“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” opens this Friday, and already critics are as wound up as Hogwarts students on the first day back.
The third Potter movie is leaner, faster and darker than the first two, almost everyone agrees – it’s a Potter as fun for adults as for kids, full of truly scary elements, like the billowy, black Dementors who can suck out your soul with a kiss, and breathtaking images, such as Harry’s glorious ride over a Scottish loch on the back of a mythical half-horse, half-bird hippogriff.
“It’s spellbinding,” says one British critic.
“The third time certainly does prove to be the charm,” writes another.
And it’s a good thing, too, because the Potter franchise was in sore need of a rejuvenating charm after 2002’s “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.”
Not that “Secrets” and the first movie, 2001’s “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” weren’t successful. They took in about $900 million each at the global box office.
But many slammed the second movie, calling it boring, overlong and generally unworthy of the magical and wildly popular J.K. Rowling book it was based on.
“Losing the Magic Touch,” was the headline of Lou Lumenick’s “Secrets” review in The Post.
“This proves,” he wrote, “that sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.”
Many Potter fans were so disappointed with “Secrets” that they were happy to hear that Chris Columbus, the director of the first two films, had stepped aside for “Azkaban,” and that producers had taken a flier on a decidedly out-of-left-field choice for the third film – the 42-year-old Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron.
Cuaron had never done a big-budget picture before, and at that point was best known for a very un-Potter-like movie – 2001’s sexy indie hit “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” about two teenage boys road-tripping across Mexico with an older woman.
But the early response to “Azkaban” proves he was an inspired choice.
Credit should go to the main producer of the Potter series, David Heyman, who knew Cuaron from before “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” when they discussed making a movie of William Sutcliffe’s best-selling road-trip-through-India novel, “Are You Experienced?,” a project that never happened.
“A lot of names were thrown around,” Heyman recalls, “but it was clear to me that it needed to be Alfonso.
“For the franchise to survive, it has to grow and develop.”
The first step, however, was convincing Cuaron, who admits he didn’t know much about Potter, before Heyman sent him the “Azkaban” script.
“I only read the script as a favor to David,” Cuaron says. “But by page 20, I was hooked.
“I got addicted. I bought all of the books and devoured them.”
Cuaron met with Rowling, who told him not to be too literal with his interpretation of her book (a common complaint about the first two installments) – so he took her carte blanche as an opportunity to tinker with “Azkaban.”
Not that Cuaron messed with the basics of Rowling’s third novel – Potter fans would have had his head for that – but he definitely put his stamp on them.
For example, he cut the book’s many Quidditch scenes until all that was left was the most intense moment from one match, when Harry flies high above the other players and gets attacked by Dementors.
Cuaron also juiced up the romantic tension between his young stars, 14-year-old Daniel Radcliffe (as Harry), 14-year-old Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) and 15-year-old Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) – an idea that comes both from Rowling’s books and from the real-life flirtiness that Cuaron sensed around the Potter set.
“There were a lot of kids around,” he says. “And there was a lot of whispering and passing notes. You could feel the pollen in the air.
“I wanted that spirit to be alive in the film. I just wanted it to flow.”
In one scene, Hermione grabs Ron’s hand in fear – and then they both realize what happened and look away bashfully.
The playful and awkward flirtation was played up even more in another scene that wound up on the cutting-room floor.
The scene was meant to come after a frightening one involving several wizards who turn into animals and fight each other. Once the drama is resolved and everyone has a chance to breathe, the friendly Hogwarts magical creatures professor, Hagrid, teasingly suggests that Hermione and Ron “have a great big, good hug.”
“At first, they’re like, ‘ick,'” recalls Robbie Coltrane, who plays Hagrid. “But they do hug – sort of awkwardly, at first – and then there’s one wee, melty moment when they do get really close.
“You’ll love it when you see it on the DVD.”
Of course, Cuaron also got to work with people his own age – practically a “who’s who of British theater,” in the words of Coltrane, who returns from the first two movies, along with Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith.
Along for the ride this time are Gary Oldman, as the mysterious “prisoner of Azkaban” himself, plus Emma Thompson, David Thewlis, Timothy Spall and Michael Gambon, who took over the role of Hogwarts headmaster Dumbledore from the late Richard Harris.
But Cuaron seems to have most enjoyed directing Radcliffe, Watson and Grint.
Before the shoot even started, he asked his young stars to write essays about their characters.
As it turns out, each actor did the essay as their character would have.
“I was very pleased because I wrote a whole page,” Radcliffe recalls. “But the next day, Emma came in and had written sixteen-and-a-half pages” – just like the goody-two-shoes Hermione would do.
Grint still hasn’t finished his essay.
“But hey, that’s my character!” he says. “Dan and Emma helped me give Alfonso all the usual excuses, like the dog at my homework, that kind of thing.
“But Ron has never liked schoolwork, and he’d have found every excuse possible to get out of doing the essay.”
