Why 3-D For HARRY POTTER?

After netting nearly 300 million dollars worldwide in ticket sales, no one can question the motives behind making the final HARRY POTTER film in 3-D. We talk to the men who guided the movie to the top and the screenwriter who helped bring J.,K. Rowling’s stories to life. Plus we are set fore ComicCon 2011 – are you? No worries, we’ve got your FREE PASS right here. Check out The Point Radio for constant pop culture updates – and please check us out on Facebookright here & toss us a “like”.

Transcript

Hello, it's Mike Raub. Welcome to The Point, where all parts of pop culture come together. 300 million at the box office, not an easy task for Harry Potter. And some of the people behind the scenes that got him there, well, we'll tell you their story as well. In the meantime, we're here and up to head out to Comic Con 2011. It's Monday, the 18th of July. Send back and let's get to The Point right now.

This is The Point, The Point radio, get The Point radio. Put together an incredible movie franchise like Harry Potter, well, it takes a lot of people not only in front of the camera, but behind it as well. For example, Steve Knowles, the screenwriter, has been there for the whole ride. And we ask him if there ever was another choice for actors to play those three now so familiar lead characters.

You know, the thing is, I was sort of there in the beginning when Chris Columbus was sifting through all of the potential candidates. And I will say to me, and I think to a few of us, it was clear that those were the three. There were other talented people around. But I remember at a certain point when I was working on the script, after Potter got big, and it wasn't big when I first said yes, I used to have to walk down a hallway at Leavesden and

shred everything I wrote. And one day when there was casting going, there was this 10-year-old girl, very serious with her sides, pacing up and down the hallway, and very Hermione-like. And so when Chris came out, I said, you know, I saw this little girl. Well, she seemed like Hermione. I mean, she was mumbling to herself, was very hard on herself. And he says, oh, that's Emma Watson. She's a possibility. So and Rupert was just ridiculous. I mean, you just knew he was a genius.

And Dan, which I've always felt has the hardest part to play, because he's the hardest one to write, Harry, because Harry's a bit of a blank slate. Dan is a really special guy. He was a very special guy when he was 11 years old. So I write for them now, like I write for Michael Gambon, and I write for Maggie Smith, then I write for Alan Rickman and David Thewlis. I mean, they and sometimes actually more challenging material, because they have to carry it and they

have to carry the movies. So I mean, I've adored writing for them. It's been probably a great joy in my career writing for the three of them. And he finds it difficult translating the work of J.K. Rowling from books into a movie. Philosopher's Stone was tough for me because it's kind of like the story kicks in about 80 percent in. That was really challenging to deal with. Half Blood Prince was difficult because it was all memory. And then Hallows was difficult because I

had to adjust to having such a big canvas, which was like a sort of everyone should have such problems thing, but it did take me a while to adjust to. They've all been difficult. This is by far the hardest thing I've ever done in my career. Potter's really demanding in so many ways for a writer that I don't think it was ever an easy one. So that last day on a set, lots of mixed emotions, lots of mixed emotions for a lot of people, as explained by producers David Baron and David Heyman.

We actually had several last days on set. We had the main the main unit last day and then we had the effects units and things. But the main unit day was was incredibly emotional. We scheduled something very easy for the cast. It was not at all dramatic. It was from the previous film from part one where they were diving into the fireplace and making their escape from the Ministry of Magic. A green screenshot. It was a green screenshot. They were on the green stage diving onto a green mattress.

So it was not too demanding in terms of their emotional acting range. And we were finishing at lunchtime because Dan was coming to New York to present to Tony the following day. And we did it. We finished. And then our first assistant director had done two things whilst we were shooting both films. He'd started what he called a golden board on day one. So it was day one off and every day two or more people would hold it and be a bit silly or and the camera would turn film on it. And so that went to the cutting room. So he when he finished, basically that was if it was somebody's birthday, if it was just some essay, just members of the crew and someone was on the horn.

He did it. Joe Rowling turned up. She did it. So it was visitors, friends, birthdays, anybody from the runner to the director, to the producers. You could be silly or you could be not silly. So he was quite a lovely thing. He cut it together to music. So when we went, we all stood there and he played that. Also at the end of it. Sorry. Yeah. It's actually Jermaine at the end of that. So he played at the end of that. He also got one of the assistant directors to go around the set, going around the offices and have everybody wave goodbye. And so we had and that and so the film was the golden boards, which were intercut with Robbie Coltrane playing air guitar in his Hagrid costume as Hagrid would.

And then ended with this shot of going through the offices with everybody waving goodbye and ending with David Yates getting in his car and driving off. Well, at the end of that, let me tell you, there was the dry. We were all solving. And then, you know, myself, David, the other David Dan gave short brief speeches. And then we had a little rap party, which was not really quite humble. It was a barbecue and just lunch for people. Yeah. And Rupert brought his ice cream truck and he served ice cream to the crew once they'd eaten their lunch. And it was fun. It was really warm, really emotional. A lot of people were there who some were even older than me, who'd been around for even longer than me.

