The Making of the Potterverse (6 page)

In response to the demand for
Goblet of Fire
, the
BBC
offered this comment from J.K. Rowling: “I wrote the book for me, this is all a bit of a shock and I’m amazed — think of a stronger word and double it.”

Salon.com said of the whole
Goblet of Fire
phenomenon, “On an unseasonably cool night for July in Manhattan, people began lining up in front of the Upper West Side Barnes & Noble bookstore at about 10 p.m. Friday. By the time the feverishly awaited book went on sale at midnight, the line had stretched to include almost 350
people. Like most of the bookstores that stayed open late to sell the book, this one had thrown itself into the event. The staff were dressed in witch and wizard costumes and the store was decorated with bunches of star-shaped balloons, plastic spiders and a few cauldrons besides enormous, ziggurat-like piles of the previous three books in J.K. Rowlings’ popular series.” Very appropriately, writer Laura Miller concluded with, “As I rode home on the subway surrounded by people who sat happily with open copies of
Goblet
on their laps, what struck me as most extraordinary about the event was neither the lines nor the
TV
cameras nor the spectacle of kids going wild over a book. It was the knowledge, unprecedented in a life devoted to the solitary practice of reading, that last night and throughout this weekend, I and millions of other people, young and old, will all be reading the very same book.”

BusinessWeek Online
reported that the success of the Harry Potter books had tripled the stock worth of British publisher Bloomsbury Publishing. “The uproar,” it was pointed out, “has created something unusual in the clubby world of British publishing: a bestseller circus that the Brits previously thought only vulgar Americans capable of perpetrating. . . .”

To help promote
The Goblet of Fire
, J.K. Rowling took to the rails. Reported the
Washington Post
, “With two ferocious shrieks of its whistle, a scarlet steam engine pulled away from Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross Station this morning, carrying the world’s most popular living author, J.K. Rowling, on a journey patterned on the magical train trips she created in her Harry Potter books. Rowling will ride the train, dubbed the Hogwarts Express, for the next four days on a promotional tour.” The reason? Her gratitude to Bloomsbury Publishing for having picked up Harry Potter in the first place. The promotional tour, it should be pointed out, was more for children at each stop, members of which included contest winners who had won the right to meet with her in person.
Amusingly, as reporters and photographers attempted to get close to Rowling, they were rejected with the statement that it was a “private function.”

The Hogwarts Express terminates at Hogsmeade Station, which is played by Goathland Station in North Yorkshire, England. (Fionna Boyle)

The
Indian Express
referred to the furor around the fourth Harry adventure as a “literary gold rush. No event in publishing history comes anywhere near matching the frenzy that has erupted over the last week in the run-up to the release of the book.”

Surprisingly, the
Washington Post
expressed considerable skepticism regarding the movie version of
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
, scheduled to begin shooting later in the year. “The prognosis is not good. ‘The people who love Harry Potter have created a Harry
Potter universe in their heads,’ explains David Thomson, author of
A Biographical Dictionary of Film
. The hazard, of course, is that people will over-expect. ‘The more intensively that imaginative process has been undertaken, the more disappointing the film will be’.” They also put down the choice of Chris Columbus as director and Steve Kloves as writer, and mentioned that those directors who had been in the running were Steven Spielberg, Brad Silberling, Jonathan Demme, Tim Robbins and Mike Newell (who eventually went on to shoot the adaptation of
Goblet of Fire
).

CNN.com offered an interview with stage actor Jim Dale regarding the fact that he had played 125 characters in the audiobook version of
Goblet of Fire
, following his reading of the first three novels. Of the experience he offered, “Whether I want to or not, I think I will be remembered for Harry Potter. How lovely to be remembered as the voice of Harry Potter. And to be perfectly honest, when you listen to the tapes, when you get to Harry, it’s just a younger-sounding voice that you’re hearing. I haven’t tried to make him different from the voice I have. So it’s nice to think my younger voice of myself is the voice that kids are hearing as Harry Potter.” He also reflected on getting the gig in the first place: “Never having heard of Harry Potter, I said I’d like to read it. Having read it, I was immersed completely in the Harry Potter world. I recognized that this was something exceptionally clever and very good and very well written, with a prospect of six more books to follow. So of course, this really whetted my appetite and I immediately said, ‘Yes.’”

A rumor making the rounds was that an American named Liam Aiken — who had worked with Chris Columbus on
Stepmom —
was going to be cast as Harry. When asked about it, Rowling responded, “Ignore the Internet, ignore the
Daily Express
. Harry has not been cast yet. And believe me, he’s going to be British when he is.” Most people, of course, didn’t realize that that was actually part of the deal negotiated with Warner Brothers.

The rumor mill began heating up regarding who would play Harry in the upcoming film, with 13-year-old British actor Gabriel Thomson rumored to be in the running (which Thomson and his agent both denied). Oscar winner Haley Joel Osment expressed interest in the role, though obviously he didn’t get it.

