Chris Columbus, director of the first two original Harry Potter films, shares his thoughts on HBO’s new television adaptation of JK Rowling’s magical classic. Director Columbus also weighed in on rumors of casting Cillian Murphy as Lord Voldemort.
Columbus, who attended the Los Angeles premiere of Nosferatu, told People that the new series is a chance to explore themes he hasn’t been able to express in his previous films.
“I think it’s a great idea because there are certain limitations when you make a movie. Our movie was two hours and 40 minutes, and the second one was about the same length,” he told the magazine. .
Director Columbus reflected on his experience directing The Philosopher’s Stone (2001) and The Chamber of Secrets (2002), and expressed his opinion on the difficulty of compressing Rowling’s novel into a feature film. He adopted a series format that allowed him to delve deeper into the book’s nuances.
The director said having multiple episodes in one book allows the creators to include plot points and scenes that had to be left out in the film due to time constraints.
“I think the fact that we have (multiple) episodes for each book is great. With this series, we get all the great scenes that we couldn’t do that we didn’t have a chance to do. “You can put it in.” Don’t put film in,” Columbus added.
Casting for the HBO series is still underway, but fans have already begun speculating online. One of the most popular ideas is casting Cillian Murphy as the iconic villain Lord Voldemort, previously played by Ralph Fiennes. Columbus was a fan of Murphy’s work and supported his ideas, calling the actor brilliant.
He said, “Well, that would be great because Kilian is one of my favorite actors. Kilian is a great actor. I fully support Kilian.”
The new Harry Potter series is highly anticipated and fans are waiting with bated breath for any news to come out during filming. All eight original movies are currently available for streaming.
Also read: Director Chris Columbus quits the film after being treated as ‘shit’ by actor Chevy Chase. Remembering a “strange” meeting
