TheDailySnitcher

IESB.net has a new interview with Harry Potter producer, David Heyman, in which he talks about the Deathly Hallows movie split and more!

IESB: I have to ask the obligitory Harry Potter questions, is it a good thing they split up the upcoming films?

Heyman: Yes, I didn't want to do it initially. I was like, "This is crazy." And then the decision rested ultimately with the filmmakers. The studio said you do whatever you think is right and initially I was like, "This is crazy!" And then I started going through the book and the thought of doing it in one film is insane. This is the story where so much is resolved. In previous films we've been able to remove certain things that didn't relate to Harry, we took Harry's journey. And in this one it was nothing, I mean, it was so much harder to remove things. To think what we could have removed would have been the Deathly Hallows, but the book is called The Deathly Hallows and that would have been slightly problematic. And so we made the decision and I was speaking with Steve the other day, Kloves the writer, and he says, "you know there are times I think we could have done three movies..." There is so much material and it's such great material that now I feel very positive about the two film approach.

IESB: Do you think it's the end for the Harry Potter franchise and characters on the big screen after the last book?

Heyman: I would not be involved in a film based on Jo's characters without Jo's stories, so my sense is yes, unless Jo magically writes something else Harry Potter that is not a Harry Potter tale, not Tales of Beedle the Bard or the books on Quidditch, if she wrote something like that maybe but I am not sure she has any plans to do so.

IESB: What is it that you guys look for when you pick up a property, or a novel, what do you guys do specifically?

Heyman: For me it's about finding something in the story that I connect with, it's as simple as that. In Potter, I'd been to a school not unlike Potter, I had teachers not unlike Snape and McGonnagol and Dumbledore, teachers who I admired and got along with and teachers who I hadn't got along with, friends who I was close to and...Jo's characters are so vivid that's why I responded to that.

~Laurie