Harry Potter producer David Heyman recently teamed up with David Thewlis (Professor Lupin) to work on the film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which hits theatres November 14th. He has answered a few questions about this film and also answered some of our questions we asked him about changed scenes in the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and how these changes tie in with Deathly Hallows and what he plans after he completes filming the Harry Potter series. Read more to find out what he had to say!
Questions from Harry Potter's Page:
HPP QUESTION: There are some new and changed scenes in the "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" film that are different from the book. How will these changes tie in with "Deathly Hallows"?
DAVID HEYMAN: We have made changes in every adaptation of every single book. Jo Rowling reads each script and we are sure to run by Jo each of the changes that we make. She has been very comfortable with our adaptations. Inevitably we will have to emphasise certain things and highlight things that may have been omitted or not emphasised in earlier films but I don’t envisage any problems or issues with that.
HPP QUESTION: Dan Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) have already been asked a few times how they feel about coming to the end of filming the Harry Potter movies and what they will do after "Deathly Hallows" is complete. How do you feel about reaching the end of the series and what are your plans? DAVID HEYMAN: I am both excited and frankly a little saddened by the end of the series growing closer. Working on Harry Potter has been the gift of all gifts. It has changed my life in every which way. Every day working on it, I promise you, has been an absolute pleasure and something that will never be repeated. I am sure that when the time comes it will be a very sad day. I work with certain groups of people every day and I will not be doing that in the same way in the future. I will also be very proud because I am very proud of the films and very proud of the body of work that I have been a part of. At the same time I will be very excited about the new challenges that lie ahead. I am working on a book called The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time which I look forward to working with Steve Kloves who has written the Harry Potter films and who will write and direct that. Even now I am working on Paddington Bear and some other more adult films. I also made a few other films while I was producing Harry Potter so I am looking forward to having a little more time to work on those things. But Harry Potter will always be a part of me and what an amazing journey it has been.
Thanks very much to Mr. Heyman for answering our questions!
***
He also answered some questions from some other Harry Potter fan sites:
As you know, Half-Blood Prince screenings were recently held in Chicago, which has given fans an idea what to expect come July 2009. Many were shocked to see the omission of the Battle at Hogwarts and Dumbledore's funeral. Can you explain why these scenes were left out?
DAVID HEYMAN: The reason why we left out the Battle at Hogwarts is because we have a battle at Hogwarts in the Seventh film and we are avoiding repetition. Dumbledore’s funeral was something that I really loved and is a fantastic part of the book and part of me would have loved it in the film. But we decided that while we loved it that what we came up with was the right ending for the film that we had made.
Is it possible that given the delay in release, that Half-Blood Prince may be tweaked, according to the reactions from the screenings?
DAVID HEYMAN: Oh absolutely! The reason for a screening such as the one in Chicago is to give us information about any areas of confusion or pace or any issues that may arise, and work on them. So over the last couple of weeks, we have been working incredibly hard on the cut of the film and we will make changes to improve it. It is something that we have done with every film in the Harry Potter series.
Due to the release date change for Half-Blood Prince to next year, the premieres scheduled for New York and London were canceled. Since Dan Radcliffe will no longer be doing Equus in New York in July 2009, are you still planning to hold the US premiere there; and will the London premiere still include the royal family and screenings for fans?
DAVID HEYMAN: We have not yet had those discussions. We suspect that there will be a premiere in New York and one in London.
You've said that you want each of the Deathly Hallows films to have their own identities even though it's ultimately one story. How will you apply this thinking?
DAVID HEYMAN: We try to focus on a specific theme within each film and each of these films will have a specific theme running through it. In terms of camera work and lighting there will be slight differences. We are aiming for a slightly different aesthetic.
How are the screenplays by Steve Kloves coming along?
DAVID HEYMAN: They will be very faithful to the book. One of the pleasures of having the time to make two films means we will be able to go into more detail than we might otherwise have been able to do. If we had only done one film we were concerned that we might have to remove The Deathly Hallows. We never went that far but that would have been something that might have had to come out, which would have been terrible! The script is coming along well, I have read the first half of the adaptation. I have not read the second half, that should be coming in the next few weeks.
After the news broke on the decision to move the film until next year, fans were very upset and (WB president) Alan Horn weighed in with his thoughts on this matter. Have you any words that you as the producer can say to those fans who are still very upset and concerned their feelings and dedication to the series are not being taken seriously?
