Asbury Professor Assists with The Most Reluctant Convert Film Project
New movie explores the life of famous author and Christian thinker C.S. Lewis
November 15, 2021
Asbury English Professor Dr. Devin Brown contributed to a new film on the life of C.S. Lewis, one of the most famous Christian authors of the 20th century. The film, titled The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis, was based on a stage play which used Brown’s biography of Lewis as one of its sources as well as drawing heavily from Lewis’s own words. Brown was also asked to write the film’s Discussion Guide, which can be found at cslewismovie.com.
“One of the greatest things about the film is that so much of it comes straight from Lewis,” said Brown. “People who see the film will be caught up in the depth and beauty of his language as well as by the moving story of his conversion.”
The Most Reluctant Convert features Max McLean as an older Lewis reflecting back on the steps that brought him to faith and draws from McLean’s one-man-show about Lewis that has been seen by thousands of theater goers. The film and play were produced by Fellowship for Performing Arts (FPA), a New York City-based company that produces theatre and film from a Christian worldview to engage a diverse audience.
In addition to other literature classes at Asbury, Brown teaches a course on Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, who was a close friend of Lewis. Currently, he is one of a number of Lewis scholars assisting McLean with the script for the stage play for FPA’s next project — C. S. Lewis on Stage: Further Up, Further In — which has an anticipated release in 2022. FPA hopes to make a film of The Screwtape Letters next and other films after that.
“I think everyone should see this movie, either during its run in theaters or in another format afterward,” said Brown. “The quality is as good as any film from Hollywood, and audiences will go away inspired and challenged. Max McLean is phenomenal as Lewis. And, of course, you get to see lots of Oxford as well as a great deal of Lewis’s real house and the church he attended. My Discussion Guide, which can be downloaded from the website, will be helpful to anyone who has seen the film and would like to go deeper.”
The film has been extended to run in theaters until November 25.
Visit CSLewisMovie.com.