The Making of the Potterverse (5 page)

Warner Brothers announced that Chris Columbus, whose previous directorial efforts include the first two
Home Alone
films,
Bicentennial Man
and
Mrs. Doubtfire
, would be directing the adaptation of the first Harry novel. Columbus said at the time, “I’m thrilled and honored to bring the Harry Potter books to the screen. Between my four kids and all their friends, I’ve heard a lot about what this movie should be and how I could ruin if it I cut this or that scene. From the first time I read
Harry Potter
with my children, I fell in love with these wonderful characters and this world. I won’t let anyone down. It will be a faithful adaptation.”

On the choice of Columbus, producer David Heyman noted, “There was a lot of interest from numerous directors who wanted to be involved with Harry Potter, but Chris emerged as the person with the greatest passion and understanding of the books and the desire to remain faithful to Jo’s vision.” For his part, Columbus added, “I’d heard these horrendous and actually quite amusing stories about how certain directors had wanted to adapt the book, like changing the locale to a Hollywood high school or turning Harry Potter and Hermione into American students or making the entire film as a computer animated picture. I was stunned by some
of these notions. I mean, it all feels painfully obvious to me. There’s a reason why millions of children and adults have fallen in love with the Harry Potter books. To destroy the basic foundation of this world and these characters would alienate our audience. So I was adamant about being incredibly faithful to the books, which means shooting the films in England, with an all-British cast.”

In another interview, Columbus relayed why doing the film was important to him. “Over the years,” he explained, “people — particularly the media — have implied that I’ve gone soft because I’ve directed some sentimental films. But based on my own personal life at the time, I felt that those were films I needed to make. Once I got those stories out of my system, I wanted to go back to where I was when I started out as a writer, which is a much darker place. . . . I’ve always been a big fan of British cinema, everything from David Lean pictures, comedies like
Kind Hearts and Coronets
, emotional dramas like
A Man for All Seasons
and particularly the Hammer horror films, which I adored. I found them very atmospheric and evocative. I grew up watching these films, and they influenced my early writing.” In particular he referred to the script he had written for
Young Sherlock Holmes
, which was “set at a British boarding school and involved two pre-teen boys and a girl who solve a supernatural mystery. It was sort of preparation for directing
Harry Potter
.”

According to the BBC, booksellers in England reported that the paperback edition of
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
were
outselling all other children’s books by a margin of about five to one. One bookstore owner proclaimed, “It’s just been flying off the shelves, a lot of people have obviously been waiting for the book for a while.”

With the fourth book (whose title was still being kept under wraps) scheduled for publication on July 8, word began leaking out that bookstores in both America and in Britain were planning Harry Potter parties to celebrate its arrival, inviting kids to come in costume and enjoy a number of activities, including watching magicians. Reported the
San Francisco Chronicle
, “Many retailers are planning to stay open until 1 a.m. — a move that seems extreme, considering that Harry Potter’s main audience is children. Some stores are even planning pajama parties — a Zany Brainy outlet in North Carolina, for instance, is inviting kids to spend the night. Harry Potter parties will be held in thousands of bookstores July 8, and even public libraries are planning special ‘first chapter’ readings of the new book — provided the librarians grab a copy quick before they fly out the door.” Tracy Wynne, the co-owner of the San Francisco bookstore Cover to Cover, enthused, “If an author can get so many kids reading a 700-page book, it will be a miracle for literacy.”

In the month prior to the fourth book’s publication, the
Washington Post
made note of the fact that despite Scholastic publishing the books in the United States, they controlled none of the merchandising rights to Harry Potter. That particular honor belonged to Warner Brothers, which acquired them along with the motion picture rights. “The licensing machine is already up and running,” offered the paper, “even though the movie won’t be released until November 16, 2001. Warner Brothers is already predicting Harry Potter merchandise will rival that of its Batman franchise, which has brought more than $1 billion to the company from the sale of everything from T-shirts to coffee mugs.” At that point, the studio had already signed 46 licensing deals for Harry merchandise, with more anticipated. “To put the $1 billion that Warner Brothers expects to bring in from merchandise in perspective,” said the
Post
, “Scholastic Press will ring up $100 million in U.S. sales from the first four novels.”

A coven of young Harry Potter fans waits outside a Waterstone’s on London’s Oxford Street for the release of the latest Harry Potter instalment. (Jane Mingay/AP Photo)

Scotland’s St. Andrews University bestowed upon J.K. Rowling an honorary degree, making her a Doctor of Letters. Director of External Relations Sue Cunningham said, “Jo Rowling has shown
that children’s books are still capable of capturing and enchanting an immense audience, irrespective of the competing attractions of television, Nintendo, Gameboy and Pokémon. At a time when dire predictions were being made for the future of books, children are rediscovering the pure joy of reading.” Along the same lines, the
Washington Post
mused, “Is Rowling on a roll? Is she single-handedly leading a new generation to the extreme pleasures of total immersion in a book? Will today’s Potter-lovers be toasting Tolstoy tomorrow? Marching through
Middlemarch
? Zealous for Zola? Delighting in Dante and Dickens and Dostoevsky? Or is she pushing her luck by writing such an epic adventure? Can she continue to overcome nanosecond attention spans and Dreamcast mentalities? Will she lose readers in her labyrinthine world, like so many people with a penchant for Thomas Pynchon who lapped up the 152-page
The Crying of Lot 49
but got hopelessly lost in the 784-page
Gravity’s Rainbow
?”

