{"id":92104,"date":"2025-08-25T17:34:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T17:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/92104\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T17:34:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T17:34:09","slug":"harry-potter-director-chris-columbus-on-reboot-jk-rowling-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/92104\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Potter Director Chris Columbus on Reboot, JK Rowling Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tChris Columbus<\/a> has absolutely zero desire to be involved in HBO\u2019s all-star small-screen \u201cHarry Potter<\/a>\u201d reboot.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe filmmaker \u2014\u00a0arguably best known for launching the mega hit franchise more than 20 years ago having directed the first two \u201cHarry Potter\u201d features and produced the third \u2014\u00a0claims he\u2019s long since graduated from Hogwarts.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNo, I\u2019ve done it, you saw my version,\u201d he tells Variety while in London to promote Netflix\u2019s \u201cThursday Murder Club.\u201d \u201cThere\u2019s nothing left for me to do in the world of Potter.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tBut that\u2019s not to say he\u2019s against the TV reboot. He may have recently spoken out against the idea of remaking his 1990 classic \u201cHome Alone,\u201d but he definitely approves of the return to the Wizarding world. If anything, he\u2019s jealous.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe great thing about it is that with the first and second and third book, we wanted to do it all. We wanted to bring all of that onto the screen, and we didn\u2019t have the opportunity,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\n\tColumbus references the character Peeves from the first Harry Potter novel that \u201cnever made it into the film \u2014\u00a0we just didn\u2019t have time to develop the character,\u201d plus a storyline where Harry and Hermione have to drink potions and worry they may be poisoned.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe could never get that incredible scene into the film, and I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll be in the HBO series. So for me, it\u2019s an opportunity to bring all those scenes to life,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\n\tFor all the new detail the TV adaptation should be able to include, Columbus says he did have a \u201cdeja vu\u201d moment on seeing recent photo of Nick Frost as Hagrid and young newcomer Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter shooting on the streets of London.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBecause it was exactly where we were 20 years ago!\u201d he says. \u201cWe had to shoot it on a Sunday with Dan (Radcliffe) and Martin Bayfield, who stood in for Robbie Coltrane.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking of Radcliffe, Columbus confesses to feeling enormous pride at the adult he\u2019s grown up to become as well as the actor\u2019s post-Potter career. And the filmmaker claims the tactics deployed on Harry Potter to protect Radcliffe and his young co-stars came from what he saw happen with Macaulay Culkin on \u201cHome Alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe learned a valuable lesson on \u2018Home Alone,\u2019 so when David Heyman and I got into Potter, I said to him, \u2018We need to cast the parents as well as the children. We have to make sure that the parents can be prepared for what\u2019s about to happen, particularly with Potter,’\u201d he explains. \u201cWe knew that the eyes of the world would be on these three kids and they thankfully had just wonderful parents who helped them deal with what I can\u2019t even imagine the pressures are of suddenly your face being everywhere. So we were hoping that the kids would turn out as well as they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdds Columbus: \u201cThere\u2019s a sense of pride to see Daniel Radcliffe<\/a> win a Tony Award. It was just remarkable. Seeing him on stage and seeing how incredibly talented he is as a musical comedic actor was just very moving for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut when it comes to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, whose numerous comments against trans identity over recent years have made her a major figure of controversy, Columbus appears to have differing opinions. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI like to sometimes separate the artist from the art, I think that\u2019s important to do,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate, what\u2019s happened. I certainly don\u2019t agree with what she\u2019s talking about. But it\u2019s just sad, it\u2019s very sad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Columbus has absolutely zero desire to be involved in HBO\u2019s all-star small-screen \u201cHarry Potter\u201d reboot. The filmmaker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[45886,44008,96,1635,39033,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-92104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-chris-columbus","tag-daniel-radcliffe","tag-entertainment","tag-harry-potter","tag-jk-rowling","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}