CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.
Last 'Harry Potter' Divided Into Two Films?
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.ht…
But sources insist the reason behind the two-movie plan is artistic rather than financial.
The books got progressively longer – the first, the Philosopher’s Stone, had 223 pages while Deathly Hallows has 776 – and fans have complained chunks of later novels have been left out of films.
Personally, I still think Goblet of Fire is one of the most impressive novel adaptations I’ve ever seen, as it cuts half the book and doesn’t miss much. Also, Order of the Phoenix, the longest and probably least lean book, ended up making the shortest film. Why the switch over now?
While people have been talking these last few week about Guillermo del Toro directing Deathly Hallows, the article mentions that Warner Bros. might be going after Steven Spielberg to direct the final film. You might remember that Spielberg was courted to direct the original novel (hoping to cast Haley Joel Osment), and has since said his attraction was based on directing Goblet of Fire.
Interesting.
Interesting. Remember what happened with “Grindhouse” when it ran together as a double feature? Even though it was a brilliant film, it got a chilly reception in part because of its length and the way it was shown together as two films.
It sounds more like they’re considering making this “Harry Potter” two separate films that come out at the same time. That’d force you to buy two tickets to it instead of one and potentially see them at different times. That’d be quite an interruption. Plus, is it fair to charge twice the price?
This whole concept is quite strange. Has this ever been done before?
Off the Top of My Head...
The two most famous would probably be Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2, and Richard Lester’s The Three and Four Musketeers. Both started out as one movie and were divided both for length and financial reasons.
I know there has to be tons of versions of this.
So, ultimately
Do you think people would willingly pay double for something as big as a “Harry Potter” film like this? I’d think people would want to see them back to back on the same day instead of going back and seeing the second later.
Missed An Important One
I believe the Deuce Bigelow trilogy (with part 3 to come) came out of the first cut of DB, Male Bigelow, whose original running time was a legendary nine hours. The uncut (grin) version is used by the CIA in rendition techniques or so I hear.
Hank’s in a band! www.myspace.com/thetelepaths