Scandal erupted toward the end of the month, as Salon.com pointed out: “Despite a level of security that’s been compared to that of the CIA, the British and American publishers of J.K. Rowling’s bestselling series of Harry Potter novels were unable to keep the title of Book IV a secret until the book’s on-sale date of July 8. The
London Telegraph
reported Sunday that ‘sources close to the project’ strongly hinted that the title of the new book is
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
.” Seeing no choice, Scholastic admitted that the report was true. “It was leaked,” offered the publisher’s Judy Corman, “and once that happened, we felt it was silly to try keeping it a secret. It was going to be a surprise, like a birthday or Christmas present, for the kids. We’re sorry, but we know they’ll like the book just the same.” The same article made mention of the fact that Maggie Smith was up for the role of Professor McGonagall and Tim Roth as Professor Snape.

The
BBC
jumped on the story about the leaked book title simultaneously
providing info on just how well the novel was doing prior to its publication. “The print run for
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
has set a new publishing record with one million copies in the first run,” they noted. “A representative for Amazon.co.uk said the book had also smashed all records for a book sold online, with hundreds of pre-orders flooding in daily. Extra staff have been recruited at the online bookseller’s distribution center to cope with the anticipated demand, and security has been tightened to ensure nobody reveals the plot ahead of the book’s official launch on 8 July. . . . Only a handful of executives have read the novel, and in the U.S., the publisher’s manuscript is said to be under armed guard at a compound in Wisconsin.”

The search for the perfect child to play Harry Potter began in earnest. Reporter Josh Grossberg noted, “Hopeful Harrys who fit the Brit, 9 to 11 profile were asked to send a picture and videotape of themselves stating their name and age, telling a joke and reading a paragraph from any of the three Potter novels. Producers are also looking for talented tykes to play Potter pals Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley — friends from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry — as well as Harry’s school nemesis, Draco Malfoy. During the first stage of auditions, casting agents filmed the children reading a page in the book. If called back a second time, they were filmed improvising a scene when the young wizards first arrive at Hogwarts. The third call back had the prospective Potter reading from three pages of the script with the director in attendance.”

Eight-year-old Laura Cantwell stunned pretty much everyone by getting her hands on a copy of
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
about a week before its publication date. As reported in the press, a friend of the family came across eight copies of the novel on sale at a Northern Virginia bookstore. Reported
The Washington Post
, “The friend said she went to the counter — where the clerk didn’t even blink — and walked out with two copies. It was the literary equivalent of walking out of the Smithsonian having just bought the Hope Diamond.” To her credit, Laura never revealed any aspects of the novel to anyone, but did, in fact, find herself becoming something of a minor celebrity. She was interviewed by a number of newspapers and even made an appearance on NBC’s
Today Show
.

BusinessWeek Online
exposed a controversy of a different sort when it reported that independent booksellers were up in arms over the fact that Amazon.com was promising that the first 350,000 people to order the new novel would receive it on the day of publication, just hours after the official release. “Members of the American Booksellers Association are upset because in making arrangements to have the new Potter book shipped to their stores, they had to sign detailed affidavits with publisher Scholastic Inc. pledging to not even open boxes of the book until midnight of July 8. The indies accuse Scholastic of cutting a special deal with Amazon. They say it’s just another example of how release rules don’t apply to the book-world giants, such as Amazon.com. If not, how could Amazon possibly overnight so many books to its customers on July 7 without opening the boxes or ensuring the Federal Express delivery person didn’t get a peek at the Potter
cover? Michael Jacobs, senior vice-president of trade at Scholastic Inc., the U.S. arm of the global publisher, maintains that no covert deal was made.”

As
The Goblet of Fire
was preparing to fly off bookshelves, it was becoming obvious that adults were enjoying Harry Potter’s adventures as much as children were. Noted the
Washington Post
, “Turns out, adult fans of the J.K. Rowling books have read (and sometimes re-read) all three of the earlier books and ordered an advance copy of the fourth, due for release tonight. . . . Market researchers have yet to calculate the number of adult readers, but they do know that grown-ups have done their part to boost demand for Harry Potter. Estimates are that 43 percent of the books sold in 1999 were bought for people older than 14. . . . Bookstore owners from Gaithersburg to Capital Hill say that adult fans are freely declaring they aren’t just parents buying another Potter book for their children. And some adults are recommending Potter books to co-workers and friends.” Actually, the adult appeal of the novels was not lost on the publishers, when, beginning with the publication of
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
, two sets of covers were offered for the novels, one designed for children, the other darker and definitely designed for an adult readership.