And yeah, I'm also tossing out the obvious choice--Micheal Bay.
No, I'm just kidding.
The obvious choice is Peter Jackson.
He's already proven he can handle the kind of massive chaotic battle scenes that end this book, while still focusing on the acts of individuals in the battle.
Any other ideas? Objections to Jackson?
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I don't object to Jackson but I do think people will say they brought in a ringer if he does do it.
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Because I am still angry over his character assassinations of Faramir and Treebeard. He's proven he has a less than ideal understanding of mythic archetypes, and I don't want him touching any more of my beloved stories.
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Yes, because he's cool, and he had a not so bad reason for those things and other things. If not him, then the dude that directed Pan's Labyrinth, please. He understands the darkness of fairy tales.
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I think the franchise would benefit if they brought Alfonso Cuaron back in for the final movie. It might not happen.
They will need to get a strong writer and a strong director because they'll screw it up if they don't. It would be a bit disappointed if the adaptation of the last book turned out to be a pile of Hippogriff crap.
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Wasn't Cuaron's film the lowest earning movie in the franchise?
I'm actually pretty pleased with the most recent director and screenwriter. They might have gotten lucky but if they can turn out a good version of Half-Blood Prince, then I'd be happy to see them stick around for the final movie.
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Yes, Cuaron's was. I hate Peter Jackson with a verngence, he's absolutely dreadful in my own opinion. I liked the first two movies the best. Chris Columbus for me. I think he could step up to the task. Personally, due to the character depth, and other things, Deathly Hallows will be the hardest to turn into a good movie.
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Cuaron would be fine with me, I think he's been the best yet.
If not him, then I support Tim Burton, who I think it is a travesty that he has not been tapped to make one of these yet.
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Ugh. I think Tim Burton would stylize it to death. Everything would be all bleak and purple-hued.
Cuaron did an excellent job, but I also loved David Yates and the recent screen writer. I wouldn't be sad at all if they stuck around for Deathly Hallows.
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Burton or Jackson would be a disaster. I just hope the keep that idiot that wrote the screenplay for OOtP away from Deathly Hallows. David Yates did an adequete job of being the BBC version of Chris Columbus, so I'll be content to trudge through his dull low budget style/representation of half blood prince in the hopes that the film series will get back on track for the last film.
fwiw, Del Toro (Pan's labyrinth) was offered Order of the Phoenix first but he turned it down to do PL instead.
Even though Azkaban isn't my favorite film, I'd pick Cuaron for the final flick. he could really bring off the visuals, but I'd prefer Mike Newell back since he's the only director to really get the heart and spirit of the character relationships on the screen.
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Cuaron was the best director so far. His film had the best performances from the three lead actors, aside from Radcliffe in "Order of the Phoenix" (which I think had more to do with Radcliffe's own improvement as an actor than with better direction), and his visual style perfectly captures the Potterverse.
Joss Whedon has expressed interest in the past. He doesn't quite have Cuaron's eye for imagery, but nobody does better dramatic death scenes, and he has a knack for pulling nuanced performances even out of the most wooden actor.
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quote:Wasn't Cuaron's film the lowest earning movie in the franchise?
Perhaps, but it was Rowling's favorite, or at least she sure made it sound that way in one interview I read. She said he put things in that foreshadowed where the series was going. I'm not sure what she meant.
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I personally would like to see M. Night Shamalayan get another chance to direct Harry Potter. He turned down the first movie to do Unbreakable and I know it eats him up on occasion.
Cuaron was just fine, but I don't think he did an especially amazing job with Harry Potter. The shrunken heads REALLY annoyed me. The idiocy of completly removing the tension between Harry and Hermione by NOT having her get his broom confiscated was compounded by the fact that they just seem to toss Harry his broomstick at the end when there just does not seem to be a point to it at the end.
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I'd like to see Night direct something he hasn't written before giving him a shot at an established franchise. Has he?
