Rotten Tomatoes UK recently caught up with Prisoner of Azkaban director Alfonso Cuaron and spoke to him about his feelings on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and asked the director if he had any interest in returning to direct the film of the last Harry Potter book. Saying he has just begun reading “Deathly Hallows”, Alfonso Cuaron gave the following answer about his feelings if he were to be offered a directing position for the film adaptation of the book:
“You know, it was such a great opportunity and such a beautiful two years and everything around Harry Potter – JK Rowling’s creation – is enveloped in this really beneficial energy. I got the benefits of that energy for those two years. So yes I’d be very tempted to do so even though, at this point, I feel a little bit like I have to try to do the films that are not going to exist without me. On the same token, I would be really tempted because it was really beautiful. I just started reading the last book and something I respect is the care the producers have put in the film franchise. It would have been so easy after the success of the series just to take the cynical approach of knowing that no matter what people are going to see those movies. Actually they’ve been taking a lot of care from beginning to end, so yeah I would be really tempted.”
I hope he doesn’t I really do. I tho-ught PoA was the worst of all the HP movies, I hated his direction and I would be really upset if he go his grubby little hands on it.
I really don’t think it’s going to be possible to make DH into one movie- which Cuaron will obviously try to do if given the job. There are way too many beautifully important plotpoints and metaphors to life and real war that I believe almost have to be kept in there. I seriously think if they try to make it into a film they must split it into two because it’s ridiculously long in content and important things; and I really liked the OotP film because it kept almost all of the mainly important things (except the locket, but they can explain that in other ways).
I think HBP will be the best movie of them all because it’s so easily daptable to film by its few important things (Snape/Draco stuff, the Half-Blood Prince book/spells/potions, Harry and Dumbledore’s meetings/final adventure, the Horcruxes/memories, and all those romances, parties, and Quidditch can be the funny/happy stuff). In contrast to DH, HBP felt very short and quick to me. DH is incredibly long and emotionally and physically eventful. I have never been brought to tears so many different times in one reading.
Let’s hope they get someone who can do it justice because I’m quite sick of hearing from Cuaron who left out the most important thing about PoA – Harry’s connection to his father and his father’s true past.
OH! PLEASE NO!
I think he is a very good director , but I don’t want to see him direct the last film.
I liked POA least of ALL the HP films.
It was a nice exspencive Art House film but
little of the real book was captured.
Death Hallows is way too important to get lost
in any vision besides Joe’s.
Either David Yates completes the series after HBP or i would rather see a new director who
is good with emotion, huge scenes and charater study .
No Peter Jackson either , PLEASE!.
King Kong was terriful, except for special effects,and the last book needs a different touch.
I think that Alfonso was great. PoA was not perfect, and I didn’t like the Firebolt ending at all, but other than that and a few other things, I enjoyed the film as a whole. I think that the weakest film of the series is CoS. I LOVED the film when I first saw it, and I was only nine years old. I like the film now, but I certainly don’t love it. For one thing, it feels like a carbon copy of the book. There is a way to remain true to the books without making the film an illustration of the book.
CoS is mostly an illustration, and doesn’t stand on its own as a film. Also, the acting from Dan, Rupert, and Emma wasn’t horrible, but wasn’t that great. I think that Dan was the worst of the three in CoS (and in PS, now that I think of it). He wasn’t putting much effort into his acting back then, he’s WAY better now.
The PS film was a great start of the series, but it had flaws as well. The first two films were good, and they had that “magical” feeling, but they didn’t seem to focus as much on the characters’ emotions.
I think that PoA improved the film series a lot. It really had the “feel” of the books. I’m not upset about some things being changed, since I’m not a fan who complains about EVERYTHING that is different from the book. Cuaron gave the series the “darker” feel that it needed, and he gave Dan’s Harry the right hairstyle, for once. PoA is the first of the HP series that really feels like a FILM. While the first two (more the second, though) felt like illustrations, PoA was faithful without getting everything word-for-word.
