What the hell is the Douglas Management Group, and since when does an actor of Gary Oldman's caliber finds himself into the dubious situation (for Hollywood) of "actively seeking [other] employement"?
This has been a battle of words between Oldman's agent and Warner Bros. for a couple months. My guess is that he wants more money. The Sirius stuff is set to be filmed last, so I'd be VERY surprised if they don't come to a deal before then. Heyman is very enthusiastic about having him back.
In other news, the Patil sisters will be played by the same actresses from "Goblet of Fire". It appears this will be another "everything but the kitchen sink" film. Then again, I thought that going to GOF and that one was fantastic. The further we get into the series, the less exposition there needs to be. It's at the point now where just seeing these characters is all the back story we need.
Definitely true about the back stories. That was my favorite part of HBP, just the fact that after 2000+ pages with these characters we know them so intimately that Rowling was really able to put a lot more depth and undertones in the dialogue. They could say one thing and mean another and we instantly knew what was going on, which made for some wonderful exchanges.
My one big hope for OotP is that we finally get the Dumbledore from the book. Harris had the wisdom and gravity but none of the power and wit. Harris' Dumbledore would never make the "Nitwit, oddment, blubber, tweak" speech at the beginning of the year feast, and even the "ear wax" joke at the end of SS is more a lament than the funny line it was in the book. Gambon from GoF however seemed too much to show Dumbledore's flaws and weaknesses, far beyond what the character of the book showed. Gambon in PoA came close, but he didn't really get enough screen time to really fill things out. He did have the whimsical streak that Harris never captured, I'll give him that. Regardless I've yet to see a Dumbledore on screen that came anywhere close to the personality of the books.
Giving credit where it's due though, I will say that Harris would have been superb in HBP had he lived that long.
It looks like filming has begun with some scenes of the centaurs and Gawp already shot. Hopefully the effects of the centaurs have improved greatly from "Sorcerer's Stone" which was quite terrible.
My only fear with having Grawp in the film is that it seems like he's one of the less important elements in the book. I'd much rather have more Sirrus and Weasleys than Grawp, for instance. One of the best things about the fourth movie was that it was almost entirely character-driven. Major set pieces like the QWC were gone, and the ones that remained were dramatically condensed. Yet, of all the films GOF is the most coherent because it never lost focus on Harry. Lets hope this won't be a return to the "Best of" compilation that plagued the earlier films.
agreed, I hope it's just an 'aside' scene and not a belabored explanation of where Grawp came from, ie Hagrid's like, "This is my little brother Grawp," «points up»
Doesn't look like they've signed Jason Isaacs yet either.
"Meanwhile, we spoke to Jason Isaacs to ask if he'd be back as Lucius Malfoy. "I hope so - you'll have to ask David. I can't bear the idea that somebody else would get to wear my Paris Hilton wig, but you never know.""
Yeah, it's making Heyman look really sloppy. I can see not having all of the new roles cast when production starts. But to not sign all of the returning cast before filmming starts is pretty fucking unprofessional.
It's funny how Oldman's manager commented on how long it took to sign him and it wasn't until they said they that Oldman might move onto another project that they finally hurried it up. Was the studio trying some type of scare tactic or something? It all doesn't matter now though because I can't wait to see Oldman take front and center in this one.
his character, Sirius Black, is very important to the plot, and features heavily in the book as an active character (more so than in Azkaban where he is more a shadowy figure who appears near the end), and he's a huge fan favorite, so particularly for OotP it was very important to bring him back, moreso than having any of the other adults be the same.