Related Sections: Books Interviews Movies News Top Stories
What's cut, what stays, what's new in Half-Blood Prince
For fans of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, part of the fun (and, some would argue, disappointment) in seeing the film adaptations is spotting the various changes and omissions that take place in the translation from novel to film. (The upcoming sixth movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, even contains two new scenes not in the original book; more on them later.)
Plenty of fans then race to Potter message boards or just engage in heated debates with friends about what was shockingly left unexplored or tweaked from canon.
They're not alone: It turns out that the creative team behind the final three film adaptations—including Half-Blood Prince director David Yates, screenwriter Steve Kloves and producer David Heyman—are pretty much guilty of doing the same thing. (The movie opens Wednesday.)
In a news conference last week in New York, the trio admitted that they too have the same intense—and sometimes heartbreaking—conversations about what ultimately makes the cut and why. "We have conversations about that all the time," Yates explained to reporters. "And it's about how much exposition we have, ultimately."
Kloves, who's adapted almost every Potter book for the screen, explained that the process of whittling down material from each book has been torturous. "I think I make an initial judgment of how much freight the movie can carry, and at this point there is only so much in terms of character introductions, etc.," he said, adding: "We have long discussions about it at times, and we have to make decisions ... to make them lean where we can. It's always hard, because we are all fans of the books. So I try to do the impossible initially and sort of put everything into the script, much to the annoyance of my collaborators. I then make some tough decisions, and then we all do some heavy lifting."
(Spoilers ahead!)
"Sure, there are things that I miss," Heyman said. "One of the things that I love about Jo's [Rowling's] books is that they are so detailed and so rich. Every page has some jewel ... that you hold onto. One of the things I think Steve has done so brilliantly is that he's gotten as much in as he has. I'm really proud of that. I would love for there to have been more. Every film there's something we cut out where you go, 'Oh, that's a shame. I wish we could keep that in.'"
Asked if there was ever anything that Rowling forbade them to cut, Heyman said yes. "At one point in the fifth film, we were going to cut out [the Black family house elf] Kreacher, but when we showed Jo the script, she said, 'No, I think that would be a very bad idea,'" Heyman recalled with a smile. "She didn't tell us why." As it turns out, Kreacher plays an integral role in the climactic resolution to the series in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. "So Kreacher was kept in and will be in the seventh film, too," Heyman said.
As for the upcoming Half-Blood Prince, much of the book revolves around Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) and Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) as Potter watches the captured memories of young Tom Riddle in his pre-Voldemort days. That structure alone provided Kloves with a problem because, as any good writer knows, you can't set a film almost entirely around or inside someone's flashbacks.
"I think this one was challenging because much of the book lived in the past," Kloves said. "But David is very adept at putting you in the moment, and it's where he wanted to put us in this movie, so a lot of decisions went from there. So we chose what memories to focus on—the ones that were the most emotional for Harry, Dumbledore and that inform the audience about Voldemort's past and the mystery that lies at the core of this movie."
Being in the moment also meant that director Yates made a conscious decision to forsake precious onscreen time with extraneous backstory setups or reminders of what came in prior films. "I think very early on we talked about the notion of putting this story in the moment and allowing the audience to just parachute in and go with it," Yates said. "They are really tricky, tricky, tricky books to adapt, because there is so much plot and so much detail that Jo weaves into this world. It's very hard to make those decisions about what's left in or what's left out. We've gotten to the phase in these movies where we all feel it's a good thing to just get the audience to buckle in and go and not weigh the audience down with too much information about what's gone before. They can always go back to the DVDs and the books."
Even with so many Potter films under his belt, Kloves admits that when faced again with the hard creative decisions, he always goes back to the one request that Rowling made of him when they met 10 years ago. "The first day I met Jo we hit it off pretty easily," Kloves remembered. "We went for a walk, and she said to me, 'Look, I know the movies can't be the books. I know they will be something different. But what is important to me are the characters. Stay true to the characters.' So, in a sense, I see myself as a guardian of the characters. I want to make sure their motivations and the essence of them is always maintained throughout. Changes will happen, and as you make changes in one film, that gets compounded when you make changes in the next film. But I also try not to be too slavishly connected to the books when I think it defeats the drama of cinema."
In Half-Blood Prince, Yates said Kloves captured Rowling's intent and spirit right out of the gate. "I read Steve's first draft on the plane on the way to Chicago when we were doing the testing for Order of the Phoenix," the director recalled. "It was a very stressful time, ... and I pulled this draft out of the bag. ... See, when you develop films the first draft is not usually the best. But the amount of work that Steve puts into a first draft made it so exciting to read it: the tonality, the spirit, the mood and the heartbeat of the film was absolutely there."
