MOVIE: Steven Spielberg and Chris Columbus

[ohtoresonate at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 26093

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., caliburncy at y... wrote:

< snip >

> Everything I've seen seems to indicate to me that he is a very 
> opinionated director which is why a lot of people would classify
him 
> as one of the more visionary directors.  But being opinionated can 
be 
> very problematic if you're supposed to be doing a faithful 
adaptation.

Very true - this is why Spielberg's so often considered an "auteur."  
A battle between an auteur and an author of their popularity would be 
titanic indeed.

> Chris Columbus, on the other hand, seems to have been a good,
though 
> unlikely-seeming choice.  At first I had my reservations since he 
> didn't really have the typical sort of background (unless you maybe 
> count his screenplays) for this kind of film.

I agree with you about Chris Columbus - I
haven't been a huge fan of his recent works, and
though I haven't hated them either, I would have hated to
see Harry slap himself silly a la "Home Alone."

But I caught on tv snippets of a movie he wrote 
ages ago: "Young Sherlock Holmes." For a few seconds, 
before I figured out who the characters were 
(young S. H. and young Watson at BOARDING SCHOOL 
battling an obnoxious BLOND peer-foe named DUDLEY) 
I would have sworn it was a trailer for
HP that I had not seen before!

Funny, but Steven Spielberg is credited as a 
producer of "Young Sherlock Holmes."  *Six* 
degrees of separation?  More like two
 

However, as good as it LOOKED, I couldn't sit through 
"YSH" for more than a few minutes.  But that 
may be as much the director, Barry Levinson's, fault as 
it is Columbus the screenwriter's fault.

If the trailers are any indocation, Columbus the director 
seems to "get" Harry Potter. < crossing fingers > And he 
*is* working with a better story, after all!  :)

< snip > 

> For one thing, I have no doubt that somewhere 
> in the movie there will be a single pseudo-cutesy-funny 
> moment that will make me cringe.  Whether or not that will 
> originally have been Columbus' fault is debatable, 
> but ultimately it is his responsibility to fix or cut it 
> and he may instead leave it because it's a "family film".  
> He may even seek it out.

The rumor is that he's gonna have one heck of a DVD...which usually 
means he's WAAAAY over the usual 2 hours.  Can't imagine he'll leave 
in too many things that are extraneous to JKR's series.  In fact, 
according to a recent Entertainment Weekly article, a recent edit 
clocked in at 4 hours!  Yikes, what'll he do with a longer book like 
GoF?!?

:) OTR