Rumor Says: Warner Bros Thinking ‘Quidditch,’ Too

October 2, 2013 by 1 Comment

My memory is just good enough to remind me that way back when dinosaurs walked the earth and we didn’t even know the titles of the last two or three Harry Potter novels, there was a vocal cadre that believed much of that information could be discovered in the trademark application logs at Warner Brothers. My memory isn’t what it once was, but I think their confidence derived from at least one direct hit (Half-Blood Prince?).

These prospectors and internet researchers came to mind today when I read that “some believe” Warner Brothers is considering making a Quidditch Through the Ages film series as well as movies derived from Tales of Beedle the Bard. A story in the UK newspaper, the Independent, ‘JK Rowling’s Quidditch Through the Ages earmarked as next Harry Potter spin-off film,’ contends that Warner is “hinting” as much, based on its trademark filings.

According to website Bleeding Cool, Warner Bros has taken out several trademarks that hint at another film based on JK Rowling’s companion book Quidditch Through the Ages.

The Quidditch companion was originally released for Comic Relief 2001 alongside the fictional Hogwarts textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which Warner Bros is to make into a film.

The studio has reportedly trademarked Quidditch Through the Ages, as well as the name of the book’s author, Kennilworthy Whisp, and the names of the Quidditch teams the Wimbourne Wasps, the Chudley Cannons and the Kenmare Kestrels.

I am not looking forward to the films derived from Fantastic Beasts because (a) I am not a film fan but an iconodule (cinema being the victory of the neo-iconoclasts, alas) and (b) I expect it will be another exercise a la Indiana Jones and the Potter film franchises to reduce even a smart story into a series of chases, fights, and CGI ‘wow’ opportunities for teenagers. But I get the hooks of the Newt Scamander story as it has been sketched and would certainly buy the book if it were written as a novel rather than a screenplay.

The worst parts of the Potter films and the chapters apparently Ms Rowling dreaded writing in the novels were the Quidditch matches. I don’t doubt that stories could be told around conflicts on the Quidditch pitch — Cinderella stories, On the Waterfront remakes, even Rollerball translations — but, outside of the guarantee of a big payday, why would anyone make that film?

Let’s hope that, as with the many titles Warner Brother trademarked a decade ago, that this rush to secure the rights to these titles and names is just for future pinball and XBox games.

Your comments and corrections, please, especially if you’ve got a great story line for a cinematic treatment of Quidditch Through the Ages.

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes, Movie Thoughts

Guest Post: Janet Batchler on ‘Newt Scamander’

September 25, 2013 by 2 Comments

Janet Batchler, profound Potter Pundit, renowned Hollywood screenwriter, USC prof, and friend of this blog, left her thoughts about the new Joanne Rowling film project on a thread where many readers might miss it so we’ve bumped it up to a Guest Post for your comments and corrections> Thank you, Janet, for dropping in!

Coming to the discussion here of the Newt Scamander film late, but thought I’d check in as a voice from Hollywood.

•I doubt WB “put the squeeze on” JKR.  …When my writing partner and I were asked to write a Batman movie, the call from WB to our agent began, “We’re offering you Warner Bros.’ most important corporate asset.”  That’s what HP is now:  WB’s most important corporate asset.  Putting the squeeze on the person who created that asset (and could create more of it) would be highly unproductive.

•We do know that WB courted JKR for over a year regarding this project.  That means that she almost certainly said no to writing an HP sequel, no to writing the story of the HP generation’s kids, no to writing the story of the Marauders, no to writing the story of the Founders. Good for her.  All of those have more than a whiff of exploitation, and there would be nothing for JKR to explore creatively.

•JKR spent most of her adult life on HP.  Since the HP saga concluded, she has been trying to do very different things.  The tension of people wanting her to return to the HP world (not just WB — all those millions of fans as well) combined with her love of that world must be overwhelming at times.  Finding a way for her to return to it that is not a retread of HP in any way is a win for everyone involved. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Guest Posts, Movie Thoughts

Tolkien Estate and the Movies: Why We Should Care

September 10, 2013 by

Let’s be clear, there is no love lost between the Estate of J. R. R. Tolkien and the movie making empire that created the three LOTR films and, more recently, The Hobbit. For one, they are at legal nail, tooth, and tongs. More to the point of this post, though, the Estate considers the movies to be trash and a great betrayal of the written work, the artistry, epic, and meaning they are supposed to represent in a different medium.

You can read the interview with Christopher Tolkien in which he makes these points — and it is worth a close study, I think. Here is the highlight I think especially important:

Invited to meet Peter Jackson, the Tolkien family preferred not to. Why? “They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25,” Christopher says regretfully. “And it seems that The Hobbit will be the same kind of film.”

This divorce has been systematically driven by the logic of Hollywood. “Tolkien has become a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed into the absurdity of our time,” Christopher Tolkien observes sadly. “The chasm between the beauty and seriousness of the work, and what it has become, has overwhelmed me. The commercialization has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing. There is only one solution for me: to turn my head away.”

Three quick notes:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes, Hunger Games, Movie Thoughts, Postmodern Polly, Potter Fandom

‘Honest Trailers’ Visits the Harry Potter Franchise

August 28, 2013 by 3 Comments

Hat tip to Joshua!

Filed Under: Movie Thoughts

Only an Allusion?: Star Trek Into Darkness and the Death of Literary Literacy

June 30, 2013 by 8 Comments

I don’t get to see that many movies in the theater, although I do serve as our Hogwarts Film-Fancier in Chief. Now that we’re done with new Harry Potters and Twilight films (at least until the inevitable re-boots), I’m patiently waiting for Catching Fire this fall, but I did recently get to catch Star Trek into Darkness. I am an unabashed Star Trek fancier as well, having really enjoyed writing “Shakespeare (and the Rest of the Great Books) in the Original Klingon” for the newly released Star Trek and History. Though I enjoyed the film very much, I noticed that it was loaded with plenty of wonderful allusions to other pieces of the Star Trek universe, but somewhere along the way, had lost one of the most important features of that universe: its deft use of literary allusions. So join me in the transporter room as we beam around the beautiful and complex world of literary allusions and think about why it’s so troubling that we see them less and less these days, in both books and films, or that people don’t recognize them when they see them. Energize!
[Read more…]

Filed Under: C. S. Lewis, Elizabeth Baird Hardy, Hunger Games, Movie Thoughts, Twilight Tagged With: ,