There's a new
interview with HBP director David Yates. It's in audio format, but
peachespig did a
transcription of parts of it over on his LJ. I hope he won't mind if I borrow some of what he went to the trouble to transcribe for the purposes of this post.
It's very very character-driven, Half-Blood Prince. It's a great coming of age story, ultimately... The romantic elements of it though, will really be the key to it.... you know, Harry's unrequited feelings for Bonnie... uh, for Ginny, Ginny Weasley, played by Bonnie, and the relationship that develops between Hermione and Ron is delightful and funny and tender and true.... and there's a sort of universality to the way those kind of romantic engagements or unrequited moments play out, and I think anyone who's grown up and had a crush on someone, or anyone who's grown up and fumbled with their first sort of relationship, will absolutely get where we're taking it, you know, what Jo's given us in that book. And I think there's lots of stuff that will be really fun I think.... and I can't wait to start shooting some of it, cause it's very funny, and I think a lot of it is very true as well."
Bold mine. I have to LOL over that slip. Was it Freudian?
I've seen some people scatching their heads over the unrequited line, but for part of the book, in Harry's POV, his crush on Ginny
is unrequited.
"There's this wonderful sequence where Harry and Dumbledore are trapped in this epic cave, and this army of the dead kind of come out of the water to get them.... it's pretty scary, there's are some pretty scary things in the story as well as incredibly fun romantic things. One of the things Jo does brilliantly in the book, and we're trying to do, certainly we're trying to achieve it in this film and we're going for it in the next, is these gear changes between these very intense moments of drama or horror or excitement, with just very delicately drawn character stuff. And I think when you spend this much money on a movie, you've got to give the audience the spectacle and the fun of a real roller coaster ride, but all of that means absolutely nothing unless at the heart and soul of it are these characters that you really believe in and care about. And for me that's absolutely foremost, to kind of balance the intimate with the epic. To kind of have characters that you believe in and that matter to you within the context of this epic, grand spectacle. And I think that if you can hit both levels, then you give the audience a really generous experience."
He gets it. He really does! I'm not the world's biggest movie fan, but I'm getting excited for this!
David Yates on HBP