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| | Harry Potter News Latest news and rumors about the Harry Potter world! | 
06-07-2004, 06:02 AM
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[img]http://www.snitchseeker.com/images/news/hp_grandpre_80.jpg' align='middle'> Kloves and Cauron Working movie magic - Summary:
Steve Kloves' scripts make Potter films fly Article:
Steve Kloves and Alfonso Cuaron imagined themselves so totally into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that it takes a re-reading of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to tell what they invented from what they merely adapted.
Thanks to Wizard News for the article: Quote: Steve Kloves, the screenwriter for all three Harry Potter films, sounds a lot like mob boss Michael Corleone when Corleone declares in The Godfather Part III, "Just when I thought that I was out, they pull me back in!"
Deliriously happy with the third entry in the series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Kloves says by phone from Los Angeles that he hopes to get started soon on his first film as a writer and director since Flesh and Blood (1993). It's a version of British author Mark Haddon's prize-winning novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The tale of an autistic teen who turns detective when he's blamed for the death of a neighbor's dog may sound strange - but no stranger than J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone did when Kloves pulled a summary out of a pile from Warner Bros. and got himself a copy of Rowling's first book.
But with Rowling's entry No. 4, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, filming in London - also from a Kloves script - he is on call for problem-solving rewrites. (Mike Newell, of Four Weddings and a Funeral, is directing Goblet.) So with Haddon's book beckoning, Kloves has been hesitant to plunge into Rowling No. 5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
The producers would be wise to keep Kloves on the case. Reviewers have rightly praised first-time Potter director Alfonso Cuaron for the artistic great leap forward of The Prisoner of Azkaban, in which Harry and friends turn 13. Yet Kloves deserves to share the credit.
Of course, Cuaron has won international renown with films about children (A Little Princess, 1995) and teenagers (Y Tu Mama Tambien, 2001). But adolescents - often arrested adolescents - have preoccupied Kloves, too.
His first produced script, Racing With the Moon (1984), features some of the best early work of Nicolas Cage and Sean Penn, as buddies facing friendship and courtship crises before they enter World War II. The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) stars Jeff Bridges as a nightclub pianist nursing romantic fantasies and jazzy artistic goals as he plays out lingering sibling tensions with his partner and brother (Beau Bridges). And Wonder Boys (2000) follows Tobey Maguire and Michael Douglas as writers of different generations handling the challenges of interrupted promise.
So it's not surprising that some of the best moments in Azkaban belong primarily to Kloves.
Creative resources
The key adult character in Azkaban is Professor Lupin (David Thewlis), a warmhearted academic sad sack and, for a time, Harry's most important mature ally. Because Kloves drew on his own creative resources to flesh out this endearing, threadbare character, Lupin's simply talking to Harry on a bridge is the film's most touching scene. Its piercing emotion derives partly from Lupin and Harry's bonding as outsiders. But as Lupin divulges his close friendship with Harry's late parents, Lily and James, he becomes, as Kloves says, "Harry's extended family."
Kloves says that when he first met Rowling, he told her he intuited that Lily "was quite special" and that James "was complicated." And in the bridge scene, Lupin "illuminates Harry about his mother - the most wonderful thing about her was that she was understanding toward Lupin at a time few were. She saw something special about him when others, including himself, couldn't." Kloves admits, "I think he was in love with her in many ways."
Kloves' sensitivity to the emotional reverberations beneath wild adventures is what makes him an ideal screen interpreter for Rowling. And in Prisoner of Azkaban he shows how much content he can conjure from fleeting suggestions. With a few spare brushstrokes, he renders the relationship between Harry's studious friend Hermione (Emma Watson) and the foggy Professor Trelawney (Emma Thompson) as a cataclysmic clash of two world-views: the rational and the madcap.
Kloves tells me he wants to be sure that Chris Columbus, who directed the first two Potter films and was a co-producer on No. 3, gets proper credit for the series. "Alfonso inherited amazing things from Chris," he says, "including some remarkable casting and Stuart Craig's production design. What you see in Azkaban looks different because of Alfonso's eye. The Great Hall is still the Great Hall, but with Alfonso's incredible wide lenses, you get so much information in each shot."
