Max greenlights "Potter" series

[Bob Jersey]

It'll take ten years to tell all the stories from Rowling's books, and stuff that was in the books but left out of the movies will likely be included... the budget will be on par with GoT and ...Dragon, WBD said... 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/harry-potter-tv-series-officially-happening-at-max-1235371717/ (link)

Buuuut there's still the belief that with ten years of Potter on telly, comes more anti-trans b*tchin' from JKR...
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/harry-potter-tv-series-controversy-jk-rowling-1235372796/ (link)

B

[PGage]

I don’t know that we have seen someone tank such a valuable brand. It would be as if Tolkien were alive today, and just after the films based on his books made hundreds of millions he started tweeting about how the Holocaust was not really that bad.

I’m shocked Warner-Discovery is going long on her. My kids grew up on Potter (like, we had to be at the bookstore at Midnight to buy each book, and they had them finished by the next day), but they will not be reading the books to their kids, and will not be streaming new Potter content.

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[Kevin M.]

Amidst all the discussion about Rowling and her opposition to people claiming different genders, rarely has it been brought up that using the initials JK is a traditional author technique of misleading potential readers into believing the female author is a male, and that when she penned a mystery novel under a pseudonym about a decade ago, she chose to call herself Robert. I know that gender is an inflammatory issue for many and Rowling has been a fuse that ignites that flame, but in all Rowling’s rhetoric, I cannot help but think she might have some identity issues of her own to sort out… that her issues related to gender have more to do with who she is than who others are. 

Regardless, the last thing Harry Potter needed was MORE details from the books. The movies were already too long. The secret to making me watch more Harry Potter is to cut out the ephemera and tell a clear, interesting, concise story. Preferably a story that doesn’t involve either children or wizards. 

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Adam Bowie]

I'm pretty sure that JK Rowling used "JK" rather than "Joanne" simply because her publisher thought it was expedient for sales. Boys aren't (or weren't) as likely to buy a fantasy book written by a female as written by a male. I'm sure that as a largely unpublished author, she relied heavily on her publisher's advice on this.

As for Robert Galbraith - I think that was simply a nomme de plume allowing her to write something different. At the time, she would have probably earned a much bigger advance and initial sales if she had published under her own name. She did originally try to keep her identity secret, so this was almost certainly to throw others off the case.

(As a crime novel fan, I notice a significant number of female writers "disguise" their gender despite the fact that more crime fiction *readers* are female than male).

I have no real view on the sensibility of Warner Bros Discovery investing a lot in a reboot of Harry Potter. As someone who read the first book, and saw the first film, but never went beyond them, I have no skin in this game. But I wouldn't underestimate the continued popularity of the characters regardless of what Rowling has said and done since. From what I can tell, the studio tour just outside London continues to sell well, the musical in London is pretty solidly sold out, the queues at King's Cross Station for photos of platform 13.5 are always busy and Universal seems to be continuing to roll out Potter-related theme park experiences.

I suspect that the books still sell pretty strongly too. 

While it feels a bit soon to reboot a series entirely in this way, how many Batman or Spiderman reboots have there been in the last 20 or so years? (See also Dracula, Tarzan and any number of other fictional characters over the history of film and television)

I'd guess that WBD is taking all of that into account before greenlighting a new series. And I'm sure they'll bail if it doesn't work. 

Adam.

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[Kevin M.]

On Thu, Apr 13, 2023 at 8:08 AM Adam Bowie <ad...@adambowie.co.uk> wrote:

I'm pretty sure that JK Rowling used "JK" rather than "Joanne" simply because her publisher thought it was expedient for sales. Boys aren't (or weren't) as likely to buy a fantasy book written by a female as written by a male. I'm sure that as a largely unpublished author, she relied heavily on her publisher's advice on this.

As for Robert Galbraith - I think that was simply a nomme de plume allowing her to write something different. At the time, she would have probably earned a much bigger advance and initial sales if she had published under her own name. She did originally try to keep her identity secret, so this was almost certainly to throw others off the case.

