David Heyman on "Half-Blood Prince" Delay
Heyman InterviewsOctober 30, 2008, 12:15 PM
Harry Potter film producer David Heyman is the subject of a new interview on ComingSoon.net in which he speaks more about the decision to delay the "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" film. While doing press for his latest film, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," Mr. Heyman spoke in the interview to the reasons for the decision, his own feelings as a creative person, the process in which the films are completed, and his sympathies to the many fans upset by the news. Mr. Heyman is quoted as saying in regards to the decision:
Mr. Heyman goes on to speak further of this decision in relation to the creative process of creating a series films. He says:"I think that there was some people... kids were definitely upset, and I'm really sympathetic to that. I would love the film to come out in November; we would have been ready, but the fact is partly because of the writers strike and for whatever reason, Warners didn't have any movies next summer. They had Batman this year which was bigger than they ever thought it would be, so they came to me, and they said, 'David, we want to move it.' Warners has been really good to us. They've given us lots of money and lots of independence. It defies belief how much independence we have on these films. They give us the money, they read a draft of the script. I choose the director, we make the film, they come and visit. We show them a cut of the film, they say they like it, they give us some notes, we make the changes that we want to make. We test screen it once and show it to them, and then the movie is released. They've been so supportive that one has to support... they needed it. It's a film business."
"It's a shame and it's frustrating in a sense as any creative person, it's nice to put what you've done behind you before you move onto the next and this is still lingering over us until July next year, but also, we'll have to take a week off shooting to do publicity, which is a little bit disruptive. It's not ideal but at the same time, I fully support it, because as I say, they give us the freedom to make these films, and they pay a lot of money."In the last part of the interview, Mr. Heyman confirms that the film is "done," and filming for the final installments of the seires, Parts One and Two of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," will not be affected by the "Half-Blood Prince" move. Filming for "Deathly Hallows," he says in the article, will still begin in February. Mr. Heyman offers some details on the unique process of finalizing a film in an environment where piracy is a major issue by relating that "We're just mixing and there's a slight tweak we're going to do but actually, if the film was coming out tomorrow, we'd have done it but we have the time. One of the issues that's come up is security so we are not putting a married print together. We're keeping all the elements separate until we start to make the prints, which will be six weeks before the movie comes out. Piracy is such a huge issue."
"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is based on the novel by John Boyne, stars actor David Thewlis (Remus Lupin) as a commandant of a Nazi concentration camp, and will be released in select theaters on November 7th.
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" will be in theaters on July 17, 2009.
Well, It was pleasant to read what Heyman says about this. But I still don’t have good feelings about this.