Radcliffe, on the other hand, has turned out to be a very hard worker
“Dan is hungry for knowledge,” says Columbus, who worked on “Azkaban” as a producer. “He’s the kind of actor who stands with the director and asks lots of questions – I can see him being a director himself one day.”
Radcliffe has a couple of very intense scenes in “Azkaban,” and Cuaron helped him prepare by screening a few classic movies about disaffected teens, such as Francois Truffaut’s “400 Blows.”
When it came time to emote, Radcliffe was ready.
“Dan was so willing to go there,” Cuaron told Premiere magazine.
“Actually, sometimes he was too willing … The amount of pain he put into some scenes was almost dangerous.”
While shooting a scene in which he helps Oldman to fight off the Dementors, for example, Radcliffe got so deep into his character that he almost fainted.
“Sometimes I forget to breathe,” he explains. “I hyperventilate.”
Radcliffe’s intensity continues off the set, too.
He’s a big punk-rock fan who likes headbanging to Iggy Pop, and is also an inveterate cinephile who counts “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” “Twelve Angry Men,” “Donnie Darko” and “anything with Scarlett Johansson” among his favorite movies.
After a break from December to April, when they returned to their schools for a term, the Potter stars are now hard at work on the fourth Potter movie, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” which started shooting three weeks ago with Mike Newell (“Mona Lisa Smile,” “Four Weddings and a Funeral”) in the director’s chair.
Cuaron didn’t want to come back for the fourth film – he’s eager to do something smaller, without all the special effects.
But he adds that he’d like to come back for another Potter – “maybe the sixth,” he says – and in the mean time, he’s enjoying the praise for “Azkaban.”
“I think it might turn out to be the best movie I’ve made,” he says.
“But now what I really need is some sleep.”
He Who Shall Be Named
The arch-villain of J.K. Rowling’s universe, Lord (gulp) Voldemort, will finally appear onscreen next year in the fourth movie, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” So far producers are silent about who that might be, but that doesn’t stop fans from arguing over who they’d choose. Here are seven of the most popular.
Ian McKellen
Pro: Has practice playing a wizard, after role as Gandalf in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
Con: Gandalf was a good guy.
Christopher Lee
Pro: Has played lots of bad dudes, including evil wizard Saruman in “LOTR.”
Con: At 82, may be too old for the role.
Rowan Atkinson
Pro: In January, a British tabloid wrote that the “Mr. Bean” star had the part.
Con: At a recent press conference, “Potter” producer David Heyman laughed at that idea.
John Malkovich
Pro: Many rumors on fan sites that Malkovich (here in his upcoming film, “Libertine”) is a Voldie front-runner.
Con: Hell-oo?! He’s American!
David Bowie
Pro: Played bad-guy Goblin King in 1986’s “Labyrinth.”
Con: Not exactly in the same league as “Potter” actors like Gary Oldman and Emma Thompson.
Jeremy Irons
Pro: Second to none at creepiness, exemplified in 1990’s “Reversal of Fortune.”
Con: Too good-looking?
Bill Nighy
Pro: Best known as a cuddly, washed-up rock star in “Love, Actually,” but also played very Voldie-like vampire in last year’s “Underworld.”
Con: Actually, we can’t think of any. Go, Bill!
WHAT A DIFFERENCE THREE YEARS MAKES!
Harry Potter, style icon?
No, seriously.
Daniel Radcliffe, who plays the dorky, bespectacled wizard onscreen, debuted a hip new look at last weekend’s world premiere of “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.”
The teen heartthrob walked the red carpet in a rockin’ tailored chalk-striped suit, nattily jazzed up with a vibrant blue shirt and matching pocket square.
The suit, like the rest of his dressy wardrobe, was custom-made by Radcliffe’s personal tailor, Timothy Everest.
“He likes to put his own look together,” reports a rep who laughed at the suggestion that the young actor has “gone Hollywood,” and likes to be dressed by stylists.
Later in the week, as he whizzed around the city on promotional appearances, Radcliffe maintained his newly poised cool in a series of jeans and white shirts – looking every stitch the rock star he says he wants to become.
In a late-night conversation with Conan O’Brien, Radcliffe revealed he’s been itching to form his own band ever since “Azkaban” co-star Gary Oldman taught him how to play the bass between breaks on the set.
“It was a complete inspiration to work with him,” Radcliffe gushed to O’Brien. ” He’s a really great bass player.”
Whether or not Radcliffe can work his magic with a mike, the young Brit (who turns 15 in July) has already scored big with the ladies.
An estimated 1,000 female fans exuberantly cheered his arrival at Radio City Music Hall, a number that will no doubt be topped when the movie premieres in London this weekend.
Back home, Radcliffe is not just a cute teen idol. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, he is the second-richest teen in Britain – outranked only by another Harry: the Prince.
– Orla Healy