found it - here ya go
'Harry Potter' countdown: Steve Kloves on a 'haunting moment' in 'Half-Blood Prince'
09:53 AM PT, Jun 17 2009
There was nothing short of fan rebellion last summer when Warner Bros. suddenly decided to delay the premiere of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" from November to July.
Happily, months have passed and there are now just four weeks until the sixth Potter film hits theaters. Hero Complex will be helping you count down until the July 15 premiere. Each day, the blog will bring you new interviews with the cast and crew, as well as exclusive news, photos, interactive polls and a few surprises. Our star muggle Denise Martin kicks things off by catching up with screenwriter Steve Kloves, who just may have slipped up and leaked another of the 12 secret uses for dragons blood.
Be sure to bookmark latimes.com/herocomplex for your daily Potter fix.
Perhaps next to the Harry Potter stars and producer David Heyman, Steve Kloves just may be the most invested person in the on-screen wizarding world. He bowed out of writing the fifth film, The Order of the Phoenix, to the disappointment of his children, but has adapted all the rest of J.K. Rowlings Potter books, and is feverishly finishing the second part of the final "Deathly Hallows" scripts. Kloves took time out to talk about working with Rowling, the differences between the "Half-Blood Prince" book and film -- including the addition of a Harry-Snape moment right before Snape's showdown with Dumbledore -- and why he's stuck by the series for more than a decade.
Do you work with Rowling when youre hammering out a script, or do you have total freedom to adapt as you please?
Im a little too free. Jos become a really good friend, one of my best friends, and I wish I had more of her. When I first got to know Jo, she wasnt married, and now she is married and has kids, so shes gotten a much bigger life. Now, we mostly correspond through e-mail, and shes very responsive and very helpful, but from the beginning she has always said to me, "I know the movies will be very different. I know they cant be the books, and I dont want them to be the books. The only thing that matters to me is that you stay true to the characters." So thats always been the one thing I feel very much in charge of, protecting the characters, and its the thing that upsets me the most when I feel the characters are being violated. Thats when I push back hard.
Has that happened on any of the films?
Theres one moment in "The Chamber of Secrets" that I dont like, where Hagrid enters Hogwarts at the end of the movie and the whole group of assembled students applaud him. That would not happen. And it really upset me. I felt it was a real violation of character. And that was odd because [director] Christopher Columbus is a Potter fiend. He carried the book around with him. You could never catch Chris on anything. But I think Chris felt that he wanted the release of that moment. It was a mild disagreement.
What kind of things do you run by Rowling?
A range of things, even something really simple. I once asked about the 12 uses of dragons blood, which is referenced in the books. There are writers who would write 12 uses of dragons blood and not have a clue what they are; it just sounds cool. But I emailed her to ask (and this was 10 years ago), and 25 seconds later I get an email back with a list.
Do tell. She's only mentioned "oven cleaner" in interviews.
One is an oven cleaner, yes. Another is a spot remover. . . . It was really amazing. Really, the books are only the thinnest surface of what she knows about the series. Where Jo is helpful in a more serious way for me is when I want to know more about motivation or background, when Harry realized certain things, when characters understood things. There was one case where I was violating a plot thing -- it had something to do with Dobby, I think -- and she said, "No, you dont want to do that," as she knew what was to come. Shes a great resource for problem solving and she has such a facile mind, she can help with complicated things. Though her plots are so fiendish that theyre really difficult for cinema.
What, if anything, can you say about the climactic moment between Snape and Dumbledore? In the book, its a short but intense scene.
It is informed by everything [Potter readers] have come to know is true. So if you watch the film carefully, there are performance moments that are quite extraordinary, Alan Rickman [who plays Snape] especially. There is something we added that you can look forward to, a short scene between Harry and Snape prior to the big event. Itll be interesting to see how it plays to the audience. It should be a haunting moment for Harry. While I was writing, I just had a notion about a moment between him and Snape, something Harry could look back on and question as to why he didnt act differently.
