THE family of CS Lewis will miss out on the lion’s share of the multi-million-pound royalties from films based on his Chronicles of Narnia.

The first movie, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, opens in London next month amid expectation that a cycle of Narnia films will take over from the Lord of the Rings trilogy as the “must see” Christmas movie for years to come. It will also compete with the films of the Harry Potter books.

A new biography of Lewis, who died on November 22, 1963, the day of John F Kennedy’s assassination, claims £50m has been paid for the film rights. But the money will not go to his surviving relatives.

Just as the late JRR Tolkien, Lewis’s friend and fellow Oxford don, surrendered the film rights to his Lord of the Rings books — he received £105,000 to settle a tax bill — Lewis’s two stepsons, David and Douglas Gresham, sold their rights to his estate in the 1970s.

The first Narnia film has been shot in New Zealand — also the backdrop for the Tolkien films — by Andrew Adamson, who directed the Shrek movies, and it is being distributed by Disney. Aslan, the computer-generated lion in the film, is voiced by Liam Neeson.

A screen adaptation has already been written for Prince Caspian, the second book in the seven-title Narnia series. If all the books are filmed, they could easily eclipse the £1.6 billion global box office takings of the Rings movies.

The initial signs of “Narniamania” include a 40-fold increase in the sale of the book on which the film is based. There are to be 33 books by academics exploring themes such as Lewis’s use of fantasy as an allegory for the struggle between Christianity and evil.The excitement is not just in literary circles. David and Victoria Beckham are planning a Narnia theme party for their older children, Brooklyn and Romeo, this Christmas.

There are few clues to the ultimate destination of the money. The CS Lewis estate is run by an Australian accountant living in Ireland and a Swiss lawyer who report to two shareholders — trusts based in the tax havens of Liechtenstein and Jersey — and send royalties to a company registered in Singapore.

Douglas Gresham, 60, is billed as co-producer of the new movie but he is a salaried employee of the CS Lewis Company. His brother David, 61, has largely ignored the Lewis legacy. He has converted to Judaism and has travelled widely, studying different languages and cultures.

They are the sons of Joy Gresham, an American divorcée and former Hollywood scriptwriter who married Lewis at Oxford register office in 1956. She died of cancer in 1960 and her poignant descent was portrayed by Debra Winger in the film Shadowlands.

Michael White, author of the new biography, CS Lewis, said: “Douglas sold his share of the estate so he won’t be receiving the vast fortunes you might expect. He must be kicking himself now.

“When Lewis died his estate was worth under £38,000. But the estate has sold the film rights for £50m. It will also get a cut of the profits from lucrative merchandising deals.”

Gresham declined to comment on the finances last week, but he said: “Making this movie, and being involved as co-producer, is the realisation of a lifelong dream for me.

“My children, who are now in their thirties, tell me that as long as they can remember they have heard me dreaming and then planning and scheming to one day make really good films of the Narnian Chronicles. To see the first one coming to life before my eyes and exceeding even my dreams and expectations is wonderful.

“Now all I have to do is live long enough to make the rest of them.”

The CS Lewis Company, which handles the estate, denies the film deal is worth as much as £50m. But Melvin Adams, 46, its Australian-born managing director, conceded that it was a “multi-million-dollar deal”.

Certainly the company is flush with money. Its gross profits more than doubled last year to £4.8m. Adams and his co- director, Rudolf Sieber, a Swiss lawyer, each saw their pay trebled to £413,000 last year.

The company has two shareholders; Administral Anstalt, a trust registered in Liechtenstein, and Ramandu, a trust named after a Narnia character and based in St Helier, Jersey. It has more than £800,000 in the bank and paid £1.6m in royalties to CS Lewis Pte Ltd, a company registered in Singapore.

Walter Hooper, 74, who was Lewis’s secretary in the last few months of his life and became his literary editor after his death, said at his home in Oxford: “I really don’t know where the money will end up.”

Additional reporting: John Harlow

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