There is more news today on the decision to make two movies out of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Screenwriter Steve Kloves has given a new interview to the Baltimore Sun, where he discusses the decision to split the book into two films, and says they had been considering to do this originally for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire . In an email to the paper Steve Kloves says “Years ago,” he writes, “we briefly — and seriously — considered doing Goblet of Fire as two films. So this concept is not altogether new.”
Steve Kloves, who is the screenwriter for the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and will pen the scripts for both of the “Deathly Hallows” movies, continued on to explain that early after the release of book seven they started thinking of splitting the seventh Harry Potter book for two films. Quotage is as follows: “As for Deathly Hallows, I intuited — almost from the first moments I began reading it and certainly once I’d finished — that to realize the story in a single film was going to be a tall order. Others in ‘the group’ felt similarly. So the idea of two films began to get kicked around as early as late summer of 2007. We didn’t take it lightly. But ultimately everyone felt that despite the challenges it would present, it was the most sound creative decision. I’m sure some will think we’re crazy. My wife looked at me cross-eyed when I first mentioned it. But I’m really excited about it because it should allow us to stretch a bit with the characters and give them the proper send-off. The story is highly emotional and those moments deserve time to breathe. And, personally, I feel we owe it to Jo — in order to preserve the integrity of the work — and the fans — for their loyalty all these years — to give them the best and most complete experience possible. I’d love to do it in three parts!” And for good measure, Kloves adds that working with Order of the Phoenix director David Yates on the currently filming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince “was a brilliant experience, so this should be a treat!”
As we’ve reported here and here, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” will be made as two films. Starring Dan Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson and under the direction of David Yates, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One will be released in theaters “holiday” 2010, with Part Two due May or Summer of 2011. The sixth film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is currently in production in England, with a release date set for November 21, 2008.
I’m really glad they are paying tribute to Rowling’s work by making two films out of DH! It has to happen if there’s a great story, it needs time and depths. I’m also glad Radcliffe approves, instead of wishing that it should all be over soon. I’m also ready to believe them somehow that they are doing it for creative and not purely for commercial reasons…
Yes!! I love Steve Kloves! Actually, GoF was fine as a single film, I had thought if they wanted to split, they’d have split OotP, even though, Caracticus, I agree with the S.P.E.W thing :D
But splitting Deathly Hallows was absolutely necessary, considering the numerous sub plots which were too important for the story and can’t be cut off. As of the division, I still think they’ll do it around the time Ron finishes off the first horcrux and the trio get reunited. Gosh, I’m squeeing again!!
The only thing I really disliked about GOF was the way they changed the Quidditch World Cup DE attack, which I thought was an unnecessary change. The rest I thought was fine.. I’m struggling to think what they could have added to the film to make it into a two parter. I don’t care much for Hermione’s elf subplot. I suppose more of the Rita Skeeter stuff would have been good, especially about Hagrid and her last ‘Harry is an attention seeker’ article; Ron and Harry finding out about Hagrid being half giant at the Ball (because I thought Ron’s reaction to it compared to Harry’s was quite telling about wizard prejudices). But I can’t think of enough to make two films. They could have shortened the dragon bit to add the Skeeter stuff.
OotP, I don’t think would work as a two parter, because it’s a single story about Harry’s inner stuggle. I do wish they’d made it a bit longer to do justice to the Dursleys and added some of the postWeasley and teacher rebellion. Or at least put those scenes onto the deleted scenes instead of the rubbish they did put on the dvd. That’s all really (personally I prefer the film MOM compared to the book, to translate the whole book version to film would have made it interminable). I’m hoping we get to see Snape’s worst memory in the last film.
I think DH is the first that could really work as a two parter, and I’m really pleased because it is my favourite book and I’m now hopeful we’ll get a good innings with The Prince’s Tale!
This is great! Although the release dates are SO far apart from one another. That must mean that the film will be spectacular though…I’m glad we have a smart group of people running this franchise :D
{people, Hermione and Ron being so completely and totally out of character is 75% Kloves fault, 25% director’s fault}
That’s odd, redreh, because I’ve read the original shooting script for PoA (it’s online), and there was no mention of super-Hermione or super-wimpy-Ron at all—I thought they were pretty on-character. Ron even sacrificed himself to save the others from the Grim.
However it happened, I will admit that the characters in the final version of the PoA film were a bit off from how they are in the book—but I still enjoyed the film very much, because I don’t take such things so seriously. It’s only a movie after all, the books are not harmed by them. I also agree that it was refreshing to see such a canon-Ron in OotP.
Great, 2 movies of camping out w/ the Trio. Can’t wait.
Of all the books to split, DH? GOF or OotP would’ve made a much more logical choice to split into 2 movies. But DH? Let’s face it, there’s a lot of tightening up that can be done to the books.
i still hope they cut it off at the tale of three brothers, call the first one deathly hallows, and the second one elder wand. seeing as the elder wand is the only deathly hallow harry does not prosess when xenophilius tells harry about the hallows.
I agree with Squibby on GoF—they could have cut the stupid dragon scene and put WAY more stuff in that movie!
I am concerned about “preserving the integrity” of the book—are they going to be able to capture everything properly, like Dobby’s fate, and Kreacher’s tale of the locket, etc.? I mean, to get the proper impact of Dobby’s death, they are probably kicking themselves for removing him from the fourth and fifth movies. I bet he’s not even in the sixth movie, which makes me wonder if they’ll cut his death from the seventh movie.
Unfortunately, I have become cynical about the movies and don’t have much confidence in their abilities to do these amazing books justice. Of course I’ll still see them on opening day, though!
@ Erik: Completely agree. I basically treat the movies as a visual encyclopedia to the books. CoS was the last movie to have any resemblance to the books.
