David Yates talks HRH final scene, J.K. Rowling in new interview


Potter director David Yates recently spoke with Manila Bulletin about his experience making four of the HP movies, about Dan, Rupert and Emma's final scene together, J.K. Rowling, and his future plans. Here are some excerpts (he gives a bit of a spoiler about the end of Deathly Hallows Part 2):

You came into the series at sort of that middle point. When did you realize the magnitude of the fan base. And what did you think about it? It was probably a phase in the cycle around about this stage when you do your interviews and you meet the press and walk up the red carpet. Obviously, you notice the fact that it’s globally popular, but it’s just when the fans come from Mexico or Argentina and camp out all night, you realize what it means to them. And it’s a huge responsibility, actually. Also, there are massive expectations on every movie, and in a curious way, you do your very best with the film. And I’m very proud of this film.

On the last day with Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, when they were on set together and filmed their final scene, what was that like? We shot the scene on the viaduct, outside Hogwarts, and it was really peaceful. It was a really sunny day. It was all backlit. And it’s a very tender scene where they sort of reflect on everything that’s happened, all the battles and everything, and they hold hands, and the camera falls away. It’s a really tender, lovely scene. I said to them, ‘Look, guys, this is the last scene we’re all going to do with you three together in front of the camera. So, it’s not just the last scene of these three characters in the movie, this is your last scene in this series of films. That’s what today is about.’ And it infused it with a kind of emotion which was really moving actually.

Did you ever talk to Jo Rowling about adapting these books and the choices you made, particularly in terms of its contemporary feel? We never had a big conversation about that because it was very present in the book. She read the script and she was totally cool about the way we’d adapted it. She was always just very enthusiastic about the whole first script, generally. But she’s been really helpful and we had a good chat about a couple of scenes in Part 2. I asked her, ‘What were you thinking when you wrote these scenes?’ And she was really helpful.

Jo was a producer on this film, so how was that? How was her expanded role on it? You know, it hasn’t really changed from the other movies, honestly. She’s just always our biggest supporter. And always very graceful and kind and I think, because she’s been there throughout, it was time her name was up there. She wants to be up there with us; it’s a real privilege.

Do you have another movie brewing after all this? I’ve got so many scripts coming in, I can’t tell you. In fact, I told them to stop sending them. [Laughs] Because I haven’t read any of them. They’re just all piled up. But I’m so ambitious, I can’t tell you. It’s a strange thing about Harry Potter because I don’t feel any sense of ownership, in a way. I don’t feel territorial about it. I feel it’s a bit of a national treasure that I’m curating. For everything I can enter, I try and do my very best. And I’m very proud of the work I’ve done. But post-Potter, my career sort of starts again really. And I won’t feel like I’ve made four of the biggest films in the world. I’ll feel like, ‘Well, that’s it. I’ve done Potter now.’ And I’ll have all these beautiful scripts and I can begin in a way. That’s my plan. And I’m going to do big things and tiny little things. And they won’t have wizards in them.

No wizards? No wizards.

You can read the whole interview here. Thanks to Snitchseeker for the tip.

Posted on 15 Jun 2011 by Tom
0 Comments

What do you think? Write your comments here...

Name:
Smilies: smile wink wassat tongue laughing sad angry crying 

| Forget Me


See some of the latest Harry Potter news below...
Content Management Powered by CuteNews
Nov 26 NO comments
Dan Radcliffe, How to Succeed

Dan Radcliffe performs ‘Brotherhood of Man’ in Thanksgiving parade

Here is video footage of Daniel Radcliffe performing the Brotherhood of Man routine with his How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying colleagues in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on Thursday. Dan will soon be departing this singing and dancing Broadway role, with Darren Criss taking over.

Nov 24 1 comments
JK Rowling

Summary: JK Rowling gives evidence of media intrusion to Leveson Inquiry

Background: For those who aren’t familiar with the long-running story, basically, earlier this year it started to come to light that journalists at the News of the World, a tabloid newspaper in the UK (owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp), had been systemically hacking the telephones of many celebrities, politicians and other high profile people and listening in to their private voicemail messages. The details came out gradually, but when it emerged that a reporter had hacked the phone of missing (later found murdered) school girl Milly Dowler, the story quickly turned into an international scandal.

The News of the World, 168 years in the business, was shut down by its owners, the hugely powerful Murdochs. A public inquiry was set up by the government to investigate this, and then to investigate the wider matters, which led to this week’s proceedings. The Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the press has been hearing witness statements from many of the victims of phone hacking and other people who suffered illegal or unethical activity by journalists.

This included earlier in the week the parents of the murdered girl Milly Dowler, and missing girl Madeleine McCann,  actor Hugh Grant, actress Sienna Miller, former head of Formula One motor sport Max Mosley and J.K. Rowling, among others. Get the whole story »

Nov 24 NO comments
Interviews

David Yates on DH2 Remus/Tonks scene that didn’t quite make it

Mugglenet spoke to Harry Potter director David Yates recently, and within quite a lengthy chat, one of the interesting things he talked about was an additional battle scene with Lupin and Tonks that was nearly filmed but had to be axed because of time constraints with the special effects and 3D conversion.

Mugglenet: Speaking of the battle, and the character moments… were there any that were lost in the final film?

David Yates: We kept most of them. We did keep most of them. We actually thought we might need more at one point… there was a point when I was editing and I said to Mark [Day], the editor, “I think we might need… maybe we need more blowing upof stuff. Maybe we need a few more…” We did talk about whether or not we wanted to see Tonks and Lupin fight to the death. Which would’ve been great. Absolutely great. And then we actually thought, “Okay. How do we pick it up? We can get David [Thewlis] back, we can get Nat [Tena] back. We can build a bit of battlement.” And at one point that was on the cards. But then, because of this 3-D conversion, we suddenly realized that we were actually not going to have the time to do it. Because we could shoot it, but we couldn’t have the visual effects and the 3-D conversion done in time. But we had serious conversations about it.