DAVID HEYMAN: The fact is that my passion and that of everybody who works on the film is undiminished. It is called ‘the film business’ and the reason why Warner Bros moved the date was for business reasons. Because of the writer’s strike and other factors in Hollywood there was not the pipeline of material for next year that they needed. They had a very big year with The Dark Knight and they needed a big film for 2009 and Harry Potter filled that slot. I appreciate the disappointment, I really do. As a film maker it is always nice to finish a film and move on to the next. But I think that the film will not be hurt by this experience at all. The studio has always been, and remains, committed to the film in every way. If the film had come out in November this year, there would have been a two year wait for the first part of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows. What now will happen is that there will be a two year gap between Order Of The Phoenix and The Half Blood Prince and there will only be, in ball park terms, a 16 month gap between Half Blood Prince and the first part of The Deathly Hallows. The Deathly Hallows is coming out in exactly the same schedule as was originally planned and we are starting principal photography in February as planned. So nothing has changed with the other films. As opposed to there being a two year gap between Five and Six, there will now be a two year gap between Six and Seven.
TLC. After the move of HBP to next year, we were uncertain if you were still going to do those test screenings, and I think its safe to say we were all thrilled with those reports from the first screenings-I know I can’t wait to see the movie! However, given there has to be cuts in beloved characters such as the House Elves, can you tell us if these things will impact the development of movie seven and eight (ie events at Gringotts/Grimmauld place and we love Dobby!).
DAVID HEYMAN: Inevitably there will be certain things that we will probably have to introduce and emphasise in the Seventh film. Before we read the Seventh book there had been things in the earlier films that we had not realized how important they were. There was an example in the Fifth film when we were considering cutting Kreature but Jo [Rowling] said to me…”I wouldn’t do that if I were you’…She didn’t tell us why, but she said we would be advised to keep him. And of course in the Seventh book Kreature is an important character. It has been a while, for example, since we have seen Dobby and I suspect we are going to have to make more of Dobby in Seven than we might have done. I think we have done a pretty good job of what we need in terms of the plot.
TLC.How are we doing on the scripts for both the DH films btw?
DAVID HEYMAN: They will be very faithful to the book. On of the pleasures of having the time to make two films means we will be able to go into more detail than we might otherwise have been able to do. If we had only done one film we were concerned that we might have to remove The Deathly Hallows. We never went that far but that would have been something that might have had to come out, which would have been terrible! The script is coming along well; I have read the first half of the adaptation. I have not read the second half, that should be coming in the next few weeks.
Are the filmmakers using the extra months gained by changing the release date of Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince to make any significant changes to the movie, or is the movie finished and ready to be seen or nearly there?
DAVID HEYMAN: Oh absolutely! The reason for a screening such as the one in Chicago is to give us information about any areas of confusion or pace or any issues that may arise, and work on them. So over the last couple of weeks, we have been working incredibly hard on the cut of the film and we will make changes to improve it. It is something that we have done with every film in the Harry Potter series.
Would you say that there are any parallels in terms of themes, motifs or messages between producing the Harry Potter movies and your latest production The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas?
DAVID HEYMAN: Yes I think there are. Within Harry Potter there are the Death Eaters and Voldemort who are interested in a pure blood race and are deeply opposed to anything else. They don’t like people who are ‘others’. They do not care for Muggles or Half Blood or Mud Blood, they believe in the purity of the race and I think that is clearly very much in the vein of the Nazis. Harry Potter is very much about the characters who are unable to see the other side. Harry and Ron and Hermione are all outsiders and so, in The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, is Bruno.
Questions on The Boy in Striped Pyjamas: FROM: JOHN MILLAR QUESTION: What was the toughest thing about bringing The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas to the screen? DAVID HEYMAN: It was actually a fairly organic process. I know that is going to be hard to believe but I read the book and loved the book but I was a little cautious about embarking upon it, just because of the challenges involved in bringing it to the screen. Mark Herman [the director] optioned the book and then came to me with the screenplay and it all seemed very clear to me. Mark did such a great job with his adaptation in script form and Brassed Off [which Mark Herman directed] was one of my favourite British films of the last 20 years and so the challenge in The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas was getting it done within the budget that we had because clearly there was only going to be a finite budget to make it. But Miramax were incredibly supportive and did not ask us to change the ending, did not ask us to really alter much. I suppose in terms of actually getting it made it was a fairly straightforward process. I liked the book, Mark Herman liked the book, he did a screenplay, Miramax liked the script and had always been interested in the book and decided to make it. So it was much less challenging than it might appear. I think it is just a sign of what good fortune I have had in my recent life. But I suppose one of the great challenges was looking at this from a child’s point of view and managing some of the more naive aspects of the book, which I love in the book but which when translated to film might be a little difficult and not as involving but off-putting. So trying to capture the spirit of the book, yet acknowledging the different demands of a film was a challenge.
