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Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince
Interview with director David Yates
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Pedigree: Director David Yates returns with all the original cast for the sixth film in the most lucrative franchise the world has ever seen. Estimated budget: $150 million. Predicted box office: $300 million (US gross), $950 million (worldwide).
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How can we still get excited about Harry Potter? Easy. The last film, The Order Of The Phoenix, saw the cast and crew, notably new director David Yates, really hit their stride and finally deliver on the oft-repeated promise of a "darker" film. The last act, in particular, had a sense of pace and high-stakes terror that had been largely missing from the occasionally plodding series. All of this bodes well for the penultimate chapter in the story.
This time around, the world knows Voldemort is back, but it still isn't plain sailing for Harry. Our hero's realised he fancies Ron's sister Ginny; Ron and Hermione aren't speaking because of Ron's new girlfriend, Lavender Brown (Jessie Cave); Snape won't let Harry onto the Potions course he needs to take if he's ever going to become an Auror; oh, and Death Eaters are terrorising the country. This film also introduces us to the mystery of the Horcruxes, which may be key to defeating Voldemort if Harry can figure out what and where they are.
Yates is back, which is a good thing. Last time, he turned a whale of a book into the leanest film of the series, and he and screenwriter Steve Kloves (returning after skipping Phoenix) are faced with another mammoth cutting job. Yates has already confirmed that the book's many flashbacks are to be trimmed, while Daniel Radcliffe has claimed there will be Quidditch in the sixth film, which will be a treat for fans, even if it does risk slowing down the action.
But, as with the last instalment, there's an awful lot of to-ing and fro-ing to be condensed before the barnstorming last act. There's more romance for Harry, and bigger roles than before for the most interesting adult characters in the series, Snape and Dumbledore. Better still, one of the very few great British actors not to have appeared in the series, Jim Broadbent, has signed on as Professor Slughorn.
But let's not beat about the bush: what really has us looking forward to this one is that last act, where the series reaches new emotional heights and takes a twist in a completely new - and, as ever, darker - direction. It's going to be tough for them to pull it off, but if they do it right, this could be the best Potter film yet.
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