We talked to the producer of the latest Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire, recently, and he told us a little about the process of cutting down the mammoth book to fit a two-and-a-half hour running time onscreen. What follows contains no spoilers for anyone who has read the book, except that Heyman does tell us a little about what they've left out.
So is it true that they considered splitting the fourth book across two films?
"We went through the process of thinking about that, of thinking was there enough here for two films? Where would you break this if you were to do two films? Were there two coherent stories within it? We came to the conclusion that it would work very well as one film.
"Inevitably you kill off some darlings. The approach that we have taken for the third and continuing on the fourth is to really define a central thesis – Alfonso’s was about Harry’s journey into the first flushes of being a teenager, that sense of identity and becoming oneself. And everything that didn’t apply to that was cut away. This was the longest book so far, and there are things that I love that we can’t have. Again, we have taken out elements that don’t relate as directly to Harry and Harry’s journey. This is about assuming responsibility and standing up and being counted. The whole Mad-eye Moody plot has been put to one side a bit. The whole Hermione fighting for the house elves bit is funny, but it doesn't relate to Harry's story, so it falls by the wayside.
(SOURCE: EMPIRE ONLINE)
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