A Screenwriter's Hogwarts Decade

Screenwriter Steve Kloves has had a pretty good run of it of late. He wrote the Harry Potter movies.

From a piece in the New York Times...

Adapting the stories for film has been a delicate process all along, as faithfulness to books adored by millions has always had to be balanced with the conventions (and length) of Hollywood blockbusters. (Mr. Kloves is the screenwriter for all but one of the movies, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”) But “Deathly Hallows” was perhaps the most difficult of all. More than 700 pages long and crammed with quick-moving plot developments leading to an apocalyptic finale, the book ultimately proved too dense to make into a single film. So it has been split into two.

Part 1, to be released on Friday, covers the first half of the novel, a kind of prolonged road trip in which Harry, Ron and Hermione become nomads in hiding, sorting out their feelings for one another while eluding capture and searching for magical objects that must be destroyed before Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) can die. Part 2, which builds to a final battle between good and evil inside the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is scheduled for release in the summer of 2011.

“When the idea was initially mooted, I was, to put it mildly, uncertain,” said David Heyman, one of the key producers, speaking of the decision to make two movies from one book. “But as Steve began to break the book down, it became clear that there was no way to tell this story in one film and to have the film make sense and do the book any justice.” (And, of course, the decision allows Warner Brothers to spin out the franchise for one last probable box-office bonanza.) Though expectations for the finale are even higher than usual, the filmmakers say their approach has essentially stayed the same throughout the series.

“I took my cues from Jo,” Mr. Kloves said, speaking of Ms. Rowling. “The first day I met her, she said: ‘I know the movies can’t be the books. All that I ask is that you be true to the characters.’ And I believe I’ve fulfilled that request.”