I know a lot of non-book readers who gave up on the movies after PoA and GoF made no sense whatsoever. I’ve said this for the last few years, that I feel sorry for anyone who sees the film and hasn’t read the books. They must be completely lost.
Take a look at the books lined up on a book shelf. Each one gets progressively thicker and thicker – yet they try to cram each one into the same timeframe. It just isn’t going to work.
I do have high hopes for HBP however, since most of that book was filler – a 2 or 2.5 hour running time should make for a pretty tightly paced movie.
Would have made more sense to have cut GOF into two than DH. There’s more going on and the tension could have built and the gap been good for building excitement. I can’t see where they could put a satisfactory cut in DH and keep people interested. There’s a lot of quiet time where the trio are just camping and I found those bits quite dull in places. There’s not a dull moment in GOF (the book I mean, there was plenty in the film) and it would have been great if they’d cut it in half after the first task, with perhaps a lingering shot on the egg as the celebrations went on.
I dunno, I don’t get these people. They’ve screwed up the story and it bothers me that cos I adore a couple of the actors I still watch the films but still end up disappointed. Jo should have been a lot firmer with them from the beginning.
They should have done the same with GoP, because IMHO it was the worst of all movies… it looked like a video clip, with no character development and no loyalty to the true spirit that we felt when reading the book.
It’s interesting you’ve mentioned reading a PoA script online. Normally those things are very classified and tough to get to. (Right now I’m actually looking for a libretto for Spamalot and there is NONE to be found, which breaks my heart…) I’d be interested to read it myself, can you tell me where? Also, not to cast total doubt over your comment, but online scripts of things cannot always be trusted unless its from a reputable site. First hand script copies (that is, copies before editing/change) are things that, usually, only the Library of Congress (or something like it) would have.
And yes, I know, that rant was a little chaotic, and very mis-spelled. But I do feel very strongly about the books and the characters, thus the rant.
Whether or not Hermione was “super-ed up” in script, it cannot be denied that the bounty of wonderful lines for Ron (and Dumbledore) were passed to her for no real reason other than because Kloves has noted she’s his favourite character, his go-to girl when he can’t figure out where to fit a line (despite the fact that that line was said in a book by a different character.) This happened way back with CoS and continued all the way through GoF. The worst instance I can think of is in PoA, when Hermione says Ron’s line “If you want to kill Harry, you’ll have to kill us too.”
Ron is meant to say that. Broken leg and all. He’s not meant to whimper—the share of support is BETWEEN the two, not solely on Hermione’s shoulders.
I mostly just feel that, despite all the out of character-ness, there is no reason, NO reason at all, for lines from one character to be blatantly given to another, especially when the appropriate character is there within the scene. If he does that, he’s not truly paying homage to JK’s work, but saying, “I think Hermione should have said this, not Ron.”
I mean, just look at Lord of the Rings. It is widely agreed to be one of the best renditions of book to film ever made; I would personally have to agree. They were not perfect, they did change Faramir’s character slightly (but within that they still managed to capture his essence and his heart). The changes to Ron and Hermione have left all that out. Ron is wimpering and cowardly, not brave and loyal as he is in the books. Hermione is all-conquering and confident, not insecure (which she is, deep down, which is why she over-compensates with knowledge, even JKR has said so) and stressed. I adore to no end book-Hermione; she is endearing and powerful in her humanity. I adore book-Ron for the same reasons. I find that I just don’t care for their portrayal in the movies (with the exeption of OotP), whether that be writer’s fault or director’s fault, or even actor’s fault.
Back to Lord of the Rings: they had at least four writers at one time working on a way to take the book and translate it to screen, honor the writer, and honor the fans. For a movie as big as Harry Potter, I feel that the fans were not honored at all.
My bottom line is: Kloves sure as hell isn’t helping the movie situation. Goldenburg, or heck, a collaboration between the two, which is really all I wanted, would have been better.
“Ron is wimpering and cowardly, not brave and loyal as he is in the books. Hermione is all-conquering and confident, not insecure (which she is, deep down, which is why she over-compensates with knowledge, even JKR has said so) and stressed. I adore to no end book-Hermione; she is endearing and powerful in her humanity. I adore book-Ron for the same reasons.”
That’s a pretty perfect summary. Though I don’t have such strong feelings as you because I love the films and they led me to the books not the other way round, Ron’s ‘wimpering’ is starting to annoy me when I rewatch the films. I do really hope they get Hermione’s softness into DH, because that’s when I really fell in love with her book character and I will be disappointed if it doesn’t come across in the film. She is very insecure and her knowledge acts as her comforter, plus she also has a weakness, which is that she can’t do intuitive wizard thinking when under pressure (Harry’s strength).
I think the part when they arrive at Grimmauld Place and encounter ‘dust Dumbledore’ is the most telling summary about their three characters. Harry is almost unphased and reacts calmly and instinctively, Hermione is cowering in terror, and Ron is a little shaky but shields her. Then Hermione, once she’s calmed down, uses her knowledge to test whether anyone’s there.
Thats alil bit good news but the thing that i dont like about it is the times they r coming out. What im meaning is there is like a 6 month waiting time between part 1 & part 2 which means part 1 will be on DVD by time part 2 comes out to the movies. Im happy that they choice to make 2 parts that way the Final Battle will be like an hour or more long. :)
I’m really glad they are paying tribute to Rowling’s work by making two films out of DH! It has to happen if there’s a great story, it needs time and depths. I’m also glad Radcliffe approves, instead of wishing that it should all be over soon. I’m also ready to believe them somehow that they are doing it for creative and not purely for commercial reasons…