Heidi's terror & Susan Bones; Emma Watson; 2nd viewing; Rewriting

[jonathandupont at hotmail.com]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., "Tandy, Heidi" <heidit at n...> wrote:
> One terrifying thought did cross my mind- what if they did the 
sorting in
> birth date order? It would give credence to that misery-inducing 
1979
> argument for Hermione's birthday as she was sorted first. But there 
can't be
> that many students younger than Harry. So maybe not. 

Yeah - I suggested this earlier, although I think it is rather 
grasping at straws. But you've completely lost me - WHY is it "misery-
inducing" that Hermione was born in 1979? And here was me thinking 
that it was just a technicality.

While I'm on sorting, I'll repeat a thing I said earlier. I actually 
think Susan Bone's appearance is a sign she isn't important ... as is 
her casting as Columbus's daughter. I'm fairly sure she was a 
character to show other houses than G&S exist (not that canon gives 
that impression), but who they didn't need to bother casting 
carefully. For example, Justin they would have had to book for two 
books etc.

RE: Barb's initial hate of Emma Watson's acting - I saw it for the 
second time yesterday, and despite watching it carefully, I saw no 
problems with her. Then again I had no problems with the centaur 
scene. I actually thought she was marginally better than Dan.

This is definitely a subjective thing - the reviewer at 
http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/316273p1.html actually thinks that 
Emma Watson, well, I'll quote him:-

"I haven't said nearly enough about Emma Watson. From Hermione 
Granger's perfect introduction to her final scene, Watson is better 
than I could've possibly imagined.  She steals the show."

To be honest at my second viewing I thought that the movie dragged a 
tiny bit - maybe it was just the people beside who wouldn't stop 
talking... - especially around the Mirror of Erised scene - even 
though I love that scene. As soon as they start going through the 
challenges though, I was totally back into it.

RE: Writing a perfect(er) script

Good idea... Were you planning to edit Steve Kloves script (which 
will surely be up on the web before long) or start afresh?

I've come to the conclusion that in order to add in ten minutes worth 
of Fred/George (realising how that could be misinterpreted - as in 
jokes, not shipping), Gryffindors being mad with HHR for losing 150 
points, a few class montages, I'd make the following changes:-

- Seamus - what really was the point of him? Cut out all his scenes 
and give them to Neville.

- Add Neville in to a lot of earlier scenes instead of Hermione. 
There's no real reason why he couldn't see James's trophy. 

- Cut out Norbert completely, and the detention. Have Draco challenge 
Harry to a duel instead (shows his character better as well IMO), but 
in the Forbidden Forest. Draco obviously never plans to show up, but 
Harry like the fool he is does, somehow gets separated from Ron, and 
walks into Voldemort and the unicorn.

And a few short things I'd add to clarify stuff:- 

- "And then, your father did something Snape could never forgive... 
etc."

- An explanation of why Harry is famous ... it is not made clear in 
the film that Harry did anything else than lived. Hagrid should have 
mentioned that the spell rebounded, and stopped Voldemort's reign. 
Harry then asks if he's dead, and Hagrid says he doesn't think he 
could ever die. Thus setting up Harry's otherwise amazing guess at 
the unicorn.

- "Be warned, Potter -- any more nighttime wanderings and I will 
personally make sure you are expelled. Good day to you." 

                      - followed by -

"Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's 
coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to 
take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from!..." 
Thus setting up Harry's bravey (you might add the lines 

""I'll use the invisibility cloak," said Harry. "It's just lucky I 
got it back." 

"But will it cover all three of us?" said Ron"

as well).

I would re-estbalish "Are you a witch or not?", except I agree with 
their decision to take out the potions, and to be honest, the movie 
wouldn't be balanced if Hermione lost her moment of glory.

Jon,
who needs to now read PS again to clarify his mind with the rightful 
canon