by Just Mom » Thursday 24 February 2005 3:26:03am
Christopher Columbus (not the 1492 one) who directed the first two films, was ready to go back home and have dinner with his family. He became a producer on the 3rd film instead of director and I believe, is helping produce GoF which is being directed by (I believe) Mike Newell.
PoA the movie, has grown on me although I was very disappointed at first. As one reviewer put it, "seeing the choices the director had to make to keep the film under a certain time length, was painful...." Peter Jackson who directed the Lord of the Rings, faced the same criticism from resolute Tolkien folks because he had to eliminate the whole Tom Bombadil bit from the first movie and focus solely on the journey of Frodo to destroy the ring.
PoA was such a good book, it remains my favorite, I'm not sure ANY director could have gotten it exactly right to please the book lovers. I'm not sure any movie made could have matched the quality of the book, even in an adaptation, but overall, it's still a decent film, even with all the details cut. The 3rd director did, with JKR's permission and blessing, want to give the kids a little more "normal" look about them during their down time. And it was one of the screenplay folks who added the shrunken head on the Knight Bus to which JKR says-in the interview footage-"I only wish I'd thought of that first."