“Unlike every other book, you cannot remove elements of this book…”
I disagree. You could remove the whole DD backstory, seeing as it has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PLOT. Not to mention that it’s repeated over and over…
Sorry, but after the way some of the other books got condensed to confused messes in the other movies, NOW, with a book that spends a lot of time sitting around on its butt and another large portion talking about stuff that has nothing to do with the main plot, they give a crap?
Posted by fenm on March 12, 2008 @ 05:56 PM
I totally agree with you. This is just so WB can milk this cash cow a bit longer. Look they have it going until mid 2011. This is not for the fans so don’t kid yourselves they will still cut things and change things such as Bill and Fluer since they droped them from HPB.
@Fenm: Obviously all of that backstory is NOT going to be in there. but to cut it out altogether…NO WAY!!! do you like Harry potter???? how could you have not liked finding all of that out. That was brilliant. But I pretty sure they’re going to cut down some of the tent stuff. there’s no way all of that is going to be in there. But I think it’s safe to say all of the big stuff is going to be in there aka: the 7 potters, the wedding, the ministry break in, godric’s hollow, the ron fight, the silver doe, malfoy manor, xenophilius lovegood, shell cottage, dobby’s death, gringotts break in, hogwarts battle, ron and hermione kiss, ravenclaw common room, snape’s death, harry’s “death”, neville cutting off the head of nagini, the voldemort battle, the epilogue!!!! i’m sure i left some stuff out, but there’s a good chance all of that is going to be in there and that’s awesome!
Speaking objectively, I don’t see the movies as anything spectacular. Sure, they offer a visual aid to the books, but personally I prefer my imagination; the books were the main thing for me. The acting by the ‘kids’ was generally sub-par to begin with but they’re slowly coming into their own, finding their feet and I hope by 2010/11 they’ll have had enough experience to become really better actors.
On an entertainment level the films are good, but I don’t think it’s going to be the end of the world because of the delay. However, from a marketing aspect, they might want to re-think their strategy with the two-year gap between films. . .
That is FANTASTIC news!!!!!!! Can’t wait!! I was wondering how they were going to fit that fantastic book into a measley 2 1/2 hour movie.
Now they remember there are subplots that should make it into the film? Oh, sad oxymoron: I’ll be there to see both both films of course, but I find the decision a mere pretext to keep squeezing the HP money maker for one more year.
Happy to hear it. I think the first part will end with the escape from Gringotts, and the dragon flying off into the sunset, and Ron (or Harry?) joking that Hermione wants it as a pet.
@Jimi: I think they can probably introduce Bill and Fleur in book 7 or just Bill. We’ve already met Fleur. But I think they could maybe just have Kreacher say that Umbridge took the locket from him while he was in diagon alley or something. that sounds like something umbridge would do because she wouldn’t think an house elf deserved something as valuable as the locket.
This is fantastic news !
It might have taken them 6 years but -finally, both the source material AND the Potter fam network are being treated withe respect they deserve just as the Lord of The Rings and its fans were.
I have a version of the book in MS Word and the EXACT halfway point of the book is when Hermione is trying to attack Ron in the tent after he returns. However, maybe there is more stuff in the first half of the book that can be cut so they will choose to make the halfway point later. It seems like in the second half of the book there is just about nothing that can be cut, except maybe some of the time spent hanging out at Shell Cottage.
@Daniella: No way. that’s way too far into the story. I think it has to end somewhere around the Silver Doe, Malfoy Manor, or Shell cottage. A lot of stuff happens before, after, and during all of those points in the book.
To all those concerned about Bill & Fleur: With Film 7 & 8 they can ADD both into the films. It won’t be that hard ‘cause they won’t be nearly as pressed for time.
Shell Cottage, Malfoy Manor are both way too far in. The Silver Doe is even pushing it.
Hmmm, I’m not so happy about this – seems to be a minority on this side. It’s not that I want them to cut a lot of stuff, but I’d much rather have a really long movie. I read the book all in one go and I think there is an arch of tension that should not be broken.
If I had to make a break, where would I put it? Probably at a moment of rest, maybe at Shell Cottage after the escape from Malfoy Manor or even later, after the escape on the dragon. That would make a great final and leave enough space for all the detail in the epic last 24 hours.