Steven Spielberg to direct final Harry Potter film!

by JD Warnock on August 22, 2007

in Blogs

Wouldn’t it rule if that were true.

Wouldn’t that just make your heart go pitter-patter? Usually, sequels are the result of a studio pushing beyond a good first film, with a credible director, to unreasonable lows like “Jaws: The Revenge” or “X-Men: The Last Stand” helmed by lesser captains.

There is of course no risk of that here, as the Harry Potter films have been unanimously well-done. Even Chris Columbus didn’t squash the genius of the books, and more recent efforts (David Yates directed “Order of the Phoenix” and Alfonso Cuaron did “Prisoner of Azkaban”) easily stand their ground at the top of the heap. Yates has already signed on for film six, “The Half-Blood Prince,” but wouldn’t it make all the sense in the world to bring on a true heavyweight to take “the-boy-who-lived” and the gang down the finish line? Steven Speilberg or Peter Jackson, take your pick.

Not only would a monolithic director like Spielberg fire up the cast and production crew having found themselves in such capable hands for the grand finale, but it would be a remarkable inversion of the franchise formula. Let’s face it, the only consolation for a globe full of Potter fans still grieving from the last book, the last page, the last new moment with Harry, is that we have two more films to look forward to.

Warner Brothers should knock the last installment out of the park with a director who can handle the complex and detailed conclusion author J.K. Rowling has laid out in “The Deathly Hallows.” Either way there will be a lot of tears in the parking lot when the last frame rolls on the Harry Potter films, but the right mega-director’s involvement just might ease the unavoidable pain at film seven’s end.

{ 8 comments }

1 ChrisKnudsen August 22, 2007 at 8:34 am

No thanks to Jackson. Let the manboy only make crappy Hobbit movies from now on if he isn’t going to make splatter gore or lesbian dramas. The last Potter film sucked too. After watching it, I felt a little sick that the same dude was making the next one which will be the first that I will probably wait for video. Its like the same sickness that the ass that made 300 is making The Watchmen. That thing will probably be horrid too. I wish I invented airplanes.

2 ChrisKnudsen August 22, 2007 at 8:34 am

No thanks to Jackson. Let the manboy only make crappy Hobbit movies from now on if he isn’t going to make splatter gore or lesbian dramas. The last Potter film sucked too. After watching it, I felt a little sick that the same dude was making the next one which will be the first that I will probably wait for video. Its like the same sickness that the ass that made 300 is making The Watchmen. That thing will probably be horrid too. I wish I invented airplanes.

3 TravisH August 22, 2007 at 3:21 pm

That will either make it or break it. If Spielberg did direct, which would be phenomenal, he would still need to stay as true to the book as possible. The thing about HP is it leaves no real room for artistic interpretation. JK did such a good job on the books making them theatrical in print form and so cultishly liked that if the film deviated to far from the path the director would be skinned alive.

4 TravisH August 22, 2007 at 3:21 pm

That will either make it or break it. If Spielberg did direct, which would be phenomenal, he would still need to stay as true to the book as possible. The thing about HP is it leaves no real room for artistic interpretation. JK did such a good job on the books making them theatrical in print form and so cultishly liked that if the film deviated to far from the path the director would be skinned alive.

5 Cleavy August 23, 2007 at 3:52 pm

Damn JD, you’re such a tease! I agree, a rockstar director would be a really interesting (awesome) inversion of the typical sequel formula. But, don’t try to steal Jackson – I’m still entertaining the pipe dream of The Hobbit!

6 Cleavy August 23, 2007 at 3:52 pm

Damn JD, you’re such a tease! I agree, a rockstar director would be a really interesting (awesome) inversion of the typical sequel formula. But, don’t try to steal Jackson – I’m still entertaining the pipe dream of The Hobbit!

7 Matty38 August 28, 2007 at 5:16 pm

No to both of them. As much as I like Spielberg and Jackson, neither of them have enough passion for the material to make a faithful adaptation. I liked the formula of finding directors whose names aren’t very well-known with the general public, like Cuaron (although now he is quite well-known) and Yates. I still hope that Guillermo del Toro will take the reigns as he is a huge fan of the series, or I want Cuaron to make a return. He really showed how well he understands the material with Prisoner of Azkaban.

8 Matty38 August 28, 2007 at 5:16 pm

No to both of them. As much as I like Spielberg and Jackson, neither of them have enough passion for the material to make a faithful adaptation. I liked the formula of finding directors whose names aren’t very well-known with the general public, like Cuaron (although now he is quite well-known) and Yates. I still hope that Guillermo del Toro will take the reigns as he is a huge fan of the series, or I want Cuaron to make a return. He really showed how well he understands the material with Prisoner of Azkaban.

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