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If he could keep his ego in check, it could be interesting.
I doubt he can, though. He's ruin it with a diatribe about lousy wizards who don't love Malfoy's poetry and then impose his own face over Daniel Radcliffe's for the final showdown.
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quote:Originally posted by Javert Hugo: If he could keep his ego in check, it could be interesting.
I doubt he can, though. He's ruin it with a diatribe about lousy wizards who don't love Malfoy's poetry and then impose his own face over Daniel Radcliffe's for the final showdown.
lol. The former couldn't happen because the director doesn't write the screenplay, though I suppose he could decide to make that scene on the fly. I COULD see the latter happening Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I really hope they don't let Cuaron anywhere near this franchise again. I can't believe that Rowling suggested he put in a lot of foreshadowing. I thought that was the worst of the movies so far (haven't seen number 5) and I felt it sacrificed a lot of stuff that actually did have relevance in later stories (I can't remember what now as I haven't watched or read Azkaban in quite a while). It didn't feel at all faithful to the book to me. Some of this could have been the screenplay but I don't think it all could have.
I don't know who I would pick to direct it. I loved Pan's Labyrinth and could see Del Toro pulling it off. I just hope they don't get a directory who is more interested in style than substance (which I think was a problem with Azkaban).
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I don't think 3 was NEARLY as bad as 4. Four would have been so much better if they had done something about those ridiculous dippiness factors. "Send word to Azkaban, indeed" Why did they DO that? Grah, I am not feeling the movies.
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Jackson. What he did with LotR was amazing. If he did Deathly Hallows, I can guarantee that it would be the most amazing visually. Also it would very likely be the most emotional. I mean, he really made me feel for King Kong, which is a feat. It would also probably be really really long. Not a bad thing in my book. Failing Jackson, back to Curan. I liked 3 a lot, and he seems to understand how to direct actors extremely well. Wild card pick (just go with me on this) is Quentin Tarantino. The guy knows action and dialogue like nobody's business.
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If Q Tarantino did the movie, the HP kids would be cussing and shooting guns and then sitting around talking about Quarter Pounders and then ninja would appear with swords and stuff.
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Well if we're following stereotypes, the dialogue in a Joss Whedon Harry Potter movie would be beyond ridiculous.
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I dunno, Rowling's dialogue often feels to me like Britishfied Whedon-lite, especially when she's writing sardonic characters like the Weasley twins. She has that same love of worldplay, and a similar ability to poke fun at her own creation.
Considering how well he wrote the British characters of Giles and Wesley, and that his original background was in movie script doctoring (i.e. the guy who takes a script and punches up the dialogue), I think a Joss Whedon take on Rowling's 'verse would be fantastic. In fact, I think it could actually be an improvement on the original, since Whedon writes far better dramatic dialogue than Rowling.
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I'll agree Cuaron did the best directing, but I thought the last movie is the best. I know some people have complained, but I loved it. So I wouldn't mind if they keep Yates for the last one. He is already doing HBP. Book 5 was too long and had a lot of fluff. Cutting all that out made the movie much better.
The problem is books 6 & 7 don't have much fluff so I think the writer will be more important than the director in the last two movies. It's going to be very difficult to communicate half of what happens in 2.5 hours of screen time in a way that people can understand.
You know in the last movie the director is going to want to spend a lot of time on the final battle. They will be able to do some really cool visuals, but I am worried they will just gloss over the deaths. Plus the Kings Crossing scene will be hard to do without being hokey.
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I agree on the point that Whedon and Rowling share similar tastes in humor. So much of the great dialogue from the books has been left out in the movies and while most of it may be unimportant to the central plot, I think Whedon would do a nice job of incorporating some to bring laughter back to the story. The last one is going to be so dark that we're gonna need a few moments of lightness to keep from getting completely depressed and numb to the action.