Columbus' success at establishing the Potter universe on film allowed Kloves and Cuaron to "lift off from the page" on Azkaban. "I've never been an exposition guy," Kloves admits. "When Alfonso and I started working together, we decided that familiarity with Harry's world was going to be part of the price of admission. We weren't going to reintroduce things."
Along with producer David Heyman, designer Craig, and the central cast, Kloves has been a series bulwark. But as a sometime writer-director, he advises fans, "Make no mistake: these are director's movies. ... A filmmaker really has to come in and take the reins. Not too long ago, Alfonso said that working with me on Azkaban was like sitting in a room and dreaming. ... What he communicated early was, 'Let's dream in here: Let's not worry about practicalities or the literal text. Let's start and see where we go and what different avenues we can pursue.' Of course, the dream would have to be adjusted, but it was a great way to work."
Coming in as an outsider, Cuaron jokingly called the Rowling experts on the film team - Kloves included - "the Taliban." Kloves quickly adds, "The irony is that within two or three months, Alfonso was completely seduced by this world, too. In essence, we are faithful to the book even if some of the specifics are not there. The movie is about Harry's emotional experiences: He's trying to discover his own fingerprints, and how he fits into the world."
Invented vs. adapted
Kloves and Cuaron imagined themselves so totally into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that it takes a re-reading of the book to tell what they invented from what they merely adapted. For example, a funny, warm vignette marks Harry's first night back at Hogwarts: Harry and his pals devour goodies that make one roar like a lion and send steam spouting out of another's ears.
"That's all Alfonso," Kloves says. "For a long time we couldn't figure out how to do that scene; we had a version that was much more bittersweet, with Harry the only one awake, putting out a picture of his parents. But Alfonso wanted to get across the feeling that [Harry's] back in the life of the school, with his real family. The hijinks of that scene shows you what feeling Alfonso has for being 13, when you're about to become an adult but you're still a kid - and you're also uncomfortable in the world of childhood."
When it comes to the movie's action-packed, time-hopping climax - so daringly prolonged and sustained it's like a dance to the music of time - Kloves gives full credit to Cuaron. "It works because of the way Alfonso blocks out and orchestrates the action, and his confidence that the audience will put it all together."
Kloves' modesty is becoming.
In one of the best speeches from Kloves' Wonder Boys script, Katie Holmes tells Michael Douglas, "Even though your book is really beautiful, it's ... very detailed. You know, with the genealogies of everyone's horses, and the dental records, and so on. ... I could be wrong, but it sort of reads in places like you didn't make any choices."
With Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Kloves has rid himself of the first two films' creature genealogies and dental records. He's made all the right choices.
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06-07-2004, 02:03 PM
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#2 (permalink)
|  The GoatPogrebin
Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: box
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Quote: Originally posted by crazedfan@Jun 6 2004, 09:36 PM
Kloves says that when he first met Rowling, he told her he intuited that Lily "was quite special" and that James "was complicated." And in the bridge scene, Lupin "illuminates Harry about his mother - the most wonderful thing about her was that she was understanding toward Lupin at a time few were. She saw something special about him when others, including himself, couldn't." Kloves admits, "I think he was in love with her in many ways."
Yay, first to post!
Personally, I don't think that he was in love with lily! I don't think that the story itself will have time for stuff like that!
But anyway, the artivle is cool! Thanks!
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06-07-2004, 04:28 PM
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#3 (permalink)
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 200
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I don't know. Although I have liked the three films, I was disappointed with the script. It bugs me that Kloves has taken many of the best lines that Ron would have had, and given them to Hermione. I would welcome someone else's interpretation for the last three movies-- someone who is willing to give Ron his due.
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06-07-2004, 04:40 PM
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#4 (permalink)
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Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: USA
Posts: 1,369
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i really wanted to see the movie. :sorcerer:
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06-08-2004, 03:30 AM
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#5 (permalink)
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Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Sitting at the computer that the moment
Posts: 14
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I loved this article and Steve rocks! I hope he continues on and writes the script for the rest of the films. He's done such a great job so far.
Steve please!! hehe
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06-08-2004, 08:04 AM
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#6 (permalink)
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I hear both directors are wonderful; I can't wait to see the movie! =)
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