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This feature appears in the current issue ofTotal Film, which is available on shelves and digital newsstands now.
“I was confused because it was completely not on my radar,” Cuaron continues.
He said, ‘Wait, wait, wait, you said you havent read Harry Potter?’
I said, ' dont think its for me.'
In very florid lexicon, in Spanish, he said, ‘You are an arrogant asshole.'"
He grins into the Zoom camera.
“Thats not what some might think.
“I felt he could make the show feel, in a way, more contemporary.
And just bring his cinematic wizardry.”
Surely Warner Bros. wouldnt entrust their golden goose to Cuaron?
He would stay on as a producer, but had chosen to vacate the directors chair.
“The first two Potters deal with childrens experience,” reflects Cuaron.
“Characters who are 11 and 12.
A purity even in the way they see the danger.
We were dealing with the first sting of questioning everything, particularly who you are.
Suddenly you are not part of the whole; there is a teenage separation.”
“Alfonso also had the three kids write essays about their characters.
Dan wrote a page, Emma wrote 10 or 12, and Rupert didnt give in anything.
[We wanted to explore] the internal life of each one of these characters.
They were incredibly intuitive about this, and very receptive.”
“The ties were less vivid, a little more purply red.
A little less statesman-like.
A little more eccentric.”
“It was a different culture of acting,” says Heyman.
“Not people who are sirs and lords and ladies.”
Also key was Cuarons decision to introduce location work to what had largely been a studio-bound franchise.
“I wanted to stretch things.
Open up the universe.
And to create a geographic logic to Hogwarts.
Places are places.”
With the lyrics taken from Shakespeares Macbeth (“Something wicked this way comes!
Did Heyman and Cuaron ever fear that Azkaban was too dark?
“You know, young people dont like to be patronised,” Heyman says.
“Its more parents worrying about their children than children worrying about themselves.
So this is edgy.
And the kids, and adults, watching it are enthralled.”
But back to Hitch… “I wanted to do something in that atmosphere.
Like Hitchcock, it was more about the anticipation.”
It was multiverse madness long before the MCU, and the result was dazzling.
“Critics should ask children and Average Joes!”
But I was lucky that Azkaban is the most complex story.
I saw it almost as a noir.”
Heyman, naturally, wont choose between his babies.
“Theyre all my children and they each mark different points in my life,” he says.
The friendships that I made are so significant.
Cuaron concludes with a contented sigh.
Id been learning every day and I didnt want to stop learning.
Its such an incredible universe and I had such a beautiful time.”
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is out now in UK cinemas via a rerelease.
