Harry Potter fans rejoice! Warner Bros is expected to officially announce plans to release the adaptation of the last and final Harry Potter book, split into two separate films. This makes more than perfect sense considering the 36 chapter plus epilogue book is a whopping 759 pages long. Fans have complained that the last two movies which suffered from plot compression. That’s probably because to hardcover releases of Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix ranged from 734 to 896 pages in length.
Warner Bros will release Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I in November 2010, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II six months later in May 2011. Both of the movies will be filmed concurrently. Screenwriter Steve Kloves, who wrote five of the fix films, is hard at work on both screenplays. Director David Yates, who directed both Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince (which began production in September) has already signed on for both sequels. Producer David Heyman explained to the LA Times:
“I swear to you it was born out of purely creative reasons. Unlike every other book, you cannot remove elements of this book. You can remove scenes of Ron playing quidditch from the fifth book, and you can remove Hermione and S.P.E.W. [Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare] and those subplots . . . but with the seventh, that can’t be done.” “The question will be, where do you break it? And how do you make them one but two separate and distinct stories? Do you break it with a moment of suspense or one of resolution? These are the interesting challenges. But each book has presented its challenges.”
The official book synopsis: “It all comes down to this - a final faceoff between good and evil. You plan to pull out all the stops, but every time you solve one mystery, three more evolve. Do you stay the course you started, despite your lack of progress? Do you detour and follow a new lead that may not help? Do you listen to your instincts, or your friends? Lord Voldemort is preparing for battle and so must Harry. With Ron and Hermione at his side, he’s trying to hunt down Voldemort’s Horcruxes, escape danger at every turn, and find a way to defeat evil once and for all. How does it all end?”
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince hits theaters on November 21st 2008.
March 12th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Good now there’s a chance GDT can direct the last one and really make this series something special
March 12th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Its just greed to make two films. The last book was extremely overwritten - so much time spent camping in the wilderness in the middle of winter. The trouble with these books that are hyped to the heavens and sell huge quantities is that no editor dares to trim them back as they should be. Stephen King is one author who not only overwrites but writes badly compared to his earlier work.
March 12th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
“Good now there’s a chance GDT can direct the last one and really make this series something special”
David Yates already signed on for the last two. And GDT is busy working on other projects at the moment as it is…
March 12th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Why not just make the film 3 hours long and be done with it….They have a built in audience who will gladly sit through it…and then pay to see it again and again…
It does feel like a bit of a final “grab all the cash you can outta this…since the gravy train is coming to an end”
March 12th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
I’m a fan of the books, I mean they have their flaws, but I do enjoy the movies. I was extremely upset with how The Order of the Phoenix (Longest book, shortest movie?) and Goblet of Fire turned out and how much detail they left out. I’m also a fan of long movies and I don’t see the problem with them - wouldn’t you want to get more for your money?
I couldn’t agree more with redandjonny. Just leave some of the filler detail that was in Deathly Hallows out, and make it a little more than 3 hours, that way it’s ONE movie, and they add enough of the detail to make it relevant - something they didn’t do with GoF and OotP.
March 12th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Judging by the book, the first movie is gonna totally blow, but the second one will be awesome. I could see them making a whole film out of the battle at Hogwarts.
March 12th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
@Derek
consider the quality of the most recent Harry Potter movies. I don’t think either one of the movies are gonna suck. Lets just hope though that they don’t turn out like the Matrix.
March 12th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
I LOVED the Order of the Phoenix movie. Mostly because it was in 3D on IMAX and because it was the first Harry Potter film I’d seen since Chamber, but I still loved it. I left the theatre all excited and happy with the cinematic goodness.
Yates will do a great job, but that isn’t the issue. So much of the fun of these movies is seeing how different directors deal with the stories, which are a perfect franchise to get a whole lot of insanely talented directors on board. So in that way, it sucks that Yates gets a full half of the franchise, but the movies will still be pretty good. He’s probably a really easy and fuss-free director for the stdio to work with, too.
March 13th, 2008 at 2:06 am
I think it’s a great idea.
I don’t mind going to a 3 hour Harry Potter flick, but the greed isn’t all on the part of the studio. Any fan of the series that can seriously think, “I don’t want an extra Harry Potter movie” is crazy or at least missing the big picture. Who cares if the studio is thinking about capitalizing on this move? I’ve liked every film, they’ve all been good in their own right. In ways, each has improved upon the last. Sure, I’d rather see Alfonso Cuaron do it. I think it was always more likely that he would have done it than Guillermo Del Toro (besides, I’d rather see his Hobbit than Deathly Hallows). David Yates’ inexperience as a blockbuster director was evident with the last film, but still it stands among the best of the series.
By the time Deathly Hallows comes out he will have put out Half Blood Prince, which will benefit from Bruno Delbonnel’s cinematography. His style is pitch perfect for Harry Potter and I think his involvement will mean that visually HBP will resemble what I consider to be the best Harry Potter, at the very least in a visual sense, The Prisoner of Azkaban. It will also help set apart HBP from OOTP. Order had a great cinematographer, Slawomir Idziak, however, given his upward trend with recruiting better talent to work around him, plus with the actors’ (primarily I’m referring to the kids) increasingly better acting abilities, I think that any qualms about not having a better director than Yates (or at least that new fresh take we had grown accustomed to) should effectively be rendered obsolete.
