TV show reboot

[sunnyskywalker]

They haven't even finished with the Fantastic Beasts franchise, and already the books are getting a reboot, this time as a TV series. It will supposedly be "authentic to the original books." Whatever that means. JKR will be an executive producer, so maybe "authentic to what she intended to write or imagines she wrote."

I can't help but be morbidly curious. Will the Dursleys be blond? Will the reboot stick all the adults in robes instead of vaguely bohemian but mostly normal clothes? Will the Marauders generation look their ages instead of 20-30 years older? Will we get Dudley hiding in fear behind Vernon instead of eating cake, the full story of the prank, SPEW, the full set of Pensieve memories, Marietta's scarring, and Harry gleefully hexing Filch twice while his schoolmates look on and laugh? Will we get full-on flashbacks for some of the historical scenes? Will authenticity mean putting in the bits JKR totally meant to write but didn't, like the Slytherins triumphantly returning to fight? Will we get bonus material from the "ghost plots" that didn't make it into the books, like the backstory about Dean's father?

And, of course, will Harry have his mother's eyes for real this time? Since apparently that was important enough to yap about for seven whole books/eight movies...

Comments

[sunnyskywalker]

Honestly I tend to cut young actors a break and assume it's the director's fault. And maybe the script. Just about every Star Wars Prequel Trilogy actor is much better in everything they do other that Star Wars, which shows what a difference it makes. (The main exceptions are the real veterans like Liam Neeson, who would be experienced enough to know how to turn George Lucas's vague and/or melodramatic instructions into something more convincing. And confident enough to ignore him or tell him nope, doing something else when necessary.)

Radcliffe has done well in other things, as I recall. And I remember Jason Isaacs saying that Radcliffe actually improvised a major line in CoS and he thought the kid was a natural, so maybe Radcliffe's acting was actually propping up a bad script and bad direction as much as possible.

Let's hope for good scripts, good directors, and good actors...

[vermouth1991.livejournal.com]

As was expressed in my mega comment here, gun-to-my-head, I’d gladly pick Good Scripts above all else. Even the shadowy, disgusting aspects of the HP world would be a boon for the wider audience IF ACTUALLY PLAYED OUT. How can we start debates about e.g. “The Prank” if it’s neither shown or told in a screen version?

ETA

I think the improv moment in CoS was a mutual one: Jason Issacs improvised “Well let us hope that Mr Potter will always be here to save the day!” and Daniel shot right back, “Don’t worry, I will.”

[sunnyskywalker]

Yes, I think you're right about which exchange that was! It isn't easy to not only improv but play it completely sincerely, especially when you're inexperienced and, what, fourteen years old? I do wonder if fandom generally is too hard on Radcliffe and he really was dragging a subpar script up to solid mediocrity through talent and hard work.

Fingers crossed for decent scripts which are more than just a mash-up of the most dramatic scenes held together by vibes.

[vermouth1991.livejournal.com]

Daniel was born in July 1989 so he’d be 13 at the oldest (by the year the movie CoS comes out).

I’m very glad that he took the “Now I have my Twilight Millions I can just act for acting’s sake” path that RobPat took. Look at him in “Kill Your Darlings”, for example. Or even in “The F Word” that’s just set in regular times with nothing supernatural or overtly intense.

I wouldn’t call the first two movie scripts as subpar though. They and Chris Columbus’s direction (And I believe his influence on keeping as much stuff in the scripts as possible) really combined and paid off.

[sunnyskywalker]

The first two movies did at least seem like coherent stories, which the later movies struggled with. They also felt slightly flat to me despite the awesome sets and costumes and other great aspects. I suspect this has something to do with technical things about camera angles I don't know enough about to identify. But you know how framing a shot differently or at a different depth can vastly change how a scene feels, even if you don't know why? I think the first two movies weren't quite as good in that respect as they could have been, which is a shame.

Some of the later movies did better with making dramatic moments feel dramatic (some combo of cinematography, staging, and a good line or two), but didn't hang together as well. And some of the dramatic moments fell flat or undermined other parts of the movies. It would be nice to have both coherent stories and great cinematography and vibes.