Both very plausible scenarios, but the fact remains she’s had two professional opportunities to present herself as a woman and for whatever reason(s) chose instead to be thought of as a man. And now she is perhaps the most outspoken critic of others who present themselves with genders different from the ones they were born with. She decries allowing transgendered people the right to do what they want as she believes they aren’t who they claim to be, yet her entire career is based on doing exactly that. Even granting the misogyny of the publishing industry, there is an obvious double-standard to her criticism. I cannot help but suggest that Rowling is not comfortable in her own skin, and just as so many outwardly homophobic conservatives turn out to be masking their own gay feelings, Rowling might be overcompensating. 

For the record, I genuinely don’t care what people call themselves or how they dress or what sports they want to participate in (especially that last one, because games don’t matter). I neither celebrate it nor condemn it; I genuinely don’t care. I worked in retail for years, so I long ago got out of the habit of using pronouns when addressing people I don’t know (yep, made that mistake one too many times). As a middle school teacher I have pointed out to my classes that our founding fathers wore wigs, high heels, tights, and makeup and they carried purses, and yet we as a nation still celebrate their achievements. Societal norms change, and they’ll keep changing until either society breaks down or the planet explodes. 

As for Harry Potter being remade, this week I was reading a book of essays, and one of the essays warned the motion picture studios that they needed to stop trying to remake films or it will hasten the end of cinema as we know it. The essay was written over 50 years ago by Harlan Ellison, so what I am forced to conclude  is that remakes and reboots are the norm… original concepts are now the aberration. Remakes have been ingrained into the industry longer than I’ve been alive and will continue until either society breaks down or the planet explodes. 

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Adam Bowie]

On Thu, Apr 13, 2023 at 4:53 PM Kevin M. <drunkba...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thu, Apr 13, 2023 at 8:08 AM Adam Bowie <ad...@adambowie.co.uk> wrote:

I'm pretty sure that JK Rowling used "JK" rather than "Joanne" simply because her publisher thought it was expedient for sales. Boys aren't (or weren't) as likely to buy a fantasy book written by a female as written by a male. I'm sure that as a largely unpublished author, she relied heavily on her publisher's advice on this.

As for Robert Galbraith - I think that was simply a nomme de plume allowing her to write something different. At the time, she would have probably earned a much bigger advance and initial sales if she had published under her own name. She did originally try to keep her identity secret, so this was almost certainly to throw others off the case.

Both very plausible scenarios, but the fact remains she’s had two professional opportunities to present herself as a woman and for whatever reason(s) chose instead to be thought of as a man. And now she is perhaps the most outspoken critic of others who present themselves with genders different from the ones they were born with. She decries allowing transgendered people the right to do what they want as she believes they aren’t who they claim to be, yet her entire career is based on doing exactly that. Even granting the misogyny of the publishing industry, there is an obvious double-standard to her criticism. I cannot help but suggest that Rowling is not comfortable in her own skin, and just as so many outwardly homophobic conservatives turn out to be masking their own gay feelings, Rowling might be overcompensating. 

I'm not sure that "JK Rowling" was ever presented as a male author simply by virtue of the book using initials rather than a gendered first name. If a reader made that deduction on their own part, I think it says more about them than the author. But if an author chooses to use initials rather than their given firstname, then that's entirely up to them. I'd also note that early reviews of the first title clearly referenced that the author was female. It wasn't exactly a secret.

Authors choose to use different names for lots of reasons. I don't suppose Stephen King was suffering from some kind of multiple personality disorder when he chose to publish some books under the name Richard Bachman. And I'm not sure that either CS Lewis or JRR Tolkien were trying to hide their genders when they were published. But horses for courses.

Look - any mention of Rowling and her views, or indeed discussions of gender identities on the internet tends to end up degenerating into unpleasantness, and I'm not going to follow that path. I'm also not going to either defend or attack someone I don't know on the basis of a lot of internet vitriol (Honestly, the gender "debate" is actually probably worse on this side of the Atlantic than in the US).  

Adam

[M-D November]

I'm actually not that shocked that WB-D would go long on JKR, even with everything that's come out about her - put bluntly, Warners doesn't have the plethora of tentpole properties that Disney or University have.  