And actually had seen everything you could probably wish to see on the film set. And they were in tears, too. It was extraordinary. Definitely Hallows Part Two made the leap into 3D. So why now? And why not before for the films? The producers explain that we were a little unsure about 3D when we first discussed it. We discussed it for part one, definitely Hallows Part One, and indeed made an attempt to deliver that film in 3D. And I think partly because of lack of time, partly perhaps our own experience in terms of working with 3D, the infrastructure didn't really exist in the timeframe that we had to allow us to convert it to 3D. And the studio, when we told them, there was a sharp intake of breath and I'm sure a few silent tears, but they backed us because they didn't want to release.

Definitely Hallows Part One in a way that none of us were happy with. And David Yates, he was probably more keen on 3D without question, really, than we were. And he always felt there was a way to use it to make the, to make it an inclusive way to actually pull the audience into the story. And to that end, we've mainly taken the depth or added the depth backwards from the screen rather than forwards. There are a few times where we have more opportunities to have things fly towards us, but in the main, we've tried to make the world bigger and deeper and more inclusive. And quite discreet, you know. I think that the choice that David made was to be discreet and not to overwhelm you with, oh, wow, isn't this deep?

And I think he used it in an expressive way too. So every once in a while, it was quite stylized. So for example, the scene where Harry goes to the forest and meets Voldemort, and that scene is quite heightened. And that was, it was quite an operatic scene and David wanted to be more expressive with it. But then the others, you know, the conversation sort of, it's very subtle. Harry Potter's in the Devili Hallows Part Two winds it up and you can catch it in theaters right now. It's Monday, July 18th, 2011. Here's what's going on in pop culture. Well, nobody expected anything less, but we got even more than that with Harry Potter breaking all records in the box office.

Deathly Hallows Part Two picked up ninety two point one million dollars in US and Canada box office sales on Friday alone. And to that the record setting forty three point five million dollars from just the midnight showings the night before. Then you got Saturday, then you got Sunday. And now it looks like it's just under three hundred million dollars worldwide for ticket sales from the movie. There's lots of different records to be compared here. A few they broke, a few they didn't. For example, the Saturday record of the most money taken in by a new movie still is held by Spider-Man three.

But Harry Potter close to that. It did, however, beat the record for the biggest three day weekend with one hundred and sixty three million dollars estimated so far. That beats the previous topper, which was Dark Knight at one hundred and fifty eight million dollars. Rest of the top ten for the weekend include Transformers three still holding it in the top ten. And new release Winnie the Pooh that came in with just a little over ten million dollars in ticket sales for the weekend. Well, there have been changes to start out the season.

The announcement that a lot of the cast would be leaving at the end of the season. And now a little bit of good news from Glee. Adina Menzel will be back for a ten to twelve episode arc in the new season beginning in the fall. Menzel will return to the role of Rachel, Lea Michelle's mother in the series. Glee premieres another season in the fall on Fox. It's not quite Comic Con yet, but there's still plenty out there about DC's new 52, including a couple of new pieces of our work from Jim Lee for his work on the upcoming Justice League, especially for issue number two, which seems to be important in the series.

Issue number one sets up the whole universe, but everybody seems to think that issue number two is going to set up the future of DC's 52. We got a couple of pieces posted for you right now on our website. Get the point radio dot com. We'll let you know what we find out on the floor from the Comic Con in a few days with Zack Snyder more than busy recreating and rebooting the man of steel. Warner Brothers has picked a new director for the sequel to 300 and that is no more. Oh, you remember from smart people.

It'll all be based on Frank Miller's sequel to 300. It's running right now in Dark Horse Presents. Zack Snyder, along with Kurt Johnstead, actually scripted the screenplay for this. It's going to be a tough act for him to follow four hundred and fifty six million dollars in ticket sales is what 300 brought in and also it took Frank Miller's 300 hardcover to the top of the best selling graphic novel list for 2007. Comic sales were down again for the month of June.

Another slide for both comics and graphic novels during that month when compared to what happened in 2010. But there's a couple of good points in here, including some tremendous sales gains for Marvel. We'll talk more about that and run down the top ten for you coming up in just a bit. One of the things you hear everybody talking about at Comic Con is the cool swag. All the stuff that the people who are lucky enough to be at the show can pick up and then how soon it ends up on eBay for the rest of us.