Now, as to splitting it in two, which I don’t consider to be more relevant news than Yates’ return, I’ll again restate my opinion that more is more. I guarantee after finishing a single film version of Deathly Hallows, that any problems I’ve had with the adaptation (which has been the case with each film), I would have blamed on the fact that substance was cut out in favor of a reasonably timed movie, albeit not a very streamlined one. I also know I’d finish it, the same as with the book, sad and sentimental that there will most likely never be another Harry Potter film. In a sense, you could argue that I’ll be feeling the same way after finishing the eighth film. But all the same. I’ll still be walking out of the theater after having seen the eighth film of the franchise. Not the seventh. If you’re truly a fan of the books and/or the films you’ll be just as greedy as the suits for an extra film.
(Spoiler)
This brings us to the question, where is the best place in the story to split the narrative? If you ask me, I think that, though it is fairly far along into the story, ending Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One just after Harry, Hermione and Ron have broken out of Gringott’s on the back of a dragon would be an apt time to end it. Though a bit cliche, I can’t think of a more fitting place to pause than to have our heroes riding off into the sunset, though still with the worst, most dangerous part of the story to come. Granted, the Gringott’s sequence would make for a rousing first scene in the eighth film, but if you cut it before, you wouldn’t be doing the audience any favors, as they spend a lot of time preparing to break in. You’d just have to remind them in the beginning of the eighth film and in terms of story arcs, that planning time serves as a great lead in to the climax of the film. Pretty standard mode of scriptwriting, really.
So, that means that the first of the two parts would definitely be longer and have a lot more material to cover. A lot of the wandering/camping can be cut out for the film, however, and though I don’t have the book beside me, if I’m not mistaken, the Battle for Hogwarts does cover several hundred pages (is it two or three). Which also brings up another point. One of Deathly Hallows greatest strengths is that most of the story takes place away from the familiar settings of the school that the entire series has set up. Again, since the book is sentimental (every single character from the series that hasn’t been killed off makes a final appearance. And even then, that’s not entirely true) it would be great to have the final film take place almost exclusively at Hogwarts. The book sets it up perfectly by first breaking the mold, then kind of conforming back into it by the end.
(Spoiler)
So, yeah. Sorry, that’s long, but as any big fan would agree, all these ideas have merit. Oh, and I really don’t want them to put the epilogue into the last movie. I mean, it’s not that I didn’t like the prologue for what it was (come on, Harry gets everything he never had growing up!), but I just really don’t want to see Emma Watson try to act 19 years older. Not any of them, really. And to see other older actors playing them, well it wouldn’t feel like a proper farewell.
Anyhow….thoughts?
March 13th, 2008 at 9:23 am
ok ok I know this sounds a bit fan girly of me but I read that fleur isnt in HBP so they’re just bringing the wedding out of the blue for DH? I dunno it just doesnt seem right to me.
And Caleb you and I think alike.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
They shouldn’t even make a seventh movie because the book is so terrible.
The 6th book is the best and the movie version of it coming out later this year will be the best and there is no need to continue.
March 13th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
I agree partly with the fans who want more and more (and I liked the movies so far) and partly with those who feel the last book was overwritten.
From one side I like to see the characters in action so 2 more movies would be fine for me, on the other side it would be probably boring as I think that a couple of hundred pages in DH are really useless.
but it’s not upon me so I’ll wait and accept whatever they decide to do!!!
March 13th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
the books were AWSOME i think its unkool what they did to the movies they shouldent have left out sooo much things its gay
but i think its realy kool what there doing too the 7th one its a vary good idea cause the 7th book was 100 times better then the other 6 put together
March 14th, 2008 at 6:27 am
I heared from friends that it is a nice movie. I cannot wait to watch it with the nice guy I hooked up at the milliionaires&hotties site MeetingRich dot c om.
March 21st, 2008 at 9:23 am
I believe the book should be split at the death of dobby because it is a main point in the book even if u didn’t have him in the last movies there is still dobby trying to save him from the chamber of secrets. This would also help because of the connection at the end because Draco is saved and his family was the original owner of Dobby, plus that is around half the deaths in the book. You also only said hedwig died at the run from pivet drive you forgot Moody.
April 30th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Im not quite sure that i like the idia of splitting it into two movies mainly becase i think although it is an great book i find the first part of the book a bit slow, and by splitting the film the fans may lose interest and forget the privious story in part one. So i fail to see why they cant just put a 10min break in the middle like the 3rd lord of the rings ?? that would be so much better !! anyone agree ??
June 14th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
I think it’s a really bad idea. What are they going to do? Just stop in the middle of the movie and say “Well just wait a year or two everyone and then we’ll give you the next half of the movie”? Most of the Harry Potter products, such as DVD cases, have the first 5 movies, and room for the last 2. What are they going to do about that? Just throw them away? The book’s fine by itself, without being split into 2, so why do they have to do it to the movie?