Overall, I would really like to see Cuaron for Deathly Hallows. I think that he would do a great job with the Battle of Hogwarts. He wouldn’t be my first pick, though, but he’d be great. Just my opinion, though.
Cuaron? Some of you want him back???? How flat can a learning curve get?
Lest we forget, Mister “I have to try to do the films that are not going to exist without me”, decided on his own that the books needed to be changed from what Jo wrote. Remember these?
Harry’s Patronus couldn’t be the all-important stag, but it needed to be a big blue umbrella!
As if the plot simply wasn’t interesting enough, he decided to turn the movie into “Harry Potter Meets the Wolfman!”
The school year didn’t really need to end with Harry going back to the Dursley’s, despite the fact that it is a mandatory element proven out in the final book!
Dumbledore humming the Mexican Hat Dance? Why?
He was able to take a brilliant experienced cast and somehow get them to do the absolutely worst acting job of any of their careers!
He is the one who superglued Dumbledore into a lovely lavender nightgown!
He fired the real Professor Flitwick and replaced him with a miniature Juan Valdez!
As others have already said: “Shrunken heads”!
Did he not realize that we are actually smart enough to remember where the Whomping Willow and Hagrid’s hut were in the first two movies?
Ugh. I could go on. Please, WB… NO CUARON! My wife and I both agree that David Yates has done the best job of dealing with such huge volumes of material as provided by 900 page novels, often in subtle ways that don’t require twenty minutes of screen time… or worse: Arthur Weasley pulling Harry aside to explain the plot of the movie to him!
btw, I would love for Yates to return as well, but there’s one thing about him that bothers me, and it is the fact that he thinks that 2 hrs. 30 minutes is too long. If David Yates even thinks about trimming DH down to 2 hrs. and 18 minutes, then it’ll be a complete disaster. I think that, even though a lot was cut, that OOTP was an extremely difficult story to trim down. I felt it was more faithful to its book counterpart than GoF was, and GoF was 2 hrs. 37 minutes.
I have the first LOTR movie (I’m not a huge fan and I haven’t read the books, although I’m currently reading the Hobbit), so I might watch it to see if I like his directing style with it. I HATED the King Kong movie, though. It was really boring. I didn’t even watch the whole thing, and I ended up stopping it before King Kong even appeared, It was much too slow-paced, and the best thing about it was the effects. I have seen the first and third LOTR films, though, and from what I remember they are quite good. I’ll see.
I meant that OOTP was NOT an extremely difficult story to trim down. And Anthony, about Hagrid’s Hut’s location, the only reason I wouldn’t like the change is because it ruins the films’ continuity. But in PoA, the location of Hagrid’s hut is closer to the novels. In the first two films, it was too close to Howarts, and it was too small. In PoA, it is bigger and in the right location.
We need someone who can seamlessly combine the action with the emotion, and as Children of Men proves, Cuarón is fantastic at that. I love that movie to pieces and Cuarón’s brilliance is the reason. I would also be very very happy if he brought Emmanuel Lubezki along. That man is a genius of cinematography.
I would be equally excited to have David Yates back. He did a very good job with OOTP, which incidentally is my favorite HP film. And I also think that DH is closest to OOTP in its general tone and emotional backdrop, so he could be a perfect match. Just don’t screw up HBP, Mr. Yates!
Guillermo Del Toro would also be a worthy choice. For explanation, see Pan’s Labyrith. However something tells me WB will not risk a new director for the last film, they would want someone who has proven themselves already, and I think we can rule out Columbus and Newell. DH is simply not their type of material.
For heaven’s sake, Peter Jackson is not going to direct a Potter film, get over it! He’s not going to jump into a franchise where he has to ensure continuity with 4 previous directors, based on a book he most likely wouldn’t be allowed to adapt. That privilege will stay with Kloves or Goldenberg. Besides, he doesn’t work outside New Zealand. And there’s no guarantee that he can get it right as he did with LOTR. See King Kong.
