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I am very happy with the way David Yates did OOP. The movies will never be as good as the books but he did a wonderful job. I too was very unhappy with PoA, my favorite book but least favorite movie. If Del Toro is of the Cuaron school, he needs to leave DH alone.

GingerLibby: Sorry, I remembered the original scene. I was thinking of the dialogue in the online script, which is the one I read most recently. In the scene Ron is confused because they’d “just been there” (timeturner) and Hermione and Harry quip that they’ve been there the whole time and laugh. Ron is frustrated and flops down into bed. Pan to what must be at least a few days later, Harry gets the firebolt and Ron still doesn’t know what went down. My issues with the scene remain, and I think the one in the movie is actually worse.

I like the team of David Yates and Michael Goldenberg. IMHO OotP was the best HP movie yet made (close to the story),aside from PS, that introduced us to HP world. BUT whoever WB choses to writi and direct the last HP movie it has to be PERFECT and I agree with doublecore,HPDH, Harry’s last, must go out with a bang, it will break all boxoffice records (as been proven previously)

lol if I directed the movie I’d have changed the ending to be a bit more cinematic. (If anyone’s ever played Final Fantasy 10…the ending of that’s how I’d tackle the ending to Deathly Hallows) But meh….his opinion, I guess.

I’ve never been much of a fan of his work in the past but he seems to love the story, hopefully he’d do it justice.

A agree with Doublecore in so far as DH will break box office records no matter who is directing it as all fans will flock to see the last movie, good or bad, I hope its good for its own sake (as well as ours) so it will stand the test of time as a HP classic. Personally I hope its either Yates or new boy Del Toro, as have a feeling he can produce a cracker.

well, personally i think all recent directors did their job very well.columbus is the only one i couldn’t stand.but of course all of the others had their flaws too.and so i think it would be best if del toro would direct the last film. the more different directors the better.

David Yates should direct the last one. these stories are very Dickinson and envolve English school boys. I think Yates really had the feel for the attitude and idionscries of the mentality of the school system.

For those who didn’t like the way Ron and Hermione were shown in the PoA movie, I have news for you: in the books, Ron is basically the comic relief and Hermione is basically the smart one who tells the boys things that they are too dumb to figure out on their own. Nothing to be concerned about really.

And Hermione being proactive in the film is totally consistent with her character. If you listened to the latest podcast, you can hear JK Rowling saying that Hermione is not only smart but brave, and fights even though she has no taste for it, because of her inner courage. That’s pretty much what you see on screen. I’m not saying that just because Jo likes it, you should too; the point is that if you’re ragging on something because it’s not like her world, ask yourself how well you really know it—the spirit, not the letter. That’s what a director needs to figure out.

Sure, PoA has its problems—the ending goes on for too long, and with just a couple of lines of dialogue about the Marauders, the story arc would have been much more complete. Then when I think of OoTP, there isn’t a word about Umbridge sending the Dementors, and that’s the key to 80% of the story! It’s hard to get everything right, and if you ever try to adapt a long and complicated book for the screen, you’ll soon find that out for yourself.

since i listed the omissions in PoA and OotP that cause potential problems with story line continuity across the films, to be thorough i’m just adding here two more

In PS, there was the scene in which Harry read the back of Dumbledore’s Chocolate Frog card aloud, including the bit about Grindelwald. Since we’ve all watched the deleted scenes repeatedly, we know that scene was filmed but noi included in the film…obviously that links to DH.

and, in GoF, the book chapter Weighing of the Wands had the reference to Gregorovich and included Ollivander, both important again in DH. the film scene had the interview with Rita Skeeter but no Ollivander, no Gregorovich.

the only other comment i have is more general: other than in PoA, there hasn’t been much mention in the films of Harry’s eyes looking like Lily’s….

It will be interesting to see how the more essential plot details are fit back in (or not) in the final films….and we have only ten months and 14 days before we get some of the answers…

will orwont, i’d add to your comment that the films were being made before the books were completed, making the process even more challenging. Nice point about Umbridge sending the dementers not being made in the film, i missed that

Del Toro? yes please! I loved Pan’s Labyrinth and I loved Prisoner of Azkaban. All of the other movies (i did like OotP) were too commercial for my liking. Flashy special effects are fun, and definitely add to the overall experience of the film but I’ll take a darkly artistic Deathly Hallows over that any day.

Will or wont: No, the twins are comic relief. Lavender is comic relief. Comic relief is a character who serves little purpose outside bringing humor into the story. A character saying funny things does not make them comic relief. Ron is as fleshed out a character with as many serious traits as Hermione. I personally think he’s the most realistic of the trio, but my opinion on that aside he’s certainly not a joke character just because you laugh at his dialogue sometimes. News? Read DH. Is there any part of the trio dynamic more serious than the subplot with Ron? No. Read GoF, same thing. He is the heart of the trio (JKR’s words). Ron and Hermione have a strong relationship together without Harry, Ron and Harry have an amazing friendship without Hermione. Harry and Hermione have a strong friendship, but without Ron there it’s awkward and they don’t even enjoy each other’s presence. They spend half the time talking about Ron in GoF and in DH him not being there cripples them to such an extreme level. Ron is the glue that holds the trio together. Without him there’s no trio, and I don’t mean that because a trio minus one is no longer a trio. Ron is not a cliche like the movies have turned him into one. He is not stupid like the movies have portrayed him. He is not a “lesser” character than Hermione as the movies have done. I never said Hermione wasn’t brave btw. But actually her being willing to fight despite not being able to handle it well is what I think Jo was going for in her statement and that is not movie Hermione. By insinuating that she has pitted a major character in the role of comic relief and not much more, I think Jo’s writing is undermined. She did not fall into cliches with the trio. The movie took her non-cliched characters and changed them so they were.

