Casting, Greenboard, etc

[GulPlum <plumeski@yahoo.com>]

I've been otherwise engaged elsewhere for the last week or so, and 
haven't been able to follow discussions.

I don't have the time to look back more than a couple of days right 
now (but hope to look over replies to my "cringe" posts), but here's 
a couple of comments on what I've seen so far.

Robbie Coltrane is about 6'2" (I know because that's how tall I am; 
I've met him and we were at eye-level to each other; incidentally, 
John Cleese is at least 6'4").

I've never met Jason Carter, but I have seen photos of him in the 
presence of people I have met, and he can't be any more than 5'10" 
(regardless of what IMDb says). I must admit that his height isn't 
something I've ever thought about in terms of casting him as Sirius, 
but the Sirius in my imagination is very much above-average height 
(5'10" for British adult men). Besides, the Trio are still growing 
and I suspect that by next summer, Dan will be somewhere around the 
5'8" mark (if he's not there already) -  Sirius can't be barely 
taller than he is!

In terms of scheduling, it should be borne in mind that unlike most 
movies, HP are filmed pretty much in chrononogical order (as the kids 
are constantly growing and changing). Assuming the screenplay stays 
pretty close to the book, Sirius doesn't make his first human 
appearance until the Shrieking Shack, so whoever does play the part 
won't be needed until mid-summer. Depending on how the film portrays 
certain things (such as news reports at the Dursleys or in the Leaky 
Caldron, Harry looking through the photo album, etc) they can 
probably get away with still inserts which can be done at any time. 

However, Sirius gets a few SFX moments (flying Buckbeak and two 
canine transformations spring to mind) and the team may well use the 
same scheduling principles they did for CoS, filming the SFX-heavy 
scenes first, which goes against what I said above, and requires 
Sirius to be around from the beginning (although morphing isn't 
*that* difficult nowadays, and flying Buckbeak can be made less 
difficult with adroit camera angles).

Lupin, of course, needs to be around pretty much from the beginning 
(although if the Hogwarts Express scene remains in the movie, it 
probably won't be filmed until later), so I'd expect the casting to 
be announced within the next month or so.

Overall, though, and regardless of the post from the actor's agent's 
friend, I'm pretty sure that negotiations with shortlisted actors for 
all major parts are well under way (if not already having completed 
deals),  and it's now too late to canvass support for any individual. 

Oh, and if Ewan McGregor gets signed up as Lupin, I'll buy a hat and 
eat it. 

Re. Dumbledore, I've maintained ever since Richard Harris's demise 
that Ian Richardson should take over. In fact, he should've been cast 
from the start. 

Re. the comment about the greenboard in McGonagall's class, I was a 
bit surprised to find that someone who'd already seen the film four 
times hadn't noticed that the writing is "mirrored". It sprang out of 
the screen at me the first time I saw it, and I've been scratching my 
head about why it was done ever since (see my "cringe" posts).

Oops. The above has been sitting here waiting to be sent for the best 
part of 3 hours, so I'd better end it. Perhaps more from me later.