ROTTEN TOMATOES: David Yates Directing Final Harry Potter Film?

David Yates Directing Final Harry Potter Film?

So sayeth Lois Lowry.

by Jeff Giles | February 21, 2008

It appears as though David Yates will be the one helming the final Harry Potter film -- but his decision comes at a price for fans anticipating another literary adaptation.

Lois Lowry, author of the 1993 young-adult favorite The Giver, spilled the Yates/Potter news in her latest blog entry, posted Tuesday. What does Lowry have to do with it, you ask? Well, David Yates is set to direct an adaptation of her book -- but he can only be one place at a time, and, well...why don't we let Lowry tell it?

Bad news from The Giver movie front. David Yates, the director currently working on the next Harry Potter film, was supposed to begin The Giver film next. But he has just decided he wants to do the final Harry Potter first, thereby postponing The Giver by several years. Maybe the opening of this film could be held simultaneously with my celebration-of-life service after I succumb to old age? Or the producers will decide to get a different director. Stand by. But without holding your breath.

Good as this news is for Yates-loving Potter fans, The Giver is actually one novel we wouldn't mind seeing turned into a film. We won't spoil any of the plot details for you here; suffice to say the book is cool enough to have been banned by many an uptight school district. Hurry up, Yates!

Source: Lois Lowry

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(1-20 of 52 posts) | Reply

Warheart1188 writes:
on Feb 21 2008 05:37 AM

I'd rather have someone else do the last film. Yates did a good job with OotP but it was so damn short. I'm sure HBP will be good but I want someone like Cuaron to come back and do the last film.

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Silverevilchao writes:
on Feb 21 2008 05:42 AM

ARGH.

WTF happened to Del Toro?! His experience in dark, disturbing fantasy movies (see: Pan's Labyrinth) would EASILY suit the extremely dark tone of the last Harry Potter book!

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Elixor writes:
on Feb 21 2008 06:01 AM

Yates seemed very good at handling the understandably condensed movie form of OotP. I'm happy with him doing the last movie.

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jasperoosterveld writes:
on Feb 21 2008 06:12 AM

Bad idea. We need the director from the 3th movie. That one had the best looks and feel!

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witherwings writes:
on Feb 21 2008 06:23 AM

I heart Alfonso. Dang it.

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bwozar07 writes:
on Feb 21 2008 06:50 AM

Damn, what happened to those Del Toro rumors? Especially now that Hobbit looks to be falling back into legal trouble...

Otherwise more Cuaron would've been nice.

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Buried But Breathing writes:
on Feb 21 2008 07:19 AM

I wish somebody else would do this, because Ootp was the worst of all of them film wise.

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TombstoneLawDog writes:
on Feb 21 2008 07:22 AM

Color me 'okay' with this news. I thought OotP was about as good as this series has gotten (pretty good, actually) and I think this guy is as strong a contender as any of the other directors. And I had NO problems with the running time on 5. ..I obviously want to be dumped on, so let me just say that I wasn't nearly as in love with the 3RD ('3th?! whatheFU?!') movie as everyone else was, so I'm not feeling the loss of that director. Better than the first two, but more because it was a different, darker take than because it was a 'superior' film.

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jpotter writes:
on Feb 21 2008 07:29 AM

i'll just add to the chorus of folks who liked 'OotP,' and are ok with yates doing the 6th, but would've liked to have seen cuaron come back - or, ideally, del toro - for the 7th. 3 of 7 movies is a lot for one guy.

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moviefrk13 writes:
on Feb 21 2008 08:00 AM

OOTP was probably my second favorite (behind POA) even though it was so short. i am excited to see how yates does HBP, but i would really rather have someone else step in for DH. it's always good to keep the series fresh. especially if the rumor about splitting DH into two movies is true...they would most likely hire the same director for both of them to keep the same vision. so hypothetically, that would be four harry potter movies for yates...and that's kind of a lot.

