The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Witch and the Wardrobe" was complete by the end of March 1949. Lucy Barfield received it by the end of May. When on 16 October 1950 Geoffrey Bles in London published the first edition, three new "chronicles", "Prince Caspian", "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and "The Horse and His Boy", had also been completed. Lewis's publisher, Geoffrey Bles, allowed him to choose the illustrator for the novel and the "Narnia" series. Lewis chose Pauline Baynes, possibly based on J. R. R. Tolkien's recommendation. Baynes had greatly impressed Tolkien with her illustrations for his "Farmer Giles of Ham" (1949). However,
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 1990s, producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy were planning a film version. They could not find a space in Britain to shoot the film during 1996, and their plans to set the film in modern times made Douglas Gresham oppose the film, in addition to his feeling that technology had yet to catch up. Perry Moore began negotiations with the C. S. Lewis Estate in 2000. On December 7, 2001, Walden Media announced that they had acquired the rights to "The Chronicles of Narnia". The success of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" prompted the producers to feel they could