In an interview with
Entertainment Weekly
, J.K. Rowling discussed the themes of bigotry that are explored in
Goblet of Fire
. “Bigotry is probably the thing I detest most,” she said. “All forms of intolerance, the whole idea of ‘that which is different from me is necessarily evil.’ I really like to explore the idea that difference is equal and good. But there’s another idea that I like to explore, too. Oppressed groups are not, generally speaking, people who stand firmly together. No, sadly, they kind of subdivide among themselves and fight like hell. That’s human nature, so that’s what you see here. This world of wizards and witches, they’re already ostracized, and then within themselves they’ve formed a loathsome pecking order.” In the same interview she was asked what the experience in Hollywood had been like. “The person I was most nervous about meeting by far was Steve Kloves,” she admitted, “who’s writing the screenplay. I was really ready to hate [him]. This was the man who was gonna butcher my baby. The first time I met him, he said, ‘You know who my favorite character is?’ And I thought, ‘You’re gonna say Ron.’ It’s real easy to love Ron, but so obvious. But he said, ‘Hermione.’ I just kind of melted.”

A deal was struck for the 900-year-old Gloucester Cathedral to
double as Hogwarts in the first Harry film. The Reverend Nicholas Bury mused, “It is one of the most beautiful cathedrals and its friendliness and human scale have often been remarked upon. It is a good place for a story about a young boy making friends in his first year at an unusual school.”

Director Chris Columbus poses with Daniel Radcliffe, days after the boy had been chosen from thousands of applicants to play Harry Potter in the films. (Dave Caulkin/AP Photo)

A school head in Singapore proclaimed that children should not read the Harry Potter novels as they could be an “anti-Christian influence.”

On August 21, Warner Brothers announced that 11-year-old Daniel Radcliffe had been signed for the lead role, and that he would be joined by Emma Watson as Hermione and Rupert Grint as Ron. Said the studio’s Lorenzo di Bonaventura, “We searched through all the Muggle and Wizard households just to find the right young people to play Harry, Ron and Hermione and we have found them in Dan, Rupert and Emma. These are magical roles, the kind that
come around once in a lifetime, and they required talented children who can bring magic to the screen.” Chris Columbus added, “We had seen so many enormously talented kids in the search for Harry. The process was intense and there were times when we felt we would never find an individual who embodied the complex spirit and depth of Harry Potter. Then Dan walked into the room and we all knew we had found Harry. We were equally elated upon meeting Emma and Rupert. I couldn’t be happier to work with such talented, young actors.” In response to the casting news, J.K. Rowling enthused, “Having seen Dan Radcliffe’s screen test, I don’t think Chris Columbus could have found a better Harry. I wish Dan, Emma and Rupert the very best of luck, and hope they have as much fun acting the first year at Hogwarts as I had writing it.”

David Heyman elaborated on the casting process, explaining, “It was not easy to find a boy who embodied the many qualities of Harry Potter. We wanted someone who could combine a sense of wonder and curiosity, the sense of having lived a life, having experienced pain; an old soul in a child’s body. He needed to be open and generous to those around him and have good judgment. Harry is not great at academics; he has flaws. But that’s what makes him so compelling, so human — that he’s not perfect. Harry has an ‘everyman’ quality, yet he is capable of great things. He makes us all believe that magic is possible.”

Chris Columbus provided more detail on the casting process of the Harry character: “We had auditioned hundreds of potential Harry Potters, and I was still unhappy with the results. The first casting director, in a fit of total frustration, threw up her arms and said, ‘I just don’t know what you want!’ Sitting on a shelf in the office was a video copy of
David Copperfield
, starring Daniel Radcliffe. I picked up the video box, pointed to Dan’s face and said, ‘This is who I want! This is Harry Potter.’ The casting director said, ‘I’ve told you before, he is unavailable and his parents aren’t interested
in him doing this film.’” Added Heyman, “I completely understood their reticence and caution in allowing their child to play a role that would inevitably change his life. But we arranged a meeting over tea that afternoon with Dan. We talked for an hour and a half. His energy and enthusiasm were wonderful. I had a feeling that this was our Harry.” Noted Columbus, “To the Radcliffes’ credit, they were totally aware of the enormity of the project and for the sake of their child, were not going to make this decision lightly. We made it very clear to them that we would protect their son. We knew from the start that Dan was Harry Potter. He has the magic, the inner depth and darkness that is very rare in an 11-year-old. He also has a sense of wisdom and intelligence that I haven’t seen in many other kids his age. We knew we had made the right choice after sending Jo a copy of Daniel’s screen test. Jo’s comment was something to the effect of, ‘It’s as if I’ve been reunited with my long-lost son.’”

In an interview, Daniel Radcliffe reflected on getting the role of Harry: “I thought there are millions of boys auditioning for that part, and I know I won’t get it. But I was in the bath and talking to my mom when the phone rang and dad came in and told me I’d got the part. I was so happy, I cried a lot! That night I woke up at two in the morning and woke up mom and dad and I asked them, ‘Is it real? Am I dreaming?’ I was so excited.”