CoS Script (was Link to Simply Scripts...)

[GulPlum]

At 23:52 03/05/03 , Petra Pan wrote:

<snip -re: "script" which Nia had found>

>If by "not be accurate" GulPlum means "hoax" then I agree.

"Hoax" is a perhaps a bit strong a word, but indeed your understanding is 
correct: I have my doubts that's it's the genuine article.

>I won't go into the details here - the listing of errors on the forger's part
>can only make future forgeries that much harder to detect

Same here.

>but let me point out at least one: Kloves does not use "Steven" for either 
>bylines or credits.  This is somewhat counter-intuitive, which is probably 
>why the forger made the error; after all, you would think that for the 
>record, on a title page, a writer would use a more formal name.  But note 
>- he doesn't go by "Steven Kloves" in the credits either.  For all we 
>know, he's a "Stephen."

As it happens, he is listed in several pre-HP, mainly post-Wonder Boys 
(Kloves's crowning glory as a screen writer) reference works as "Steven" 
rather that "Steve". It's clear that he uses both versions himself and it's 
not entirely beyond the realms of possibility that he prefers to use his 
full first name (as I do with mine). So that argument doesn't really hold 
water.

One of the things in this script make me suspicious are several 
Americanisms in the *dialogue* which I'd expect in an American's first 
draft, but this does not purport to be a first draft and I'm sure that 
either Kloves or someone else would've pointed them out to him by that 
stage (prime example: "gotten", which doesn't exist in any variant of 
British English). I'm not sure what to think of the consistent spelling of 
"color" throughout (whilst incorrect in modern British English, we're so 
used to seeing it spelt that way that we normally wouldn't consciously 
notice it).

As a version of the script dated several months into shooting, JKR at the 
very least will have seen it by that stage, and she would have removed all 
these Americanisms (at least in dialogue, if not in descriptions).

Something else which JKR would have corrected is Snape's dialogue when 
lecturing H&R when they arrive at Hogwarts, in which he claims the Whomping 
Willow has been there for "hundreds of years" (it appears, uncorrected, in 
the earliest-dated draft  - 28 January; the revisions are said to be from 
March and April). I find it difficult to believe that all *ten* revisions 
included in this version were written by people who have not read PoA 
(assuming none of them were written by Kloves). Incidentally, the revisions 
of the same date (28 January) include the Flying Ford Anglia stuff, which 
as we all know was the first scene to be filmed, even before PS/SS was 
released. So why were they still revising the scene two months after it had 
been shot?

Although I have my suspicions, I don't deny the possibility that at least 
some of this might be the genuine article, in which case most of the things 
I mentioned in my post last night are definitely Kloves's fault, although 
this still doesn't free Columbus from taking his fair share of the blame.

BTW I notice with some dismay that neither of the long posts I wrote last 
week have has had a single response... I'm wondering if it's worth the 
trouble. I would at least have expected some reaction from Matt, who 
started this whole chain of thought.

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, still working on a third long post