Heyman says that Rowling approves of the adaptations. "I think Jo really feels like [Steve] has her voice," he said. "He understands it, so he has the confidence and comfort with the material to even put things in [the films] that aren't in the books, but you aren't aware that it isn't in the book, as it feels so organic."
To illustrate, Yates pointed out two newly scripted scenes, including one at the opening of Half-Blood Prince, in which Harry reads the Daily Prophet in a London dinette as he awkwardly attempts to flirt with a Muggle waitress. "That's a scene that Steve came up with, and I love that scene and think it's very charming," Yates said.
The other is an elaborate mid-film Death Eater attack on the Weasley home led by Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter). Asked why it was added, Yates said, "It felt like the middle of the story needed an injection of jeopardy and danger that doesn't exist in the book. When we were developing the script, we felt there was a lot of comedy and lightness that continued too long. So putting some jeopardy in the middle just felt like it would remind the audience that the world beyond Hogwarts is still a very dangerous place, and it would put us back in terms of the outside narrative staying fresh in the audience's minds."
"The other reason for the attack in the middle is that in the book there is lots of description of what the Death Eaters are up to, mostly told through newspapers and reports," Heyman added. "We thought it was important that there is a tangible expression for that, so our kids aren't just reading or hearing about it secondhand. It was about experiencing a Death Eater attack on something so precious to Harry and Ron—the Burrows—that they are made vulnerable. It made the danger feel much more real and immediate."
By magooru62 at 7:50 AM ON 07/14/09
Actually, Michael Goldenberg adapted Order Of the Phoenix for the screen. Kloves has done 5 of the 6.
By shakespeareprof at 12:46 PM ON 07/14/09
"You can't set a film almost entirely around or inside someone's flashbacks"??? Apparently Kloves has nevver seen, or heard of, "Citizen Kane", arguably the greatest film ever made.
By rockrolf at 12:50 PM ON 07/14/09
Actually according to IMDB and the DVD Michael Goldenberg wrote Order of the Phoenix and not Kloves. IMDB.com shows that it is a WGA credit and if you look at Steve Kloves hollywood.com page Order of the Phoenix is not listed in his credits. Also an interview with Kloves from Nov 05 states he passed on the OftP screenplay. hpana.com/news.19118
By SCI FI Wire at 1:27 PM ON 07/14/09
@magooru62, @rockrolf: You're right. The studio gave us erroneous information. We're going to fix it once and for all.
By EyesRolling at 2:50 PM ON 07/14/09
I love the text under the diner photo - Danielle??? His name is Daniel.
By jmanfortruth at 3:22 PM ON 07/14/09
Why not show one of the Death Eater attacks referred to in the story only second hand instead of making up something? Obviously there is plenty of material to choose from. Change when an attack happens to the middle to make it more perilous. People would complain less about that. They say they have had such a hard time deciding what to cut yet they add things that where never there.
By elvenangel at 5:59 PM ON 07/14/09
jmanfortruth .. They do show one of the attacks second hand from the book. The attack on the bridge is in the movie or have you not watched any of the previews? If they made this movie completely by the book it would be long drawn out and cinematically hard to watch by adding the extra attack it keeps the pace going not to mention prepares you for how ugly things are really going to get in Deathly Hallows.
By Gunnie Stu at 6:40 AM ON 07/16/09
My biggest complaint in all of the movie adaptations is that in Prisoner of Askaban (sp), we never find out, in the movie, that Harry's dad animagis form is a deer, which explains Harry's patronus. We also never find that Prongs, Padfoot, Womrtail, and Moonie are James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus. That also explains how Remus knew how to use the map properly. And also that "The map never lies". I have a feeling that Snapes patronus form won't be fully explained in the seventh movie either. And that would be a true shame, becasue in the books, that is the true moment that you find out that Snape was all along on Harry's side, and that Snape truly loved Lilly Potter and would never have allowed Voldemort to kill her if he knew what was going to happen that night.. He was, after all, a master of occlumency.
By Fobok at 11:17 AM ON 07/16/09
I agree with Gunnie. Prisoner is by far my least favourite film as it chose to leave out some important story elements. Stuff left out of the other movies has been minor, (though some of my favourite stuff), but stuff cut from Prisoner were things that helped the story come together.
By Lutya at 3:23 PM ON 07/16/09
I kind of like the fact that you have to had read the books to understand the details of the movies. Like you are in on something.
I have found that when I then talk with others that only see the movies, give them more of the background, they run off to read the books.
