Wow, these are amazing ideas and I can imagine them exactly. I like your idea Spree of Lucy narrating the last paragraph after going into the Garden. This makes me excited for LB even when it's not even in progress yet!

Yes, The Last Battle would be very tricky to make, but I would really like to see it well done. It obviously isn't possible to portray Aslan's Country the way the book does, with the blue of the mountains being better than any blue we've ever seen, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't do a pretty good job with the story.
For one the the LB doesn't have the episodic nature that kept being bantered about during PC and Voyage. It does have the division between Narnia and Aslan's Country, though, and a moviemaker might be tempted to shorten the Aslan's Country part because of this, and because the Aslan's Country part would be so tricky to do.

One thing I hope they don't do is have the Aslan's Country parts be all washed out with white light, that would seem to be the opposite of what Lewis was saying about colors being better and foods being tastier. Also, the washed out lighting seems sort of overused.

The way I imagine the ending is with a zoom-out shot and not fading away to anything. This would show Aslan's Country as being very big, as it is bigger than Narnia (even the new Narnia is bigger than the old Narnia). Also, if they could keep from having a fade out shot it would keep from feeling like an ending. They could also pull off a neat musical score and leave off the ending phrase to show that Aslan's Country continues, as it is supposed to be about the Narnia books being only the title page. Although, they might have to have it fade away to something, they probably could not put the credits smack dab against the parting shot. They should also have the last lines by C.S. Lewis of LB in quotes at the end of the credits.

I certainly agree that they should keep Susan as not "yet" in Aslan's Country. I think C.S. Lewis really had her abandon Narnia because she will remind us of ourselves. She's still in "our world" at the end of the books, and we are too. Both Shift and Susan do not want to have anything to do with Aslan in The Last Battle and it would be inconsistent to say that Susan gets into Aslan's Country just because we like her better than Shift.

Ariel, I'm glad you brought up the Doors in the movie.

Ooh! Espirit, I like that! Such a great idea! 😀 I got shivers when I read it! (That's good! )

So, months later I've come back to this thread with another idea. What if there is a tiny scene (maybe after a portion of the credits) in which we get an idea as to Susan's fate? Maybe she's stumbling through the train wreckage, or looking through her relatives' things, or at the funeral -- obviously in mourning, in any case. And she finds something with obvious Narnian connotations -- a drawing of a faun under a lamppost, or a pocket watch with an engraved lion, perhaps -- and her fingers rub it fondly just long enough for you to think, "Oo! Maybe she's remembered!" before the scene cuts off and the credits begin again.

That sounds cool, but I feel like that might undermine the ending in Original Narnia. And/or feel like a sequel build-up of some kind.

I have considered filming a card board theatre version.

Chesterton said a problem drama of the modern psychological type is impossible on card board theatres, but "the last judgement" would be easy.

However, there are parts of the LB which do come closer to the former extreme. Like how Puzzle reacts to Shift or how Poggin and the other dwarfs (I guess saying dwarves is inappropriate for Narnia) react to Jill's disclosure.

So, months later I've come back to this thread with another idea. What if there is a tiny scene (maybe after a portion of the credits) in which we get an idea as to Susan's fate?

My take on it in my fan fic is that Polly's words are said by Polly before Lucy suggests asking Aslan about it. While CSL bases most of LB on Susan's dreams (including the one in which she hears Polly saying that), Susan only after sending the near completed story (a part on the rings is CSL's modification, to hide what really happened to them in our world) gets the other dream that continues the conversation and where they do ask Aslan about it.

My take is also that Polly was not (despite already being in Heaven) speaking prophetically, but simply giving her human assessment, before Lucy's suggestion changed things very radically for Susan. It is just after the trainwreck that Susan has her first dream, in which she hears Polly's reproach.

Anyone interested in my fan fic, ask Ajnos for link.

@hansgeorg: Cardboard theatre? I'm afraid I'm not familiar with this term.
So your fic proposes that LB is based on dreams Susan had?

Q1) Cardboard theatre? I'm afraid I'm not familiar with this term.
A) Cardboard theatre. Stage of painted cardboard. Puppets of painted cardboard. Like a puppet theatre but very flat.
Q2) So your fic proposes that LB is based on dreams Susan had?
A) Yes, what other way would there be for anyone in our world

Oh, okay, I get what you mean by cardboard theatre now. That would be interesting!

(Noting my fan fic will probably not be consulted for ideas about LB)

The cardboard theater idea reminds me of what they did with Pauline Baynes' illustrations in the Dawn Treader credits (one of my favorite parts of the film), and also Caspian's explanation of "The Voyage Thus Far" as presented in the VDT special features. These were, of course, done digitally and not with actual cardboard, but the effect feels similar to me. I've thought before that the simplest low-budget way to get all the books on film would be to produce the series using this method with Bayne's illustrations, and supplemental work in her style...I feel like Reading Rainbow or another educational series used to do this type of thing a lot...

(Still slightly off-topic, but I suppose it belongs here more than elsewhere.)

" I've thought before that the simplest low-budget way to get all the books on film would be to produce the series using this method with Bayne's illustrations, and supplemental work in her style...I feel like Reading Rainbow or another educational series used to do this type of thing a lot..."

I highly endorse this, and think that if the event of art as such was a cardboard theatre and the films just filmed that event, then Walden Media would legally have nothing to complain about if it was done before 2018.

Maybe I am wrong, but ....

Ah, but the books themselves are still under copyright, in the United States anyway. Not everywhere. This project could be done in Canada or South Africa where the copyrights have expired.

Ah, but I meant with the blessing of Douglas Gresham, who is presumably not himself super happy with the moratorium.

And of course, when it comes to Canada and South Africa, you may have a point.

Does anyone have any ideas for a "transition into Narnia" (assuming we start with the Friends of Narnia)? I love the three that we've got thus far and wanted to hear any ideas for an LB transition, especially since it seems to have been pretty quick and we can't make it too obvious that there's a train wreck.