David Yates
David Yates

Yates on 'Half-Blood Prince' & 'Order of the Phoenix'

  June 20, 2007 at 4:09 PM ET
  Geri     The Leaky Cauldron (via Film Journal)
  harry potter and the order of the phoenix movie, order of the phoenix movie, ootp movie, harry potter and the half-blood prince movie, hbp movie, half-blood prince movie, david yates


In a new interviewopens in new window with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix director, David Yates, he discusses his suspicion that his film Sex Traffic helped pave the way for him to direct the fifth movie. He also mentions working with screenwriter Michael Goldenberg, condensing the book into a movie, removing Quidditch from the film and briefly touches upon working on the sixth film Half-Blood Prince.

David on working on Half-Blood Prince:

I've been getting the next one ready for three months now while I'm finishing up Phoenix. I'm doing a Chris Columbus. He did the first two films back-to-back, and he had this crazy schedule where he was dubbing One while he was prepping Two. I've been doing the same with Five and Six. We start shooting in September.

David on his suspension that his work on Sex Traffic helped him to get the directing job:

I think that's the thing that finally swung them into offering me Potter. It was just a matter of time, I guess, before the right film came along, but I didn't want to do a movie unless the script was really perfect. When the Harry Potter offer came along, it was difficult to turn down.

David on having to remove Quidditch from the film:

Inevitably, something like the Quidditch story in the fifth book is, by its very nature, an episode in the book--and it doesn't necessarily feed the broad narrative of the story. So we were fairly ruthless in that sense, wanting to make sure that our story--this adaptation, this film that the audience will experience--had the least amount of episodic turns, that it felt like a single narrative working its way through. It's difficult to achieve that, and I'm not sure that it has been completely fixed, but it all feels quite organic now, I believe.

Mr. Yates also touches on working with the actors.

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