prague D’or’ for Best Director. This film went on to be an award-winning stage play, as well as a Hollywood movie.
Other dramas followed included Martin Luther – Heretic, starring Jonathan Pryce; New World with James Fox; The Vision starring Dirk Bogarde, Lee Remick and Helena Bonham-Carter, and the award-winning Burston Rebellion with Eileen Atkins and Bernard Hill. Stone was also asked to direct the internationally acclaimed CBS co-production Pied Piper, starring Peter O’Toole.
He then directed two of the famous BBC Miss Marples films, starring the iconic Joan Hickson in the title role, and also, The Black Velvet Gown, which earned him his second International Emmy.
Always interested in experimenting with new forms of filmic storytelling, Stone went on to create and direct The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, which starred Jeremy Irons and was nominated for a prestigious ACE Award in the category of Best International Drama.
This experience led directly to Tales from the Mad House, an award-winning series of one-man dramas, featuring such stars as Jonathan Pryce, Dame Eileen Atkins, Joss Ackland, Claire Bloom, James Cosmo and Helen Baxendale, before making the gritty, Glasgow feature film, Man Dancin’ which collected more international awards.