Ive also read that most of Dumbledore's pensive memories of young Voldemort, then Tom Riddle, have been cut from the film. (Not to mention: Dumbledore's funeral!)
In my original draft, I had every single memory but one, I believe. I even dramatized a couple of things that werent in the book in terms of Voldemort, like the death of Toms parents, things like that. I'm a Harry Potter fan, so my first drafts tend to reflect that, in that they tend to be long and all-inclusive. When [director] David Yates came in, he had a very specific point of view, which was that he wanted to showcase Voldemorts rise without getting overly involved with his past as Riddle. He didnt think that most of the memories would be as compelling on-screen as they are on the page. He liked them in the script, but he really felt that in the movie experience Voldemorts story was more important than young Riddles. We went back and forth on that for quite a bit. But he was very convincing, and I think it wound up working out well.
Are there any other changes or additions that you can talk about?
I know one thing David is very proud of is getting Quidditch right. I do think its the first time that it feels like a sport. And its comic, which is fun. Rupert Grint [who plays Ron] is great. We also do a lot with the kids coming of age, navigating sexual politics and all that. Its pretty interesting to see these characters doing that because the movies have always been a bit chaste, and they continue to be on some level, but theres more happening in this one. You realize how complicated it is between boys and girls. Its a lot of fun seeing Ron navigate his first girlfriend.
Speaking of . . . how does the coming together of Ginny and Harry play out when we've all fallen for Cho Chang in the previous films?
Its interesting in the way its played out. Im very happy with the moment they consummate their feelings. It was a nice scene and David did it really well. Its sweet. For any longtime Potter fan, it's now that you begin to see people coming together, but in doing so, it strains the old relationships and the relationships that are the truest and the most trusted. Thats potentially dangerous, but its also a part of growing up. You have to strain those relationships to realize how important they are.
Why didn't you decide to adapt "Order of the Phoenix"?
You know, I dont even know why. The fourth film, "Goblet of Fire," was really hard to do. I wrote on it for two years. But its not that simple and I dont know that Ill ever fully understand why I didnt do it. This will sound glib, but its somewhat true: They asked me on the wrong day. They asked me for the last time on the wrong day. Had they asked me the next day, I probably would have said yes. Theres always stuff that goes on around these movies and I felt an urge -- and I still feel an urge -- to do other things. To go back to making movies nobody wants to see, and I'll do so. But I think I was feeling that urge particularly keenly at that time. I always said too that if the kids left, I would leave too. And there was some talk about Emma Watson [who plays Hermione] leaving and that would have been hard for me if Emma had left because I like writing for the three kids.
What is it like to have stuck with the Harry Potter series for so long?
Its complicated. When I said yes to the first film, the only thing I was told was that the books were "kind of a big deal in the U.K." No one here had heard of it, except people with kids of a certain age. I do wonder what I would have done in this last decade if I hadnt done "Potter." The last thing I did was "Wonder Boys" [released in 2000] and thats kind of where I left off, like I said, being involved with movies no one wants to see. Pretty much my career before Potter. I wonder what movies I would have made at 35 and 40 years old. Im glad I did Potter, but I cant say these things havent crossed my mind, the sacrifice I made to do it.
How satisfied are you with the finished film?
I havent seen the final version. It was not fully scored when I saw it. But I liked what I saw a lot. Its quite powerful, and genuinely moving at times. Even at times people might not expect. There are some intense emotional moments. It feels more mature. Im very excited about the next two movies because theyre even more mature and the kids are older. "Half-Blood Prince" is quite a leap from "Order of the Phoenix." Its quite different. Its not an action movie in the same way. But the last two films will be hugely different from all that have preceded them.
:eek Did they explain why Dumbledore had a blacken hand? I did enjoy the movie alot but was very disappointed in the ending. I will be going again to see the movie soon but alone this time.
But this weekend I'll be in chicago to see the Harry Potter exhibit.
