[HPFGU-Movie] Goblet of Fire will be in two parts?

[GulPlum]

At 00:46 04/12/03 , Elizabeth Catherine wrote:
>Hi all,
>I am trying to find out if Warner Brothers has definitively stated
>that they are only making GOF into one two hour movie.  Muggle.net
>has a posting of a recent interview by Jason Isaacs and he says they
>have scripts but no way of knowing who will be left in a "two hour
>movie."  Some weeks ago I went to a separate link for a petition to
>Warner Brothers asking them to reconsider and make GOF into two
>parts  (summer and winter release.  Any thoughts? Ideas?

You're quite correct. No final decision has yet been announced, but there's 
lots of supposition and lots and lots of rumours, which mainly serve to 
create new ones. Apart from Isaacs' recent comments, I recall Kloves having 
said when PoA went into production that he'd been asked to produce a single 
script. However, it has never been specified how long that script was meant 
to be, or indeed how long the current draft is.

Nevertheless, the way Isaacs phrased his comments makes it sound like the 
production team is trying to squeeze GoF into a single movie. Otherwise 
there wouldn't be uncertainty as to whether or not Lucius Malfoy makes it 
to the final draft. If there were any intention *whatsoever* to make two 
movies, Malfoy would be a definite, absolute inclusion. The idea of cutting 
the character would indicate that the whole QWC and DE scenes which follow 
that could be cut down or removed altogether, which there would be no need 
to do in a "long" version.

Bearing in mind that Isaacs is very much in demand (and will be in even 
more demand if Peter Pan is a success), the idea of leaving him in doubt as 
to whether he'll be required on a production which starts in probably six 
months is very, very dangerous. If there was a good chance that he'd be 
needed, they'd already have signed him up. The fact he's not already been 
snapped up makes a two-movie version VERY, VERY unlikely.

Fan reaction and desires are a separate issue. Of course, most fans want as 
much as possible of the book to be kept intact and in the movie. However, 
there is no way that everything will be in there (a literal filming of the 
whole of GoF would probably require 8 or 9 hours), so the only question is 
whether whatever is left is done as one movie or two.

As I've said before, I don't mind if it's one single movie, as long as it's 
adapted correctly, rather than just jumping from sequence to sequence and 
making changes which aren't in keeping with the Potterverse (e.g. 
transferring the History lesson scene in CoS to Transfiguration, as is 
being discussed in another thread right now).

I know that some fans are insisting that GoF is made into two movies, and 
I've seen the same petition you mentioned. However, I'll repeat a similar 
comment I made some time ago about the "Save Wood" petition at the 
beginning of the year. The "save GoF" petition(s) currently total a little 
over 20,000 signatures. Please forgive me while I have a laugh.

GoF sold how many millions of copies in the UK and US (forgetting other 
countries)? The first two movies sold how many millions of cinema tickets 
(and DVDs)? Given current internet accessibility in just those two 
countries, for that petition to have ANY meaning or impact, it would need 
AT THE VERY LEAST a million signatures. And that's simply not going to 
happen, and thus Warners will do what they want regardless of fans' feelings.

I certainly have no intention of signing that petition or any other on the 
subject. What is important is not whether the GoF movie(s) includes every 
scene, sequence and nuance of the book, but whether it makes sense 
internally and with reference to the other movies. Now, if there was any 
sense in attempting to get Warners to get rid of Steve Kloves and employ a 
writer who knows what he's doing, understands the material and how to 
*adapt* it into a movie, then perhaps I might get involved, because that's 
the main stumbling block, not whether GoF is one movie or two.