The film would be called The Screwtape Letters, to be sure, and quote the actual letters frequently, perhaps with Screwtape's voice-over as we watch Wormwood (CG demons, of course!) attempt to tempt the central human. He would have a name, along with Wormwood having a voice, neither one of which exist in the book).

The new storyline would be focused on this man becoming a Christian and going about his standard, day-to-day early-40s British activities without much fuss — while the demons correspond behind the scenes and we see just exactly how much effort they put into trying to deceive a Christian.

Can it be done without changing what we know of the man — let's call him William — from the Letters themselves? Absolutely. It's all there: his first impressions of the church, arguments with his mother, falling-in with the sort of family and especially the young lady whose nature makes Screwtape want to throw up (and then, in his anger, assume the form of a very large centipede). All of this would make a great story.

Artistic license is fully possible without ruining the book. After all, it's not like they can change William's name or job (we didn't know what either was from the Letters) or toss in a noncanonical romance (it was in the book) or make up a bunch of violence and conflict (World War II was in the book).

We could even have deviations into the bigger picture, in which Screwtape performs his own job, perhaps further down in Hell's lowerarchy. What does he do all day? besides write letters? We can find out. Perhaps involved with the war. Perhaps he's even helping Hitler's regime in Germany. But the fact that even while doing all of these “big” things, he takes such interest in a “junior tempter” like Wormwood and the latter's “minor” project, would show viewers that every human life is a focus of tremendous spiritual unheavel.

Now about Ralph Winter, I'm a tad underwhelmed. He seems to be the go-to guy so far for faith-based movies that don't have much depth to them -- at least so far.

I haven't yet seen Thr3e for example, which he produced, and I love the novel, but it's not a very deep and specifically Christian story. Meanwhile House, by Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti, was a slipshod construction, bringing all of the two authors' various quirks in one product but with very few of the benefits — and Winter is reflexively producing the “story,” such as it is. (The movie announcement was in the back of the book and his endorsement was on the front.)

However, with Douglas Gresham involved, things will surely go well. And because it's The Screwtape Letters, how could one make a shallow film? One would need to work as hard as possible to pull that off, much more labor than it would take to simply stay true to the in-depth original. ...