Heyman: Goldenberg Tried Out for Philosopher’s Stone

Below is our last interview bit from Harry Potter Producer David Heyman at the Prisoner of Azkaban DVD launch, where TLC asked him about Michael Goldenberg, the new screenwriter for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

TLC: What led you to Goldenberg?
Heyman: Michael is someone who I have been a fan of for a long time. I’ve read his scripts and seen his films for a while, Contact, and the like. He was somebody who I’d been speaking to for a while.

Actually, he wrote some pages on spec for me for Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone, and I liked those pages but we were already in discussion with Kloves and I was very happy we went with Kloves. But Michael was the first person I thought of when coming to the fifth.

We approached Kloves – he decided not to because he’s a director as well as a writer and he made the decision that he wanted to write and direct. Fortunately he’s doing it for me; he’s writing this project called The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time for me, so I feel very, very fortunate that we’re carrying on.”

TLC: Are there any stylistic differences between him and Kloves you can talk about?
Heyman: It’s too early to tell. Hopefully it will continue to be in the spirit of the book. The scripts are in the spirit of the books and that will continue.”

There is definitely still more from the Azkaban DVD launch on the way.