Or maybe a better way to say that is that they SHOULD, what with the entirety of DC comics available to them, but they've mismanaged the IP so badly that it's going to take James Gunn years to rebuild it into a cohesive brand approaching anything like the MCU. The Matrix has run its course. For whatever reason, they seem disinterested in rebuilding the animation studio into something that even resembles its former glory, which means Bugs, Daffy and their ilk, not to mention the Hanna-Barbara IP, sit unused. And LEGO took their ball and went to Universal.  That just leaves the back catalog of WB classics, and the Wizarding World. So yeah, they don't have much choice but to go all in on Potter.

[PGage]

I will concede the point that for WBD, JKR is the source of the Franchise they have, rather than necessarily the Franchise they want. If the future of these entertainment companies really is tied to IP, I guess you go with what you can. And Adam is no doubt right that Potter is still popular, it’s just, I am sure it is only about half as popular as it might otherwise have been. The first Potter generation are now parents of young children, and a third to half of them would rather read those kids Mein Kampf than The Sorcerer’s Stone.

I was initially more moderate on JKR’s anti-Trans rants, and labored with my daughters to be more tolerant. I don’t think she has gender identity issues herself, rather, I think she feels herself to have been deeply traumatized by men, and is terrified that trans women are somehow a kind of Trojan Horse via which toxic men will intrude into the safe and sacred spaces women create for themselves. I still think that is what is going on, but as the cliche goes in my field, hurt people hurt people, and JKR has doubled down repeatedly on the vitriol, and now is quite as toxic to trans people, themselves the most vulnerable and abused group in the world, as men have been to women. I hope she can heal and then repair some of the damage she has done, but I’m not holding my breath.

I was one who read the first Galbraith book before the code was cracked on who the author was. I like Cormoran Strike and his associate Robin, and am halfway through the most recent book on my Kindle. I have also starred, but not yet watched the streaming versions (I guess that is HBO, or Max, or whatever, too).

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/36a69294-3793-4e81-81cb-0410e95123adn%40googlegroups.com.

[Bob Jersey]

The adult cast has been revealed, led by... John Lithgow??

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/harry-potter-cast-hbo-1236189812/ (link)

B

Moi, April 13th 2023:

[Diner]

Well, he studied in England as a Rhodes Scholar, so he can do a pretty good English accent. (He did play Churchill, after all.)

But I'm reminded of the story that Rosie O'Donnell was considered for the role of Mrs. Dursley in the first Potter movie until director Chris Columbus decided that the movie would seem more authentic if they used real Brits rather than Americans doing accents. Still seems like the right idea to me.

[Jim Ellwanger]

In his first major film role, John Lithgow received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for playing a trans woman (in "The World According to Garp").

And now he's set to star in a show that will enrich the coffers of one of the world's most pre-eminent anti-trans activists.

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[Dave Sikula]

I prefer the Armando Iannucci approach where everyone uses their own dialects. It's far better than hearing Brits torture audiences with "'Murican" accents.

--Dave Sikula

[Bob Jersey]

Lithgow tells the Times of London there was plenty of pushback from fans to taking the role... not that he's concerned... he noted that when he got the role of Roald Dahl, known antisemite, in the West End, folks took it well...

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/john-lithgow-harry-potter-jk-rowling-anti-trans-comments-1236201956/ (link)

B

Diner, to moi, April 16th:

[Adam Bowie]

It's probably worth noting that the play that Lithgow appeared in (and will continue to appear in later this year) is very much an exploration of Roald Dahl's antisemitism. The play was a multiple award winner at the recent Olivier Awards (Britain's version of the Tony's) with Lithgow taking away Best Actor. 

I'm not sure the comparison with this play makes much sense, any more than saying an actor shouldn't play any kind of bad person. 

Adam

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[Bob Jersey]

We have our Harry, Hermione, and Ron after tens of thousands of keeds were auditioned... picture of the trio provided...

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/hbo-harry-potter-series-hermione-ron-weasley-actors-1236230730/ (link)

B

Moi, April 16th:

[Kevin M.]

I’m looking forward to this being a massive bomb. I know that’s wrong of me, but I cannot help myself. 

Kevin M. (RPCV)

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[Bob Jersey]

More casting with fresh faces... https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/hbo-harry-potter-cast-dursleys-malfoy-1236259967/ (link)

B

Moi, May 27th: