HARRY POTTER- ‘DEATHLY HALLOWS’ TO BE SPLIT IN TWO
Muggles and Mudbloods everywhere are shocked by the just released news that the final instalment in the Harry Potter franchise, namely HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, won’t reach movie screens in one piece! The final part of the phenomenally successful series has now officially been split into two separate movies! The LA Times broke the story that Warner Bros have decided that the best way to handle the end of this contemporary fantasy behemoth is to split the final chapter in half, thus ensuring that more of the story ends up on the screen and not relegated to DVD extras. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 will wave its magic wand at our screens in late 2010, with Part 2 to follow in mid 2011.
We’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves here thought aren’t we? The sixth film in the franchise, HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE isn’t finished yet, and already they’re stealing its thunder with this news. I do think it is a very good idea to do this with the seventh film, in that it will indeed allow the makers of the movie to be more faithful to the book and not have to make omissions that fans won’t like, but personally I would have waited until that sixth film is out to lay this on the fans. Thankfully Potter enthusiasts won’t have to wait a year or anything, as it’ll only be six months between each part of the story. I hope this works out. Remember the last time Warners released two sequel movies within six months? Yeah, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Let’s try not to think about those two aberrations, shall we?
It will also, says the cynic in me, give Warners twice the amount of product to promote. Then again, Harry Potter as a whole is an incredibly positive franchise to be into, and as long as that spirit of friendship and positivity in the face of terrible odds is alive and well, I’m all for it.
Daniel Radcliffe, star of the boy wizard movies, agrees that this is the way to go, mainly because where the other parts of the series have all had subplots that could be lost without much fuss (despite the cries of diehard fans), the seventh book is pretty relentless. Losing elements of the story to keep the running time to a cinema-friendly length would be a bad idea. The seventh book caused such a commotion upon its release that I’m sure these two movies will do the same, and perhaps the six month wait will add even more excitement to those final moments.
These two final movies are to be directed by David Yates, who also helmed the fifth film THE ORDER POF THE PHOENIX and is currently directing THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE. The movies will be scripted once again by Steve Kloves, who has written most of the adaptations so far. This is exciting news, and a great moment for Harry Potter fans everywhere.