When J.K. Rowling’s vision of Harry Potter was realized on the big screen in 2001, a very passionate fan was helming the film. Chris Columbus, who already made a mark in Hollywood with Home Alone, impressed Rowling and Warner Bros. and secured the directing gig. However, the passion quickly turned into dread after the filming became exhaustive for the director who couldn’t see his young children due to the tight schedules.
Columbus, who already had ideas for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, had no energy to direct a third Harry Potter film and gave up his directing duties after two films. In the third film, he served as a producer and left the franchise after the film.
Harry Potter Director Chris Columbus Left The Franchise In Exhaustion
Chris Columbus will always be the director who first built the film world around Harry Potter based on J.K. Rowling‘s books. By the time Columbus joined the film, Rowling’s fourth book was nearing its release date. The author gave a manuscript of the book to the director and he had developed some plans for a two-part film.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Chris Columbus recalled the instance and shared that he was naive at the time. He shared, “I thought, ‘Oh, I have energy to do all seven of these movies.’ But that wasn’t the case.” The Home Alone director joined the franchise with huge ambitions but his passion was driven to the ground by the exhaustive filming schedules.
Chris Columbus revealed that the filming of both films took a “ridiculously” long time. Sorcerer’s Stone took 160 days of shooting and Chamber of Secrets followed immediately, taking up another 160 days. When the second film was completed, Columbus shared that he felt “emotionally and physically exhausted” and he “could barely speak.”
While the Pixels director was busy making movies to make kids all over the world happy, his own kids were missing dinners with him. He revealed that he wasn’t seeing his kids who were young at the time. Columbus realized that he couldn’t go with this hectic schedule for another seven or eight years and miss his children growing up.
Moreover, the three child actors, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson, weren’t mature or experienced enough to do an entire scene in one tracking shot. Columbus revealed that he was the “fourth person” in the famous trio as he was “always acting off-camera for them.” He revealed that he almost lost 15 pounds during the production of the two films, which accounted for his physical exhaustion. Columbus shared:
“I had to be basically performing with them. So that was why it was so exhausting. I wasn’t just sitting in a director’s chair yelling ‘Cut’ and ‘Action’ and telling my assistant to go over and give them a note. I was physically involved. I think I dropped about 15 pounds on that first movie just from the activity alone.”
Columbus passed on the directing duties to Alfonso Cuarón in the third film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. He remained as a producer on this film before leaving the franchise to shift back to the United States.
Chris Columbus Was So Eager To Direct Harry Potter
Chris Columbus’s daughter was the one who introduced him to Harry Potter. Once he read the books, he was immediately drawn to the wizarding world and wanted to make it into a film. Not only did he arrange for a meeting with Warner Bros., but he also made arrangements to make sure he had a lasting impression on the executives. He entered last for the meeting and went prepared with a 130-page screenplay that he wrote from Steve Kloves’ script for the film.
His 45-minute talk about Harry Potter undoubtedly impressed the execs, including the then-studio boss Alan Horn. His next hurdle was convincing J.K. Rowling. He went to Scotland to meet Rowling and producer David Heyman and spoke passionately about his vision for the film. Interestingly, Rowling too shared the same cinematic vision for her story and he was selected as the director.
In his interview with THR, Columbus expressed interest in directing a film version of the Harry Potter play, The Cursed Child. All Harry Potter movies are now available for streaming on Max.
