Rumors or truth

[GulPlum]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., chiflipgrl at a... wrote:
> Apparently, what's happening is that the cast/crew will be taking a 
year off. 
> (They deserve it; they've been filming pretty much 2 and a half 
years 
> straight.) So, after the year off, they'll begin filming PoA.

That's a new one on me. :-)

The situation as it stands at present (the reasoning works backwards) 
is:

No HP movie will come out in November 2003 because Warner Brothers 
have another mega-blockbuster planned for that time, namely the third 
Matrix movie (the second is out on 15 May 2003).

Warners decided that HP3 (PoA) will be released in Summer 2004 
instead. November 2004 would be too long a wait, and would constrain 
production on HP4 (GoF).

GoF is currently being planned to be made as two movies, one being 
released in November 2004, the other in December (there will be no 
LOTR with which to compete). Both movies would be produced at the 
same time, in the 18-month window after the release of HP3.

> My only concern with that is this: won't some of the actors look 
kind of big 
> by the time that filming starts? I mean, puberty works fast! :)

HP3 (PoA) is due to go into production in the spring of 2003. This 
gives them 18 months to complete it, before immediately launching 
into the production of GoF.

As a result, Daniel Radcliffe will only be about 6 months older than 
his character at the beginning of filming PoA and a year older than 
Harry's meant to be at end of making GoF.

This scheduling makes a great deal of sense for an unrelated but 
important reason: Daniel will be 14 in July 2003, which means that 
under English law, he will be entitled (unless his parents object) to 
spend the entire summer holidays working full days making the movie. 
This has a tremendous impact on the speed with which what will 
undoubtedly be a long movie can be made, not to mention the budget... 

I would also expect the Radcliffe family to get dispensation for him 
to delay taking his GCSEs (real-life equivalent of Hogwarts' OWLs) by 
one semester, so that he can spend part of the school year when he's 
15 working on finishing GoF. 

I fully expect that after GoF is made (if not before, depending on 
Daniel & his parents, and how he gets on at school) either Harry will 
be recast, or HP5 will be delayed by at least a year, to give Daniel 
a chance to concentrate on school and complete his GCSEs to his best 
ability. If I were in his parents' shoes, I'd not like the idea of 
his spending arguably the most important year of his education making 
movies...