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"Donnie Darko" director Richard Kelly. I remember being super excited for Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell because it listed "Donnie Brasco" on his filmography and I subconsiously read "Donnie Darko". Don't get me wrong, Donnie Brasco was a great movie, but its style bears less resemblance to what I want Harry Potter to feel like than does Donnie Darko.
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quote:Originally posted by SteveRogers: I think two directors who need to be put on the ballot are Spike Lee and Mel Gibson.
HA! Spike Lee would show Harry marching off to dumbledore looking like he's floating.
There also would be a long diatribe about race thrown somewhere in there and jazzy saxophone music. Also Spike Lee would have to be in the movie playing Ron with a red wig.
As for Mel Gibson, lots and lots of violence. I haven't even SEEN the movies he's directed but I know I'd be on the couch covering my eyes going eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
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I agree with the Whedon idea, he has a thing for strong women and IMO Hermione has not been shown to her potential in the movies. With book 7 proving she is a friggin genius, I think only someone who has experience pulling off strong women characters could make Emma not look absolutely ridiculous with some of the stuff she will have to do. Not to mention his love for flawed angsty type characters. I feel one of the most pivotal chapters in the book was the Prince's tale, and to really feel the necessary emotions associated with such a chapter you have to really understand Snape, which I think was completely botched in this last film. Snapes worst memory needed to be played in its entirety, or people who have not read the books will never be able to understand Snapes motives. Without his motive, his character is unbelievable.
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Snape has been generally botched and underplayed to the extreme in the movies if you ask me. He's just not mean enough. He's kinda goofy if anything. Don't get me wrong, I love Alan Rickman, I just don't like how he's portraying Snape. I think he could do an excellent Snape. But I haven't seen it yet.
But that aside, can I second, third, fourth and fifth the Whedon idea? Can we have him do screenplay and directing? Personally I think he'd be just about perfect to do Harry Potter, cause his stuff generally has almost exactly the right tone for it. My only reservation is that he doesn't generally do his best stuff in movies. He does better with TV where he has room to breath.
You know what? Can we just remake the entire Harry Potter movie series as a TV series? Books 1 and 2 can be a season, books 3,4,5,6 and 7 can all have their own seasons. And we can get Joss Whedon to do the whole thing. That'd be brilliant if you ask me. The movies have sucked near as I can tell because you just can't cram those books into 2 or 3 hours and do it right. But if you take a 22 episode season, you just about could. And I think they'd work fairly well in episodic format. After all they encompass an entire year each, they're pretty much written in episodic fashion -- each chapter's an episode.
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I wonder how good Whedon would be when working with somebody else's story. I'm afraid that we'd be disappointed.
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I dunno, I think he'd do alright with this one. It's close enough to him in sensibilities that I think he could pull it.
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I bet Ginny would actually start to show some character and get some lines with him at the helm. Not that it would help much if he got the seventh movie, cause she doesn't get to do much in that one at all anyway. I'm a wee bit grumpy at Rowling about that. Ginny started actually being a character in books 5 and 6 and doing stuff, and then Rowling goes and just removes her -- along with the vast majority of supporting characters actually -- for the most of the seventh book.
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I don't think people would watch a whole 22 episode tv season if they knew how it would turn out.
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In order to fill seven seasons, there would have to be a great deal more than Rowling's story. I don't want the fan fiction to be become canon.
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quote: Also, Gore Verbinski of "Pirates" fame, Bryan Singer (X-Men and X2), or Sam Raimi (Spider-Man)
Sam Raimi? Oh yeah, then we could have the gratuitous b-movie horror scene a la Doc Oc killing all the medical staff. "Harry Potter" really needs a zoom-in shot of Hermione screaming her head off while clawing at her own eyes. Maybe if Raimi didn't feel like he HAS to give a nod to the Evil Dead series in every single movie. Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Synesthesia: If Q Tarantino did the movie, the HP kids would be cussing and shooting guns and then sitting around talking about Quarter Pounders and then ninja would appear with swords and stuff.
Well, there was a lot more cussing in this book.
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