There's something different from Dark Horse, though, and probably bigger than most of the giveaways. Some time Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, somebody each day is going to walk away with five hundred dollars in digital comics from Dark Horse. To be a new winner every day and to win, fans have to get down to the Dark Horse booth early between nine thirty and ten to get a raffle ticket. At nine AM sharp each morning, they're going to announce a winner. And like we said, there'll be a new winner every day, every day of the con Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Dark Horse booth, which, by the way, is at position twenty six fifteen on the big floor at San Diego Comic Con.

If you're a fan of Bone and Razzle, now you can take the work of Jeff Smith with you anywhere you go with a couple of apps recently released by Comicology for the iPad, the iPhone and the iPod. Through the apps for Bone and Razzle, you can get all the issues of the book for some great prices from Comicology as well. Pick up these right now in the iTunes app store and get more information, of course, at Comicology.com. Comic Sales took another dip in June of this year, where it compared to June of 2010. When you put the numbers together, they were down four point six two percent from twelve months ago.

And that wasn't that great because June of 2010 was only up about one percent from June of 2009. There were some strong points in here, including the top two books from Marvel, both of which sold well over the one hundred thousand mark. And as we get into the top ten, you'll find out just what those are. Top ten best selling comics in comic stores for the month of June. Amazing Spider-Man number six sixty four from Marvel at number ten.

Batman and Robin number twenty four from DC at number nine. Batman incorporated seven at number eight. Number seven, another Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man number six sixty three at number six. New Avengers number thirteen, number five, FF number five. Add number four, Avengers number fourteen from Marvel.

Number three was Flashpoint, the second issue from DC. Add number two and again over one hundred thousand copy sales for this one. Fear itself, number three. And the best selling comic for the month of June in stores. Well over the hundred thousand dollar mark, which is a great significance in its own right.

Ultimate comic Spider-Man number one sixty with the culmination of the death of the ultimate Spider-Man from Marvel. Last summer was huge for graphic novel sales and that's what made the numbers skew a lot for this month. Graphic novel sales in comic stores in June were down eight point fifteen percent from last year. But when you look at June of 2010, that month had a twenty one percent increase. So the numbers had to be just a little bit wacky.

Top ten best selling graphic novels and trade paperbacks in comic stores during the month. You get a number ten with Dark Tower, the Gunslinger, the Little Sisters of Uclera at number ten from Marvel. That's a hardcover. Number nine, X-Men the second comic grade paperback. Number eight, Arkham Asylum Madness the trade from DC.

Number seven, still in here, Walking Dead volume one from Image. Number six, Sweet Tooth the third volume there. That's also from DC. And number five from DC, Bad Woman volume one. At number four, Green Lantern the brightest day hardcover.

Naruto volume fifty one, always big in the bookstores, also doing well in comic stores as well. And number three from Viz in the top ten. And number two, Buffy the Vampire Slayer season eight, volume eight from Dark Horse. And the number one best selling graphic novel or trade paperback in June comes from Image, Walking Dead volume fourteen. All right, so maybe you're not in San Diego this week, but you're still going to head to the comic store.

And here's some of the things you should be looking for, including a little something that well is going to be handed out at Comic Con that you can get right now. DC's new 52 preview book, which covers all the big changes coming in September for the DC books, is hopefully free in your comic store. If not, maybe for a nominal price. Check with your retailer to make sure he has the preview book, which should be in stores this week. At the same moment, it's being handed out in San Diego.

Other things to look for, DC's retroactive titles begin this week with a look at the 70s at Wonder Woman, Flash, and Batman. It's a very talented people taking a look back at some of the mainstays of DC. Dave Stevens complete sketchbook collection is out this week from IDW, a little pricey at $50, but a beautiful volume. Also out this week, the turf hardcover from Image, a great mini series all collected into a hardcover package. And as well, there's the first issue of what we hope is going to be another good long run for another big character for Marvel Comics.

That's Daredevil. Daredevil number one out this week with a really cool cover. Check that out. At least worth a look through when you head to the comic store in your area and you find those, of course, through the comic book locator service and one 888 comic book, or with a free app right now on the iTunes app store. It's alive!

Comic Con starts here on your pop culture channel, The Point. That's a wrap for today, but like we said, we're gearing up heading west for Comic Con 2011. And here's how it all plays out on The Point. We will not be filing podcasts for the next week or so. We'll be back in this regular position on great websites like ComicMix.com and MichaelDavisWorld.com on Friday, July 29.

Don't worry, though. We got plenty to share with you. Just keep it at GetThePointRadio.com. We'll be filing direct reports in audio and in text as well right from the floor of Comic Con, beginning with preview night this Wednesday. And we're looking for your feedback.

If there's something you'd like us to look up for you on the floor, just let us know and listen at GetThePointRadio.com or leave a comment at GetThePointRadio.com. Have a great week. We'll see you in a couple of days at Comic Con 2011. GetThePointRadio.com! GetThePointRadio.com