bad news I hope is wrong!

[Steve]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, "leb2323" <lbiles at f...> wrote:
> I saw a little blurb in the Dallas Morning News today that ananova.com 
> was reporting that the producer or someone like that has pretty much 
> guaranteed that the trio will be played by different actors for the 
> 5th movie and later.  When I went to the site to see the whole 
> story what I found instead was an interview where Dan Radcliffe is 
> predicting that Harry will die by the end of the series.  I have to go 
> pick up the kiddos at their last day of school and don't have time to 
> dig any deeper right now.  Sure hope that both things are wrong wrong 
> wrong!!!
> 
> leb

bboy_mn:

I think if you take the time to search the Internet and find the
entire interview, you will discover the the sensationalistic overblown
negative headlines don't match what was actually said. The problem
here is that no one ever bought a newspaper or magazine because the
headline said,...

"NO WORRIES. EVERYTHING'S OK". 

There is an old saying in the news business, 'If it bleeds, it leads'.
So they can't make much of a story out of Heyman's statements if they
report that everything is OK. So, they manufacture controversy in the
headlines.

What Heyman said is that at some point the kids will leave the series,
although, whether that is now, after book 5, book 6, or book 7 he
didn't know. But certainly each person, individually, will want to
move on to other things at some point.

Chris Columbus advised all the kids in the beginning to do two or
three then just walk away; no matter how good the money is, just walk
away. Walk away before the industry, the media hype, the transient
fame, and the money corrupt them. Having said that, he then did a
commendable job of making sure the kids were not corrupted by the
process. He, and a lot of other people appear to be doing an
outstanding job of taking care of these kids.

I also think Dan and the other actors are very very wise to take it
one movie at a time. Chris advised them all to leave as soon as it
stopped being fun. With 'one at a time' movie contracts the kids keep
the power, they can walk whenever they want without any legal
complications. 

They also have some negotiating power now. For the second movie, the
sceen actor's guild (union or whatever they call it in England)
stepped in and forced Warner Brothers to increase Dan's salary to
something consistent with a movie of this caliber. I think the Union
stepped in because Dan was under a pre-existing contract and therefore
couldn't negotiate for himself. The Union's action essentially
nullified that contract. Since then, it's been one movie at a time.

I think for the third and fourth movies Dan's agent probably realize
he has some power and negotiated substantial, but reasonable and fair,
salaries. According to  a couple different source, Dan in now one of
the richest teens in the UK (top 10). 

For reference, Frank Muniz (Malcom in the Middle) got about 2 million
for the Cody Banks movie and they each grossed about 400 million.
That's a far cry from the +800 million you can expect from a Harry
Potter movie.

According to a couple of Dan's interviews, he doesn't know or care how
much money he has. He's left that up to his parents who, by the way,
still provide him with his pocket money. He's having fun now, and
later when he is ready for his adult life, the money wil be their to
help him on his way.

I think Dan has set the precedent for the other kids, allowing them to
also negotiate new salary deals for each movie. I'm sure WB hates
that, they would love to lock them into a salary and a long term
contract so the Studio could keep making money. 

I know Tom Felton has already tried to get out of the movie franchise,
but I'm guessing they offered him so much money he simply couldn't
refuse. But he has wanted to go to college for a long time and study
fishery management, and his long term goal is to be a professional
fisherman. 

I hope this offer of 'too much money to refuse' continues, because I
agree with others, he makes a great Draco. 

I think all of the kids are playing the game very wisely, and I leave
the decision up to them. What every they think is best for themselves
will have my full suport.

I do suspect that if primary characters leave the franchise,
production will shut down for a couple of year while they regroup, and
at the same time, give the world time to forget about the current crop
of actors.

I also suspect that a year or two shutdown is inevitable, because the
books aren't coming fast enough. If that delay occurs, the studio may
decide on their own that it's a good time to get a new and cheaper
crop of actors. In addition, I suspect if this happens, the standard
of the movie will deteriorate. The result will be a high homogenous
Disney-fied, American-ized version of the books that will not achieve
the levels of acclaim or revenue that the current movies have.

Just one man's opinion.

bboy_mn