JonZ
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Dec 28, 1998
- Messages
- 7,799
From DH.........
"Slavish devotion to the material by Chris Columbus meant the first two "Harry Potter" movies clocked in at nearly three hours each. Not a problem in itself as ticket sales showed, but with each Potter book proving to be significantly longer than the last, the question of length began to become a concern.
Director Alfonso Cuaron has managed to bring in the third one at a little over 2.5 hours, and now Mike Newell has been handed the difficult task of turning in a fourth film of about the same length (the split into two films idea has long been given the rightful heave-ho) even though there's around 2.5 times as much material to condense as there was for the last film "Chamber of Secrets".
Well today, CBBC Newsround have revealed at least one way in which that condensation is happening - he's cutting out the first few chapters of the book. Actor Richard Griffiths' agent revealed that Richard was "very disappointed" not to be appearing as Harry's nasty Uncle Vernon Dursley in the fourth movie.
Time considerations have forced the filmmakers to start the film at a later point in the book, most likely at The Burrow or the Quidditch World Cup scenes from the novel. Griffiths is reported as saying "I said to JK Rowling: "Couldn't the Dursleys turn up to an open day at Harry's school or something,' but she said, 'I don't think so'."
Griffiths and the other Dursleys will appear in this June's "Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban", and are hopefully expected to return for the fifth feature "Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix"."
"Slavish devotion to the material by Chris Columbus meant the first two "Harry Potter" movies clocked in at nearly three hours each. Not a problem in itself as ticket sales showed, but with each Potter book proving to be significantly longer than the last, the question of length began to become a concern.
Director Alfonso Cuaron has managed to bring in the third one at a little over 2.5 hours, and now Mike Newell has been handed the difficult task of turning in a fourth film of about the same length (the split into two films idea has long been given the rightful heave-ho) even though there's around 2.5 times as much material to condense as there was for the last film "Chamber of Secrets".
Well today, CBBC Newsround have revealed at least one way in which that condensation is happening - he's cutting out the first few chapters of the book. Actor Richard Griffiths' agent revealed that Richard was "very disappointed" not to be appearing as Harry's nasty Uncle Vernon Dursley in the fourth movie.
Time considerations have forced the filmmakers to start the film at a later point in the book, most likely at The Burrow or the Quidditch World Cup scenes from the novel. Griffiths is reported as saying "I said to JK Rowling: "Couldn't the Dursleys turn up to an open day at Harry's school or something,' but she said, 'I don't think so'."
Griffiths and the other Dursleys will appear in this June's "Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban", and are hopefully expected to return for the fifth feature "Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix"."