Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix producer talks cuts
It’s just too big of a book, yall!
David Heyman, producer of the upcoming fifth Harry Potter movie, The Order of the Phoenix, told SCI FI Wire that the filmmakers had to make several sacrifices to adapt the 700-page book for the screen. "We had to cut out Ron and the Quidditch, which disappointed me," Heyman said in an interview on the film’s set outside London last fall. "But, ultimately, with the films what you have to do is, you have to make choices. As you say, you’re cutting down a 700-page book to a two-and-a-half-hour film, so inevitably you have to lose something. And what we’ve chosen to do with the films is really take them from the point of view of Harry. It’s Harry’s journey, and things that relate to Harry and Harry’s journey take center stage. Sometimes there’s room for the occasional something else, but for the most part, it’s Harry and his journey. So that Ron subplot was secondary to the central drive of the story. It is a shame, you know. There’s so much in each of the films that I would like to have had in, but ultimately the film has to work as a cohesive thing, so that happens."
One thing that won’t be cut is the book’s darkness and intensity, added Heyman, who has produced all of the Potter films so far. "In some ways it’s darker," Heyman said. "I think it’s more intense than the previous films. I don’t think it’s darker, actually, than the fourth film. I think it’s in the same wheelhouse in terms of darkness. It’s definitely more intense because of the connection between Harry and Voldemort, because of Harry feeling isolated and ostracized, and I think that definitely adds intensity to the story. And, obviously, with what happens in the third act of the film [with a key death], that sort of emotional touch."
Heyman said that director David Yates was best suited to the material of the fifth book; Yates is best known for directing the British TV miniseries State of Play, Traffic and Girl in the Cafe, which all mix personal stories with political intrigue, just like Order of the Phoenix.
"You see a director with a real strong point of view," Heyman said. "A really idiosyncratic sensibility. He is someone who … grounds things. He makes everything seem very real and authentic, and that’s very important for this. The fourth film had a wonderful sort of theatrical, bombastic, large sensibility. Perfect for that film, with the pomp and circumstance of the Quidditch World Cup, of the [Triwizard] Tournament … and the arrival of the other schools. Perfect, all of it. [But] this is a film which is grounded, I think, more in reality in the sense that it’s about a revolution, in a way. War is upon us, or is getting closer, as Voldemort has returned. Just like the resistance movements, the French resistance movements of the 1940s, an underground movement is formed, Dumbledore’s Army, to provide the kids with an opportunity to learn how to defend themselves. … And it was important that that be treated with real verisimilitude, real truth, … and I think David Yates brings that." Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix opens July 13.
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