Would Columbus get rid of Cuaron?

[ihatethis99in]

> Emily:
> I just had a scary thought...  I'm one of those folks who thinks 
> Cuaron is going to do amazing things with PoA.  What if (or, when) 
> Cuaron does an outstanding job, and everyone says he made the best 
> movie of the three, and maybe even gets a nod for Best Director, 
> Columbus gets jealous?  I know the directorship (is that a word?is 
> up in the air right now for GoF, and there's certainly the 
> possibility that Cuaron won't want to continue with GoF, but could 
> Columbus get rid of him out of spite?  I don't mean to imply that 
I 
> think Columbus is an evil man or anything <g>, but he's already 
said 
> he would consider directing GoF.  Would he force out a better 
> director because everyone thought Cuaron did a better job?  (I'm 
> assuming that as a producer, he may have the power to do that.  
> Please correct me if I'm wrong!)
> 
> Taryn:
> Well, WB has the last say on something like Directorship, and I 
think they would be smart enough that, if raves started about Cuaron 
(especially if he got an Oscar nod), they'd keep him.


Me:
Getting critical raves and an Oscar nod  will mean NOTHING to 
Warner - they're ONLY interested in the bottom line!

If the movie does badly (and it could very well do badly, Curaon is 
taking one hell of a risk by radically departing from JKR's set 
story line) even Curaon's getting the Best Director Oscar is not 
going to make a difference to Warner - they'll see to it that Curaon 
gets the boot together with the imprint (you know where) faster than 
Daniel Radcliff can say "Firebolt"!

The problem with the Harry Potter property (and you can be sure that 
Warner Bros. treats as such) is that the money lies with the massive 
number of patrons who've read the book and want to see what they've 
read faithfully rendered on screen - because if this, all of the 
four movies have an instant audience - and this is the massive 
audience that Columbus made use of. 

Now, a new director can do one of two things:

1) He or she can either please this audience, or 
2) Displease this audience

If Curaon pleases the audience, this is no big deal, because 
Columbus has done it before, BUT if he displeases that preset 
audience, even critical raves and an Oscar nod's not going to make 
an iota of a difference! 

Why ? Simply because the number of people seeing the movie after  
Curaon gets the Oscar nod will be far less than the individuals who 
initially saw it, hated it and refused to see it again or the 
possible fans who wanted to see it but stayed away simply because 
their friends criticized it!!

So an Oscar nod isn't going to do anything for Curaon if the numbers 
go south like ducks in winter!


On a personal note:
Many assume that this movie will be great simply because of the 
Curaon name and "The Little Pincess" but I beg to defer - I've seen 
another little movie (made by the gr8 Curaon himself) called "Great 
Expectations" and a fine mess he made of that one; which was based 
on the book of the same name by Charles Dickens (yes, THE Charles 
Dickens of Oliver Twist fame).

Curaon made changes so drastic that he even saw it fit to change the 
name of the protogonist from Pip to Finn (as if Pip wasn't hep or 
modern enough for him). Let's just hope that he doesn't change our 
beloved hero's name from Harry Potter to Larry Rotter and change the 
location of Azkaban to Azarbaijan!

If you haven't read Dicken's "Great Expectations", I strongly urge 
all listees to read the same, then view Curaon's movie of the same 
name.  Perhaps it will give one an idea as to how he treat Potter - 
or should I say Rotter (after Curaon's finished with him :( ) 

In any case, this Harry Potter fan is afraid, very afraid!

Regards, 
Keith