HBO First Look (CoS)

One year ago, he learned the truth (Hagrid: “You’re a wizard, Harry”) and his first year at Hogwarts school became legend and so for Harry Potter and his friends another year begins:

Dan: It’s very different from the first film. It’s got basically more of everything.

Emma: There’s kind of more room for action.

Rupert: Much more adventurous, yeah

Robbie Coltrane: I can’t wait to see the spiders.

Chris Columbus: It continues to be a faithful adaption of the second book.

Dan: I think it’s funnier than the first film.

Rupert: There’s new characters in this.

Kenneth Branagh: Everywhere that Gilderoy intercedes or intervenes it causes some version of mayhem.

Tom Felton: Malfoy’s back and he’s even worse in the second film than he is in the first.

Dan: It’s just great fun.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Revealed

Chris Columbus: The first film opened on Friday and then on Monday we were immediately into shooting Chamber of Secrets. You know …you just… back to work … back with the people you know.

Dan: It was really good to see everybody again. It was really good to actually sit in front of the camera and film with them.

Chris: The challenge of the first film was to basically explain to the audience what’s going on in this kid’s life. Having done that, you can get into the second film and immediately get into the story. That’s what’s exciting about doing the second film.

Dan: He’s discovered his home at Hogwarts. Hogwarts is where he belongs and when he comes back he discovers that there’s a real threat to his school.

Chris: Hogwarts was founded by four professors. One of them was Salazar Slytherin. So Slytherin built a secret chamber in the school called the Chamber of Secrets where he could go and work on his dark magic. The only way the chamber could be opened was by the true heir of Slytherin and in the film we try to find out who the heir of Slytherin is.

David Heyman: Our goal with the films is to have them be true representations of the books, in spirit and in story and character.

Chris: It was also exciting to make a darker picture, slightly more of an action adventure film this time around, which is really exciting to me. It appeals to the ten year old boy inside of me…… Unlike a pure remake or a pure sequel, it’s a story that exists on it’s own terms.

Young Wizards Grow Up

Dan: Harry’s character is very different from in the first film. Harry’s a lot stronger character. In the first film, Harry’s very reactive to everything around him and in the second film he is very proactive.

Emma: Hermione definitely becomes more easygoing. She’s kind of a little less obsessed with books and what and she kind of settles down a bit.

Rupert: Ron’s kind of changed cause his sister’s now there and he’s kind of got to be the big brother, kind of looking after the sister. And in this film I’ve got the owl, Errol. He’s really really stupid and clumsy.

Chris: What we really wanted to explore in the second one is the fact that the kids are getting older. It’s the second year at Hogwarts for these three children. So things are starting to get a little more complex. Relationships aren’t as simple as they once were.

Dan: Rupert is incredibly funny and we had a great time because we’d spent about a month in the flying car together.

Rupert: What happens is they can’t get through the platform so they have to take the flying car cause they can’t catch the train to get to Hogwarts.

Dan: Which in the end turned out to be an incredibly bad idea as they end up flying into an incredibly violent tree.

Rupert: Oh yeah, that was really fun…..Those were some of the best filming days I think.

Short clip:

Dan to Emma: Why are you are so determined to embarrass me! (Rupert laughing.)

Emma to Dan: I am not determined to embarrass you! I’m determined to be taller than you are.

Dan: Me, Rupert, Emma and some of the other kids have developed really strong bonds now.

Emma: We all get on very very well.

Tom (gesturing to Dan): We’re not really enemies. We love each other really.

Dan: Me and Tom get on really well in real life. In the film they really hate each other.

Tom: Draco Malfoy is a bit cleverer. Actually he’s gotten cleverer over the years. He seems to think of more evil schemes….. I cheat a little bit at the beginning. (Referring to the dueling scene.)

Conjuring New Characters

Chris: Gilderoy Lockhart is a very vain egotistical author. He pretends to be humble; he pretends to be brave and strong; he pretends to be a gracious person but in reality, he’s not any of those things. He’s a complete and utter phony.

Kenneth: If we are to believe everything he says, he has taken on more wizards and foul creatures and monsters than any other wizard in living memory.

Emma: Hermione is seriously dreamy about Lockhart.

Kenneth: He is singularly the most gorgeous defense against the dark arts teacher this year at Hogwarts.

Dan: Boys hate him. They’re just embarrassed by him. He’s cringeworthy. He’s…uck!

Kenneth: What tips Harry and Ron off is that he can’t quite deliver on his ability to control a group of Cornish Pixies, which he’s brought into the classroom…. That, as you might say, is not a success. (Referring to the classroom disaster with the pixies.)

Dan: Lucius Malfoy. He’s a slimeball basically.

Jason Isaacs: Lucius is a very dark character or he’s a thoroughly thoroughly unpleasant man. Completely supreme in his arrogance and ruthlessness. There’s nothing that he wouldn’t do.

Chris: So the camera loves him and unfortunately the camera loves him in a really evil way. He personifies evil to me onscreen.

Jason: The fun in this for me is being as grotesque as I can and yet trying to make it real. It’s tricky with Lucius. There’s not a lot going for him in the popularity stakes.

A Chamber of Fun

Chris: The one thing that the success of the first film enabled us to do was to sit back and be a little more relaxed about what we were doing and have a lot more fun with it….. So you’ll find a lot more humor in this film. It was more of a playful side, certainly for me and the kids.

Ron (discussing the slug scene): Malfoy’d just been really horrible to Hermione and Ron tried to stick up for her and did a spell but it hit him and he began to choke out slugs…… They tasted quite nice actually.

David: It’s an amazing world for somebody to play in. For a twelve year old, you know, it’s Oz.

Dan: I am so lucky. How many kids in the world would pay thousands to be doing this right now? I wouldn’t have swapped this for anything.

David: It was such a great atmosphere in the first film and we wanted to maintain that experience.

Chris: So you do form specific bonds and you form a strong sense of almost family with the crew and I wanted to continue that on the second film.

Kenneth: There was a sense of coming into a family, being the newcomer but being very welcome so that was a nice atmosphere, friendly people, laughed, the kind of humor that’s in the books is on the set.

Robbie: I think everyone’s a bit more kind of relaxed really. Because we know what to do and what to expect.

Chris: The kids really felt comfortable with all departments. And I thought, well I’d like to keep it comfortable again. It’s all about making those kids, the core of kids, feel comfortable on the set.

Emma: In the first one I’d never done any professional acting. So I was nervous and now I know the people I’m working with and I know my surroundings so I feel a lot more relaxed and I feel as though I can really have a good time with this one.

Richard Harris: Chris Columbus is wonderful. He’s magic with those children. He’s so patient; he’s so understanding; they love him; he loves kids.

Old Friends, New Adventures

Dan: There are loads of twists and turns everywhere.

Rupert: The snakes and the spiders

Tom: Quidditch

Lucius: I suspect the audience will quite be looking forward to me getting my comeuppance .

Robbie: The characters have developed and the friendships have developed.

Chris: The effects are stunning this time around.

Dan: It’s a lot scarier….. It’s funnier….It’s got more action… It’s gonna be amazing!

Closes with “Let us hope Mr Potter will always be around to save the day”… “Don’t worry. I will be.”

Written by Madika
Last Change of this page: Aug 6th, 2004, 3:55 am