Real Magic on the Movie Set.

[Anne]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboy_mn at y...> wrote:
> If you read the-Leaky-Cauldron.org then you already know this, but I
> found it very interesting that the Prisoner of Azkaban is the first 
HP
> movie to hire a real magician as a consultant for the movie.
> 
> See - Leaky Cauldron Dec 4, 2003
> http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/
> 
> "He has taught Magic to several members of the cast including Daniel
> Radcliffe & Emma Watson ..., as well as holding the first ever on-
set
> Magic class!"
> 
> See also - Paul Kieve - World Famous Magician -
> http://www.stageillusion.com/home.html#
> 
> That gives me a very good feeling about the movie. If Alfonso Cuaron
> is sufficient concerned about the realism of the magic to hire one 
of
> the best magicians in Europe, then he must be taking the creation of
> this movie very seriously.
> 
> I am very much looking forward to Prisoner of Azkaban, I think 
Cuaron
> will being a new and more positive artistic vision to the movies.

Well, this is the first post I've read in several weeks and now I'm 
wishing I'd stuck around :-) Actually I don't see how having a 
*magician* (as in someone who does stage magic) on the POA set has 
anything to do with magic as practiced in the HP books. To me stage 
magic bears the same relation to Wizarding World magic as riding a 
stick pony bears to riding a thoroughbred racehorse. (And for some 
reason I'm also reminded of the 1970s saying, "A woman without a man 
is like a fish without a bicycle.") WW/HP magic is about intention 
made real; stage magic is about illusions.  But, perhaps I'm alone in 
this opinion. 
 
> 
> But I confess that I am very worrried about Goblet of Fire. I really
> don't think Warner Brothers has a very good handle on just how much
> they can compromise these movies and get away with it. 
> 
> When it comes to the larger books, I think they need people with
> serious uncompromising artistic vision in charge. Look at how
> wonderfully the production of Lord of the Rings has been done.
> Certainly, if someone like that was at the helm of the HP movies, we
> would have movies of enduring historical precedence; movies that 
would
> endure for all time, just as the LotR movies surely will.
> 

Actually I bet Peter Jackson could do an extremely kick-arse version 
of GoF. Too bad he's got himself tied up making an IMO pointless 
remake of King Kong (why?? why???).

Anne U
(Apparating in after chasing Krumplehorned Snorkacks)