Reviews and comment from the Demon Crew - creative writers at De Montfort University, Leicester.

Monday 5 March 2012

Drafts worth millions of galleons

How to fill a lecture room? Put on an image from the Harry Potter film, show a few clips and call your talk "Harry Potter ... something". The visitors are going to beat a path to your door.

Including me, I should say, as I am a devoted Harry Potter fan. In contrast to the talker, James Russell, at least according to his own statement. And I'm not going to discuss to what extent buying the books the day they are released qualifies you as being a fan...

Nevertheless, it was interesting to get some information about the film industry behind the wizarding world. I didn't know how less influence WarnerBros actually took in this massive project. They provided loads of money, but then stepped back and trusted the producer David Heyman with the creative control.

Unfortunately, the details about the four different directors of Harry Potter were nothing new to me – I belong to those freaks, who even know each of them by name. For normal people, it must have been enjoyable to get to know how the directors' personal styles shaped the films.

However, the talk was strongly coloured by Russell's often controversial point of view. It's rather bold to claim that the books are more preliminary versions, while the films present the finished drafts.

And by the way, Mr. Russell, the "K" in Rowling's artist's name doesn't stand "for nothing", it's the initial of her grandmother's first name "Kathleen".


Katharina Maria Kalinowski

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