QUESTION: How hard was it to find Asa Butterfield and Jack Scanlon ho play the children Bruno and Shmuel in The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas? DAVID HEYMAN: It was quite hard. We had the fantastic Pippa Hall whose speciality is child actors and she found the boy who played Billy Elliott. I have known Pippa since I was a child. We had approached Leo Davis to do the casting and Leo brought on Pippa. She scoured and scoured the country. It was a fine balance because you wanted the children to possess the essence of the characters because however their imagination you are very often working with the innate essence of a child. So Pippa showed us hundreds upon hundreds of tapes of children, most of whom had very little experience. When it came down to it, our Bruno had no film experience at all. In a way part of the innocence of Asa Butterfield served us well because he was not particularly knowledgeable about the Holocaust, he wasn’t particularly experienced in film making. He became a little bit more knowledgeable of both through the process of making The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas and I think that the gradual increased awareness of both the Holocaust and the film making experience fed into the journey that the character goes through in the film.
QUESTION: Has the reaction of audiences to The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas both delighted and surprised you? Because during filming you must have worried that audiences might think the movie was too much and not get it? DAVID HEYMAN: You are absolutely right. While I am a pretty positive type, I am burdened by a tremendous apprehension about anything that I am involved with and people’s response to it. So I was most certainly tredipatious, concerned in part that people might find it an odd blend of tone – the naivety within this rather dark world; that they might not engage with it in the way that I did. There are always those fears – that, as you suggest, the subject matter might be too tough for the sort of point of view that we take. But I think that what I am so happy about is that people seem to be responding to the film for the very reasons that we made it, because of that point of view. Some people had also suggested that viewers might be concerned that we were telling the story from the point of view of the son of the commandant of a concentration camp. But that is the thing that distinguishes this film from so many others – taking that point of view. For me, that is what – in spite of there being some dark elements about the story, and the context being a difficult and challenging one, there is no question of that – is the thing that I find very optimistic about The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas…that an eight year-old boy, whose parents and environment encourage him to be racist, be prejudiced against Jews, makes his own choice and through contact with a boy on the other side of the fence, someone who is different to himself, is able to engage and overcome any prejudice that might have been inculcated into him and forges his own path. To me that is a wonderfully optimistic, generous spirited and wonderful message to put out into the world and I think it is both true and necessary. I think it is important thing for people to consider and to embrace.
Having seen "The Half Blood Prince" yesterday, and now having read the interview with Mr. Heyman, I just have to shake my head in disbelief. I'm sorry to say that his "Producer's Reasons" for cutting two very important and emotional scenes from the book are a disservice to the hundreds of millions of fans of the books. The fact that his approach to the story is through a film maker's eye, always thinking ahead to "the critics" instead of the ardent fans of the book is frankly, in my opinion, arogent. If there hadn't been millions of books sold, there wouldn't have been need of a movie. So why not allow the readers/viewers the full experience they expect, and not that of "the film maker" or "critic".
by Jake @ 17 Jul 2009 - 07:58
Just saw the movie last night and I can not believe how wrong this director gets these movies. Why do they keep letting him do the movies. He makes significant changes and cuts for no apparent reason other than the thinking that he knows what would be better in the series. Let me tell you, hes DEAD WRONG!
by @ 6 Dec 2008 - 12:27
I'm really pissed off about the scenes being cut but I will still go see it in theatre's cause I love the Harry Potter movies to much to not go see it when it comes out.
by @ 24 Nov 2008 - 00:33
Seriously, you have time to fix your mistakes. Hell, you could make a whole new movie between now and July. Add the fight scene and funeral. I have read the books three times and each time these two parts come out as some of the most significant material written. Rons brother getting mauled is important because he will be disfigured in the seventh book and people will wonder how he got that way. Leaving Dobby out of Goblet was a bad enough mistake. Leaving Dobby out of this movies which you probably did is an even bigger mistake. I could almost hope for the remakes of this movie. You have wasted a lot of opportunity to make excellant production and instead you have left us with half rate crap.
by Disappointed and Devoted @ 23 Nov 2008 - 22:29
This is truely disappointing. Although I hate to make judgements without seeing the film, the funeral is one of the most powerful and impactful parts of the entire Harry Potter story. Dumbledore deserves a proper send off, and its a shame the movies will deny this. The battle scene is less important, but still seems an odd choice for removal as it sets up perfectly for a movie given the opportunity for cool visuals. They are really alienating the core fan base with this movie, we shall see how it works out.