For me these aren't just movies, but a peak at what it "might" be like if it were all real. I know the movies can't BE the books, but you can't have the movies without the books.
By Scottomir at 4:51 PM ON 07/16/09
RE: shakespeareprof
The writer must not have heard of CITIZEN KANE, one of the greatest movies of all-time, nor TITANTIC, the highest-grossing movie of all time (if most definitely not one of the greatest). And if you want to hit world cinema, let's not forget that CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON has a gigantic half-hour flashback in the middle. I think that movie might have made a little money too...
By AnnMarie021 at 9:20 PM ON 07/16/09
I am frustrated that they didn't feel that Dumbledore's funeral wasn't important enough to be in the movie. This seems an important part since in the last book Voldemort is searching for the elder wand which should have been buried w/ DD not left in his office. This was my biggest complaint about HBP.
By gigi787 at 5:04 AM ON 07/17/09
i think the things that they add were pretty ramdom especially as the burrow was given extra protection and the death eaters wouldn't have been able to attack it secondly they left out the most crucial information: the fact that dumbledor know/has an idea of what the horcuxes are i.e the cup,locket, something of ravenclaw, the snake, the diary, the ring, and voldemort himself......i mean how is harry supposed to find them if he doesn't even know what he's looking for? i hope they find some creative way of getting that information to him.
By gigi562 at 5:18 AM ON 07/17/09
i think the things that they add were pretty ramdom especially as the burrow was given extra protection and the death eaters wouldn't have been able to attack it secondly they left out the most crucial information: the fact that dumbledor know/has an idea of what the horcuxes are i.e the cup,locket, something of ravenclaw, the snake, the diary, the ring, and voldemort himself......i mean how is harry supposed to find them if he doesn't even know what he's looking for? i hope they find some creative way of getting that information to him.
By gigi562/787 at 5:22 AM ON 07/17/09
the one thing i think would have made the beginning good was the way the book had it and finding out about bill & fleur's wedding i was really looking forward to that :(
By doc1954 at 10:12 PM ON 07/17/09
As has been mentioned here - why cut out existing story parts to add made up scenes? And all the movies have done a disservice to the characters..Hermione almost died in the battle by the water in Azkaban but in the movie she didn't even help. Phoenix was the most disturbing - the whole group fought bravely in the book but in the movie they were all reduced to mostly cowering and stumbling around - pitiful. Umbridge should Never have been able to open the room of requirement while it was in use, and Harry should not be cowering in HBP - he would not do such a thing - he would help if he was able.- the movies make most of the students appear weak most of the time and important plot lines have always been discarded only to be replaced with movie-only scenes and dialog.....truly unfortunate.
By hughsfan30 at 4:53 AM ON 07/20/09
I just saw HBP today of which I have been beside myself waiting to see, I read the book about 4 times. I left that theater with feelings of "what about this...and what about that??"
For one Bill and Fluer arent even in it!!! Which makes me wonder how they are gonna come up with them being together and getting married in the 7th! Not to mention at the end of the book the state Bill is in lets out the realization that Tonks is in love with Remus, in the movie she just calls him sweetheart? People who havent read the books with feel like "huh??" It also doesnt explain why her hair isnt changing color. Harry and Ginny's first kiss?? SOOO not the way it happened in the book! And I agree with AnnMarie021...what about DD funeral?? His wand was buried with him...so does that mean they will cut out in the 7th when Voldemort steals it from his coffin?? The memories.....what about the one explaining his mother and how she came to marry a muggle...or when he returned to Hogwarts for a job..they use that info in the 7th to figure out that one of the horcrux's is hidden there? Im just worried now that the 7th book...in spite of it being 2 movies..is going to be cut to shreds and that book by far is my favorite.
By beans4445 at 1:29 AM ON 07/22/09
I have never been picky, and appreciate books and movies as different valuable formats, but this time its not a matter of what was put in or left out, but the fact that in one stroke they have COMPLETELY changed the themes and the characters that the writer claims to care for.
If Dumbledore had no idea about horcruxes, as presented in the movie... Oh! Forget it... not even worth discussing.
It sometimes seemed like the movie makers were purposely doing the opposite of the book just for spite. I'm still nauseus from whatching this awful movie... bad "Conan the Barbarian" sets, no character development, and the absolute worst book adaptation ever.
I have NO hope for the next movies, and will not go to the theaters to watch them.
Visit mobile.syfy.com/wire on your mobile device.
beans4445:
I have never been picky, and appreciate books and movies as different valuable formats, but this time its not a mat...More »