Some people seem to have random things they want to discuss, so here is the space…
Please note SPOILERS if you are offering them… and really make them stand out, especially if you are chancing ruining someone’s Potter reading experience.
amit on: Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
Christian on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: Review: Marriage Story (spoilers only in the broadest sense)
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
YancySkancy on: Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
Hcat on: Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: I Should Be Doing Box Office
Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree
Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
Review: Marriage Story (spoilers only in the broadest sense)
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
So I just finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I’ve come to the conclusion that it will have to be two movies. One released in the summer, the second part in the fall, like the Matrix films. There is just so much in Hallows that in order to do it justice, two films, I believe, is necessary. Good luck to the poor bastard who’s got to direct it. I say Danny Boyle…
Why Boyle? Does the book have a really good ending in need of someone to totally screw it up?
I just finished Harry Potter as well, but I will say that it should definitely be ONE movie and that the story needs some major fixing.
I finished it yesterday: it was great fun. I would have to agree with you. Mr. Gittes, that two pictures are required, especially as they will have to use the Snape flasback or ruin the ending. The movie-makers have have rather shot themselves in the foot by not including the earlier one in Order of the Phoenix, which will now have to be insered into Half-Blood Prince, but that is busy enough as it is. Hmm. If they do make two films I would seperate them at the the obvious point in Gringotts and make it a cliffhanger.
I agree with Chris — they can do it as one (long-ish) movie because there is a lot of fat they can cut out in the middle. Start with all of the sneaking/chasing/retreat scenes with Harry and Hermione and/or Ron. Continue with the forest brooding.
It’ll be tougher than some of the other books because there’s less inconsequential crap (like Quidditch), but there’s also cuttable stuff in Half-Blood Prince; maybe that can make way for a little bit of Deathly Hallows material (though I doubt the filmmakers will dare perform even that kind of minor shuffling).
Again… please… spoiler warnings!!!
I have no idea what significance a “Snipe flashback” has, but I don’t want to find out by mistake either.
And – of course, there is no chance that it won’t be seven movies, since there is almost a billion in profits to share from each film.
I hope there is some Hermione stuff going on. I haven’t read the books (I should). But in the movies, Hermione all but disappears and functions only as a support net for Harry. I personally don’t find Harry to be the most interesting character. But does Harry die? That’s what I want to know.
Yes, Bip. They all do. But
S P O I L E R
in the epilogue Harry is reincarnated as a rat who performs magic in a Parisian restaurant.
IAN!!!!! I need the truth.
Do they? It’s not nice to tease an old lady.
I can’t tell you the real ending, BiP. I sold it to Jeff Wells. If you hurry you can catch him while he’s motorcyling around LA grade schools roaring it out at the top of his lungs.
I was on the phone when I read your post and I starting laughing inappropriately. Thanks a lot!
Wells will eventually triumph over the spoiler alert. Isn’t there some website that is nothing but spoilers?
Does Harry get laid, though, that’s the real question.
Harry “experiments” with Ron Weasely and the two are discovered by Maggie Smith. It’s a very uncomfortable read.
BTW, I remember when Order of the Phoenix came out and the outcry that such a huge book had to split into two movies. Same shit, different day. It will be one film.
No, I don’t think it’s the same shit. The whole point to the Order of the Phoenix was the last couple chapters or so. The rest was filler. Whereas in Hallows, all kinds of things are happening to serve the plot, from beginning to end.
Am I the only one who likes spoilers? Yet I’m still not able to find a good source for spoilers on this book. Googling it comes up with hundreds of newsy-links about fans wary of spoilers, but no good sites with the actual spoilers.
“Start with all of the sneaking/chasing/retreat scenes with Harry and Hermione and/or Ron.”
So now Rowling is stealing from Doctor Who? That woman is shameless.
^ I’m sure that’s why Russell T Davies asked her to write an episode last season. She said no, but apparently the offer is still there.
That’s…scary (guess I don’t spend enough time websurfing).
And I thought I was just making a funny, since the basic structure of every old-school episode is:
Arrive
Investigate
Get captured
Escape
Get captured
Escape
Get captured
Escape
Resolution
Departure
Here’s the 3:10 To YUMA poster. Absolutely fab.
http://www.comingsoon.net/imageGallery/imageGallery.php?large_image=hr_3:10_to_Yuma_4.jpg&id=17086
bipedalist
If you just want to know the ending, you can read it on wikipedia.
One movie definitely, don’t want to spread that intensity too thin!
But at least 3h. I mean, what can you cut? Not the Dursleys… not the wedding (not a spoiler that, if you read book 6 you know book 7 has to start with that)… perhaps a bit of Kreacher? and some of the running around… Christmas? Can’t eliminate Dolores Umbridge, however short her sequence is it’s essential!!! (and who would want to lose her delicious evilness?) Scrimgeaour’s visit could be cut… Ollivander ditto…
Or maybe it’s not as intense as I thought… but after 8h straight of reading, ending at 5am… I am in 100% Potter mode!
Anyhow, definitely a 3h movie… with all the flashbacks… and the epilogue as an added bonus (
Glad they had that little clock there, ’cause by reading his arms it looks more like 5:47.
Definitely one movie. There’s a lot of great stuff, but so much that can be cut.
MINOR SPOILER
The problem with this book is that so much happens outside Hogwarts that it’s not going to seem as magical on screen. Don’t get me wrong, it’s magical, but there’s a big difference between having the school as the backdrop and having London and various campsites as a backdrop.
MINOR SPOILER
The absence of Hogwarts is one of the things that makes the book so effective. Being tied to Hogwarts hurt HBP, since it was kept more in form than substance there. I’m sure they can have scenes at Hogwarts in the movie (before they get there), but I’m glad we’ll be seeing less of it.
MINOR SPOILER
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the setting of the book. It works well.
I know several people who only know Potter via the films and I’ve been surprised how much they attribute their enjoyment of the films to the look of the settings–not the special effects (though they are amazing), but the magical backdrop to the movie (enchanted rooms with moving pictures, ghosts flying around, magical forests, etc.). You know how the scenes at the Dursey’s or flying around London can be cool, but they just seem to have a different tone than the rest of the film.
Of course there will still be some of that in HP7’s movie, but it’s gonna FEEL a lot less magical since they’re spending so much time in the Muggle world.
Reminds me of an article I read a few days ago from a writer who said she simply adores the concept of British boarding schools and feels deep regret that she never had an opportunity to attend one, and these feelings all came because of Potter–even though she had been told by many who had firsthand knowledge of the places that Hogwarts is NOTHING like a real boarding school. I think it was Neil Gaiman himself who said, roughly, that British boarding schools are bastions of bullying, beatings and buggery.
So she came off as no better than Kitty Kelley, who was madly in love with Sinatra even though she knew all his dirty secrets.
“I think it was Neil Gaiman himself who said, roughly, that British boarding schools are bastions of bullying, beatings and buggery.”
The most common historical analogy for them is ancient Sparta. That should tell you all you need to know.