I still think the one who captures the true “feeling” of the books was Columbus.

Being comic relief is not the same thing as being a joke character. HP has more joke characters than anyone can count, but Ron’s role is at a different level. Ron shows bravery too, but he isn’t really known for being a jock like the Quidditch stars. It doesn’t bother me to see him being flippant in the books and it doesn’t bother me to see it on film either.

The DH subplot with Ron can be cut almost completely, so can most of the camping trip episode.

The scenes that should be major setpieces for the film are: * Scrimgeour at the Burrow; * escape from Privet drive; * Bill/Fleur wedding; * Deatheaters in the diner; * raid on the Ministry; * visit to Godric’s Hollow; * visit to Xeno’s house; * escape from Malfoy mansion; * raid on Gringotts; * Aberforth at the Hog’s head; * everything from Harry’s return to Hogwarts onwards done VERBATIM to the book (one full hour of screen time at minimum). Every little bit of that part of the book is precious. If a director can do even half of that right it will be an amazing film. And a long one.

As budb noted, it was hard for the first few filmmakers to do these films without much idea of where the series was headed. I bet even Columbus would have done CoS a bit differently if he knew he was dealing with a horcrux.

I wish I knew what makes del Toro think he’s in contention to direct the last one; for some reason, he does seem to think he has a chance if he campaigns for it. Barring a HBP disaster, my guess is that Yates will be offered the job before anyone else, and I think the big, grand finale would be hard to pass up. I know Columbus burned out after two, but to do the very last one…I somehow think Yates will find his second wind. I just don’t want to see del Toro or Cuaron in the director’s chair. I think their styles would be very similar, and I just think PoA was the poorest adaptation. If cinematography and seeing what personal additions a director can make to JKR’s world is what appeals to you, then sure, I understand why you want Cuaron. Hey—we’re all Harry Potter fans, and I think it’s great that each of us likes different ways of interpreting the books. But I’m more into sticking with the plot and getting the characterization right, not someone like del Toro who has said he wants to do things on his own terms (which is a red flag to me that has some very controversial plans that JKR wouldn’t particularly like).

Re: the discussion about Ron, I think his portrayal was most spot on in Sorcerer’s Stone and in Order of the Phoenix. Hopefully that’s the Ron we’ll see from here on out! When you say they could cut the Ron sub-plot, do you mean his leaving Harry and Hermione? I can’t see cutting that, if that’s what you mean. There are so many reasons to keep that in, and it said so much about his character…but I’m sorry if I missed something and that’s not what you meant! will orwont, I actually thought the destruction of the diary was pretty good! :) Ah well, that’s just me; I thought it indicated the appropriate amount of importance. But on the other hand, Tom Riddle (while Harry was stabbing the diary) was pretty cheesy….

Will or Wont: Ron not being a Quidditch star means he’s comic relief? I don’t get your statement here? Ron is not “flippant” in the movies though (which all of the trio is rather flippant from time to time actually- Harry has a rather morbid sense of humor for example). He’s rather stupid and has no purpose outside of being comic relief, a joke character. All of his more serious traits go to other characters or are cut, and he’s just a big goofball who happens to be Harry’s funny friend. Ron was as GinaC said, portrayed pretty well in PS/SS and OotP. It’s one of the reasons I liked OotP quite bit. Ron said funny things from time to time in it, but his purpose in the movie was not to be funny. Hermione is often very funny in the books as well, but no one would call her comic relief. What about Luna? Same difference. I just don’t know how it can be argued that movie Ron is close to canon Ron. Neville spends most of the first five books being funny but he’s certainly not comic relief.

The core PLOT can go on in DH without almost any of the trio relationship dynamic points she brings into the story. They could cut Hermione/Ron, they could cut Harry/Ginny. They could cut out every bit of story that explored the relationships amongst the trio in DH and still have a movie. It would be a very very bad one though. Rowling’s strength even more than plot is characterization and in my opinion and that is something that the movies suffer from GREATLY as they cut so many vital characterization points. The emotion is so often lost.

As for your outline- Bill and Fleur’s wedding could be cut as easily as anything else, and replaced with a generic DE attack. Actually being that Bill has not been cast and Fleur wasn’t asked back for HBP, it seems pretty definite it will be cut. Yes, the emotion would be lost but if you’re okay with cutting the intensely emotional Ron subplot that doesn’t seem like it’s as much of consequence here. Similarily, Godric’s Hollow could be cut and Harry’s wand broken in one of the random DE attacks or when the snatchers get them. Sure it would be nice to see James and Lily’s graves and the frightening Bathilda scene but a condensation of the Dumbledore plot (which I have no doubt will happen) would make it easy to cut Bathilda entirely. The visit to Xeno’s house is certainly not more important than the Ron subplot. Hermione has the book with the “Tale of Three Brothers” in it, and there’s no saying they couldn’t find out about the hallows through that and perhaps another book she has with her. Aberforth at the Hog’s Head will be condensed a lot, I have no doubt. It’s not appropo for a movie to have some just sitting there talking for twenty minutes. I don’t see how any of these storylines are more important than the Ron plot. Cutting them would be just as easy, if not more so.

The main problem with the Ron plot is that the leadup is just not there in the movies. Ron’s insecurities are scarcely touched upon (and just having him nervous over quidditch in HBP won’t begin to cover the buildup they’ve lost), and if they don’t start characterizing better the plot would just come across random. And that’s unfortunate, because it would just show that them playing the characters so differently than Rowling forces them to, once they get to the end, have to cut some of the best material in all of the books.