by @ 8 Nov 2008 - 07:58
This will be the first Harry Potter movie that I did not go to see in the theatre. I will of course pick it up on DVD for the collection, but you Rat Bass-tards will not get one red cent of mine! Cutting those scenes has essentially gutted the movies. Warner Bros, changing the release date in order to make more money, guts the fans and Rowling for letting these horrible things happen, has stood aside and let her fans get stepped on and taken for a ride! Shame on her, Shame on Heyman and Shame on Warner Bros! Shame on me for spending money in the theatre's for the last 5 movies. Last time I make that mistake!
by @ 3 Nov 2008 - 17:28
Well, now that we know those scenes are not going to be in it, we have our usual group of 110 people who will be boycoting the film. This is ridiculous. I can not believe Jo would let those two scenes go.
by @ 6 Oct 2008 - 05:28
I cant believe it! that means that you've cut out the h/g kiss. I fpeople hav not read the book aren't they going to be wondering what they are talking about when they mention harry breaking up with ginny at the funeral. and what about rons older brother getting hurt? Does that mean we won't see hermione and ron say there coming with harry to find the horcruxes. I was looking forward to seeing the battle and the funeral because we would of seen characters that we havn't seen for a long time!!! Im really annoyed, I've just found out that the release dates have been prosponed and now this. I hope you make up for it by emphasising the last two books - or have you scrapped them too?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
by Jimmy I @ 29 Sep 2008 - 08:01
These scenes are important and yet again they are going to be left out! Why not make a longer movie like Lord Of The Rings to allow for the inclusion of the important an entertaining parts. these movies are begining to become let downs. All I'll say is that the final two movies better be spectacular!!!
by Jimmy I @ 29 Sep 2008 - 07:57
WTF
by Kristy @ 28 Sep 2008 - 05:58
First they postponed it and now major scenes have been cut. I was under the impression that everything was staying the same. There's only so much detail your imagination can create and it's always good to see them on film but not when someone mucks it all up!!! I was looking forward to the battle and Dumbledore's funeral especially since JKR wrote it in such a heart wrenching way in the book, it would have been good to see it portrayed by the cast. I really was hoping for something better after the bitter disappointment and travesty that was OoTP. But after reading this maybe I'll wait for dvd.
by @ 25 Sep 2008 - 16:02
in my opinion i would rather sit through a longer movie and have everything than sit through a movie that has major sence's cut. . . both scenes you are wanting to cut are very inportant to the story and there is no fight scene is all the books that are the same... dumbledores funeral is important because we see there that he gets buried with his wand which is later on stolen from his grave, that is an important part of the movie... i don't want this movie to turn out like the 5th movie, which i thought wasn't as good as the first 4, there was too much missing and is was a bit of a disappointment
by Incubo @ 23 Sep 2008 - 18:29
first the change of release, now, cut key scenes, what next?, honestly I have lost all my faith in Warner, now I'm convinced the movie will suck, trust me warner is heading Hp franchise to a grave
by @ 22 Sep 2008 - 16:19
They cut out battle at Hogwarts, but they better not have cut out the scene with Harry and Snape at the end. The Half-Blood Prince book was really about Snape and I certainly hope he is emphasized in this film (unlike in the other films). MORE SNAPE!!!!
by taylor @ 20 Sep 2008 - 11:26
i just cant get over that they changed the h/g kiss. i cant understand that. now that they have all this time to work on the movie, i hope they do something with that
by Karlo @ 20 Sep 2008 - 09:57
Hey there. With all due respect, I think you've just made a TERRIBLE mistake Mr. Heyman. Please consider the fact that the battle scenes at Hogwarts in the 6th and 7th books are completely different. The assault in the Castle was the part that I was looking forward to and now I learn that you've completely omitted it! This is too much... Seriously. It's bad enough that you disappointed us fans by postponing the release date. I'm really, really pissed off!
by @ 19 Sep 2008 - 19:40
Awsumm!!xx
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pissed off 
the Harry Potter movies to much to not go see it when it comes out.
I cant believe it! that means that you've cut out the h/g kiss. I fpeople hav not read the book aren't they going to be wondering what they are talking about when they mention harry breaking up with ginny at the funeral. and what about rons older brother getting hurt? Does that mean we won't see hermione and ron say there coming with harry to find the horcruxes. I was looking forward to seeing the battle and the funeral because we would of seen characters that we havn't seen for a long time!!!
in my opinion i would rather sit through a longer movie and have everything than sit through a movie that has major sence's cut. . . both scenes you are wanting to cut are very inportant to the story and there is no fight scene is all the books that are the same... dumbledores funeral is important because we see there that he gets buried with his wand which is later on stolen from his grave, that is an important part of the movie... i don't want this movie to turn out like the 5th movie, which i thought wasn't as good as the first 4, there was too much missing and is was a bit of a disappointment
