News culture ‘It Works Pretty Bad’: This Writer Thinks Harry Potter Isn’t a Good Movie Adaptation
Can’t wait for HBO’s Harry Potter series? Do you think JK Rowling’s books deserve a better adaptation than the movies? Well this well-known writer too!
An HBO series to do better than the movies
After constant rumours, the HBO series Harry Potter was recently confirmed. No spin-off in sight, but a new adaptation of JK Rowling’s seven novels. On the other hand, many things should be different, starting with the casting. For obvious reasons, it’s impossible to recapture the cast of yesteryear. What’s more, many of them have said they want to distance themselves from this universe following the words and actions of its creator. There is therefore also little chance of seeing cameos in the series. Another change to expect: the pace. Instead of being limited to the reasonable duration of a film, each book will be entitled to an entire season. The opportunity for HBO to adapt parts that have been completely overlooked by the films.
And the least we can say is that this announcement provoked strong reactions. On the one hand, some expressed their incomprehension. Why adapt the books again when there are so many new horizons to explore (The Marauders, Tom Riddle, the Four Founders…)? On the other hand, some fans said they were delighted to see The Adventures of Harry Potter getting another chance at a better adaptation. Because yes, the movies Harry Potteras popular as they are, aren’t very good adaptations. And that, it is not us who say it but a very famous writer.
The Harry Potter films, bad adaptations?
Brandon Sanderson is a fantasy author best known for his Cosmère, the extended universe in which the stamped books take place Sons of the Mists or The Roshar Archives. He is also the one who ended the saga The wheel of time on the death of Robert Jordan. The latter will also soon have something in common with the adventures of Harry Potter, since it has already been adapted into a series. And it is precisely adaptation that Sanderson has decided to talk about his Tik Tok account.
For him, a good adaptation in film is an adaptation which frees itself from the basic material, which precisely did not do At the Crossroads of the Worlds: The Golden Compass and the first films Harry Potter. Everything is in fact a question of rhythm: “You don’t maintain the same level of tension throughout a book. In the cinema, it’s different. Films are usually between 90 minutes and 2 hours long, so expect constant escalation in tension.” The first movies Harry Potter have modeled their rhythm on that of the books, in particular because JK Rowling was very involved in the writing of the screenplay. This defect, we find it elsewhere in the films Fantastic Beastsfor which the author has once again taken an important place. Writing a book is definitely not the same as a movie. Note that for a series, it is different. If the author does not mention this scenario in his Tik Tok, it is clear that the episodes can work a bit like a chapter of the action. It remains to be seen what will be the rendering once the HBO series is released.