Tim Burton can be ruled out for mostly the same reasons. He’s just not into franchises, especially if he’s not the one creating the vision for them. From what I remember, the studio had major trouble getting him on board for Batman Returns, and he didn’t even want to hear about Planet of the Apes 2. Besides, he’s simply not the right director for HP. I love quite a few of his movies, especially Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands, but his style is nowhere near dramatic enough for Potter. He is a storyteller, and HP has grown past that kind of approach a long time ago.
I just hope WB will be sensible enough to ask John Williams if he would be interested in returning. I’m sure he would say yes. And they could get Michael Goldenberg instead of Kloves. He got closer to a perfect HP adaptation in one go than Kloves did in 4 movies. Although I’m sure that if Kloves wants to do it, he will be the first one to be offered the job.
I am a big film buff and Cuaron was by far the best treatment on the HP franchise. Instead of the campiness of the rest. He’d get my support for the last one – he’d address the scary stuff brilliantly.
I would love to see Cuaron back. I thought his adaptation of POA was beautiful and flowed well. I loved his subtle use of time and changing of the seasons to keep the story moving along. I thought he was very connected and loyal to J.K.’s story and whatever was missing or changed didn’t bother me as much as the changes and omissions in the last 2 films, especially 4. I think Cuaron would do well is Deathly Hallows. But I did like what Yates did for the most part with OOTP, with the exception of Cho being the one who is forced to tell about Dumbledore’s Army, and I think he will do well with HBP so who knows maybe he’ll do the final film. For Deathly Hallows, Cuaron would be my first choice followed by Yates at this point in time. I think they both would do well with the complexity of it. It would be ideal if they collaborated on it. I would love that.
I would like for Alfonso or David to Direct the final Harry Potter film. My main worry is that “Deathly Hallows” will be butchered beyond recognition because it appears to be the most difficult book to be put on screen yet; there are so many scenes that are too relevant to the plot to be cut than there have been in any of the other books.
Cuaron is one of my favorite directors and I loved his Prisoner of Azkaban. In my view, he saved the franchise from the complete artistic emptiness it was facing at the hand of slavishly faithful but cinematically bland Chris Columbus. His look for Hogwarts in particular was a HUGE achievement, and overall PoA was beautifully-filmed, as are all of his movies. He also succeeded in pulling more emotionally compelling performances out of the actors (Yates has been most successful in this department, but the kids were also two years more experienced then). I think that he could do a wonderful job with Deathly Hallows. He gets slammed for coming into the process with some ideas of his own, but that risk-taking quality made the film he directed more alive and…magical. I loved both Prisoner of Azkaban and Order of the Phoenix, and I could take or leave all of the other films (or just plain leave SS/PS and CoS). I’d be exceedingly happy with either Cuaron or Yates for the last movie.
Well, here I go. I’m definately with the minority here. Alfonso Cuaron is a genius! He’s made the only Harry Potter movie that can actually stand on it’s own as a movie. The first two movies were basically the books all over again, with special effects and great sets. They meander through the plot and have very little filmic imagination. Then Alfonso came along and blessed the Harry Potter movies. He made something that had it’s own style. The film NEVER feels disjointed, and is always full of little tiny details. Some of those shots are so well executed!
While reading Deathly Hallows, I kept thinking that he should definately come back to do the film. I think the material suits him, and he would be able to make it a fluid and engrossing film. Anyone doubting him as a great director NEEDS to see Children of Men.
So yes, I would love for Alfonso (I like to think we are on first name terms) to come back!
"Some of the books the Ministry's confiscated... there was one that burned your eyes out. And everyone who read [i]Sonnets of a Sorcerer[/i] spoke in limericks for the rest of their lives. And some old witch in Bath had a book that you could [i]never stop
PETER JACKSON! PETER JACKSON! PETER JACKSON! PETER JACKSON! PETER JACKSON! PETER JACKSON!