And no, making more money out of this final chapter of the Harry Potter saga is said to have nothing to do with it. The problem is something that most fans of the books have noticed in the film series: that with each new chapter in the movie version of the story, whole chunks of pertinent details from the books are getting cut out. This was especially a problem with this past summer's movie of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Not to mention the fact that Deathly Hallows is an incredibly dense book that ties up every thread that's been left dangling across the previous six books. There's no way that all of that could be wrapped up in a single two-plus hour movie. So doing Deathly Hallows as two installments makes some sense.
I think that someday, there's going to be another film adaptation of the entire Harry Potter saga. It'll be done with the entire scope of the books in mind, now that they have all been published, instead of what has really amounted to a lot of guesswork by the various directors with input by J.K. Rowling... who naturally couldn't lay all her cards down on the table for the films' sake. But ten or twenty years from now... I think the time will be ripe then for a cinematic treatment that will be able to do the Harry Potter saga its fullest justice. That's not to slam the current batch of movies, 'cuz I absolutely do love them quite a bit. It's just that later on there'll be the proper hindsight to handle them better. And maybe by then, the groundwork will have been prepared so that Deathly Hallows could still be a single movie.
I'm going to believe that this is a falsehood until I see an official WB release stating otherwise. This is because of something even you mentioned in your entry. "...with each new chapter in the movie version ... whole chunks of pertinent details from the books are getting cut out."
ReplyDeleteYes, smyth-sewn HBP ties up alot of issues from its previous stitched-up fellows, but the celluloid versions don't have nearly as many open-ended topics.
No, she couldn't give all her information out, but Rowling has been at script readings and Steve Kloves and ... whoever penned OotP never made any changes that she didn't approve. There were times when she even admitted to them, "If you leave that out, the seventh film is going to be impossible to make." I have to believe that she feels the pertinent details are there to complete the story on film.
And if it did split into two-halves, regardless of what they say, it will be a financial decision as well as a hype-tactic. There won't be crazy midnight book-release parties anymore. The last two films were released near book-releases, and I don't think that's a fluke. With just the movies coming out, the franchise doesn't have that second vehicle to reignite the hype in between releases.
I just can't believe that anything is for the good of the series now that it's finished. It's a financial gold-mine and neither WB nor JKR are silly enough to not take advantage of it.
In the event it is two movies, I say bring it on. I can dig that, too.