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Shatter24 writes:
on Feb 21 2008 08:50 AM

I would say the best Potter film was Goblet of Fire, so I would prefer to see Mike Newell come back and direct the last film. He made it emotionally compelling and did nice traditional story telling, with some darkness, w/o having to over express himself like Cuaron does.

Cuaron may be a capable and artistically expressive director, but I want a director that doesn't get in the way of the book and story trying to be told. Prisoner of Azkaban was my least favorite of the films, b/c it felt more like a Cuaron film than a Potter film. He is most likely to change and unreasonably shorten and skip portions in the last chapter.

That being said, Yates proved to be a capable director for the franchise in Order of the Phoenix, besides unnecessarily changing the looks of the Dementors and the fireside magic effects w/ Sirius (that still bugs me). He did do well, but I don't think he's mastered the battle sequences yet.

Perhaps someone new for the last film, if they could get a big name director. Sam Raimi would be cool or Spielberg, for the finale. My pick is still with Newell, of the current directors.

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RawIsRamsey writes:
on Feb 21 2008 09:03 AM

OotP wasn't that great, I really don't see why everyone is drooling over it. It was just lacking something that made you really care about the characters, cause I didn't. Yes, it's still good, but not up to the level of previous Potter films.

Whatever happened to Spielburg doing the last one (or is it still on tap to be 2?) movie? I figured they would want to end the series on a huge BANG with a huge director. Whatever they do, don't let Michael Bat put his hands near or, lest they be chopped off and fed to sharks.

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Dinobot77 writes:
on Feb 21 2008 09:18 AM

I am going to agree with many of you. I did not think OotP was as good as the other movies. I do agree that OotP was more in-line with the book than the other movies, but there was something lacking underneath, at least for me.

I really wish that they would have gotten Del Torro to do this movie. As much as I have loved Spielberg throughout the years, I can't see him directing an extremely dark motion picture with a not so happy ending. Though, I would love to see his spin on the franchise. Del Torro would more than likely be the better fit. Additionally, I could see Nolan directing a flick like this, but that will never happen since he is now involved deeply with the Batman franchise.

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DarthWonka writes:
on Feb 21 2008 09:45 AM

Yates did a great job on OotP, buuuuuuuuuuuuut it was boring as ****.

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ajmk123 writes:
on Feb 21 2008 10:16 AM

The last book did have a happy ending, and speilberg would be perfect, i am just happy that Del Toro is not going to ruin it.

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andygates23 writes:
on Feb 21 2008 10:24 AM

Watching OotP is like watching a movie in Fast Forward. The pacing is so off that the story suffered. I thought it was the worst in the franchise. I do NOT want Yates to finish this masterpiece of story telling. I'd LOVE Del Toro to do it, but unfortunately I doubt that will happen.

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arendr writes:
on Feb 21 2008 10:41 AM

In my opinion, the Yates and Cuaron-helmed movies are far superior to all the other ones. In fact, they're the only ones I really enjoyed. So Yates is fine by me (as long as they fix the editing problem they had in Order of the Phoenix).

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southwick writes:
on Feb 21 2008 10:59 AM

Well this sucks. OOTP was easily my least favorite film of the series.
Well I guess he gets to screw up 3 books now, not just two.

Now we can all look forward to more missing characters, scenes, and plots!

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AniMill writes:
on Feb 21 2008 11:15 AM

Though Yates was not the best director of the series, he was fine - but that wasn't the biggest problem I had with OotP. What really irked me about the OotP was the incredibly bland music. The soundtrack felt like a 1970's rift, never inspiring nor memorable. The flyover of London sounded like a car commercial, while the horrible strings during the battle were thoroughly distracting.

I'm OK with Yates, but he HAS to get someone more seasoned/talented than Nicholas Hooper.

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SadisticMagician writes:
on Feb 21 2008 11:27 AM

eh..i think yates did a good job with the movie considering what was given to him by the screnwriter. if someone is to blame it's definately the screenwriter.

(Reply to this)

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