nathanielandbartimaeus wrote: Actors usually don't have time to read the books. Atleast, it would be gr8 if JS briefed them on their roles. And he must have an upper hand in the script work & censoring.

the trio in harry potter read the books and there are seven of them. there are three books in the barty trilogy, that are not nearly as long.

if the actors really want to understand the character and do a good job, they should read the books before the audition process. if i were an actress i'd give myself an advantage over everyone by reading the original. scripts can contain a lot, but what is better than reading and understanding the original material? and i'm sure they don't spend every waking moment filming, they can read during hair & makeup, when waiting around while other people are doing their scenes, in the evenings or whatever. i'm sure the filming process doesn't consume every minute of the day.

i would personally love it if authors wrote the script for the movies. different mediums, sure, but it would be easy to do a course in it. they'd earn extra for it and the fans would love it because all the necessary parts would be included.

I agree.

if there was a screenwriter who read the books as well, then that would be a REALLY big help (although Stroud should be part of the script writing team, too, just in case something looks wrong to him)

Yes. As I've mentioned, Kenneth Oppel, author of Airborn, had that book made into a movie, but rejected the script.

Since we have the topic The Film? in General, doesn't that make this one a little redundant?

If they leave out the footstool scene in GE (if they do it, depending on box office for AoS), I will cry.

Yeah, I guess Ginger didn't see that other topic.

Heh. The books aren't extremely long, so they should leave most things in.
That was a big problem with Harry Potters 4 & 5, and will be w/ 6 &7, the length.
They had to fit the books into less than three hours of screen time.
No wonder they left things out.

if the Bartimaeus movie is as bad as the eragon movie was to the eragon book than i'll cry forever and ever... and the director might want to go into hiding 2. :sentynel:

Yeah, we all feel that way.
Btw, there's a more updated topic in the AoS forum.

Dansariki wrote: Heh. The books aren't extremely long, so they should leave most things in.
That was a big problem with Harry Potters 4 & 5, and will be w/ 6 &7, the length.
They had to fit the books into less than three hours of screen time.
No wonder they left things out.

Quite right, but still they had the audicity not only to cut many of the imp parts but add unwanted parts. That always makes me furious. And the 5th book being the biggest had the smallest movie!
Sry, goin off topic here.

Quite understandable.
They changed a good deal of the fight at the ministry, as well.

I liked that part the best in the book. But the fight in the movie seemed so fake.

ugh, i agree. they cut snape's worst memory, which is my favourite chapter out of the whole series. if they butcher the barty trilogy as well i may have to boycott all movies that have been made from books that i've read.

They're considering separating the 7th HP book into 2 films right now. O.o But if that's the case, then as long as they stay true to all of the important stuff, it's cool. XD I haven't seen OOTP yet, but the graveyard scene in GoF seemed too fake to me. Some of the actors spoke their lines too fast, so there wasn't really any time for any suspense and excitement to grow.

I have high hopes for the 2009 movie, but if it turns out to be a huge letdown when it's out...

Heh...
Let's return to the topic.
General consensus: Eragon sucks, the HP movies left to much out.

Back to the 2009 movie, I agree with the choice for Ellen Page, but only if, and only if she can pull off the personality properly.
Otherwise Kitty'll be a dud.
The chick who played Ron's mom in the Hp series gets my vote for Mrs.Underwood, pending other discoveries.
I'm not british- I don't know many brit actors.
While this may sound ludacris, I think Jim Carrey can pull off Mr.Underwood, assuming he isn't funny.
If you think he can't, see The Number 23.
Nat? No idea.
As for Djinn, I'm still thinking about it.
Gimme some time.

Actually, he can be funny, as the foolish master. Like when he finally realizes how smart and clever Nat is, he can say something stupid.

Ellen Page will be 22 in 2009 and Kitty's supposed to be 14 in the book. And I'll be surprised if this movie actually gets started by 2009.

As long as they get Simon Pegg for Barty I'm good.

Bowles wrote: As long as they get Simon Pegg for Barty I'm good.

ooh, Simon Pegg is awesome, i could see him pulling off barty's voice really well. as for kitty, i agree that page is too old.

i think an unknown would be good for nathaniel. i find it hard to think of someone who would fit him, but for some reason when i do, it's always the kid that played Sam in Love Actually (though apparently he's almost 18. i got that from imdb, but i really don't think it's right. he looks like he's twelve!) or the kid that played Charlie Bucket (who is apparently 16 as of yesterday... there's another one who looks like he's twelve) and is now in the Spiderwick Chronicles.

As for Nat, I think it should be an unknown. My friend suggest Freddie Highmore....