If Harry Potter Was a Teen Comedy

This is an old video, but I felt compelled to share anyway. It only uses scenes from Half-Blood Prince, which works nicely since that movie was pretty much already a teen comedy that happened to take place in Hogwarts.

More importantly, it’s incredible how different a trailer is depending on the music.

What is the Best Young Adult Book Movie?

This week on the Agents of FILM podcast, we talk Maze Runner and the future of young adult book adaptations being Hollywood money-makers (or not). Plus we evaluate upcoming movies that will try to be the next Harry Potter/Hunger Games/Twilight.

Maria also talks about her interview with Michelle Monaghan (True Detective), and we go over which films we think you should check out next week.

(On the go? Download the audio podcast here.)

Cool things we mentioned:

Maria’s interview with Michelle Monaghan.
Supergirl confirmed for CBS.
Deadpool movie confirmed for Fox.

Thanks for Reading! You can subscribe to this blog by email via the prompt on the sidebar. Otherwise, be sure to stay connected with me on Twitter (@JonNegroni). I’ll follow you back if you say something witty and awesome.

Blogwarts! ‘Harry Potter’ Spinoff To Be a…Trilogy?

From Textbook to Movie Franchise, “Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them” Will Be Stretched To Three Movies.

J.K. Rowling’s 54-page textbook will be a movie trilogy, Warner Bros. recently announced. The decision is akin to New Line Cinema’s decision to turn The Hobbit, a 300-page novel, into a movie trilogy.

Opinions on whether or not The Hobbit worked as an impromptu trilogy vary, but the fact is that some serious finagling with the source material will be necessary if “Fantastic Beasts” is to find and keep an audience for three entire movies.

Quick disclaimer: I never read the Harry Potter books, but not for lack of want. I did, however, manage to catch the movies, making my opinion on this entire decision much more limited than any of you who are “true” fans of the Harry Potter world. Regardless, I’m having a troublesome time finding reasons to be excited about a story that doesn’t actually exist yet.

Yes, it takes place in the same world of wizards and muggles, which we all want I suppose. But who is in charge of the story, especially since we know that most of it will be made on the spot?

If Rowling has a lot to do with the project, I’m feeling quite hopeful—have you read her other book, The Casual Vacancy? It’s fantastic so far—so until more details on how Fantastic Beasts will be shaped come out, I’m not holding my breath for this new trilogy.

What do you fellow muggles think? Will this be a magical time spent in the theater, or should we be defending against the dark arts of prequels? Let me know what you think below.

Now, let’s say Rowling came up to me (fingers crossed) and asked me what I think she should do with this intricate world she has created. Again, I’m simply working off of the movies, but I’ve always been very interested in what the wizards are actually using their hard-learned magic for after attending schools like Hogwarts.

Yes, we have the Ministry of Magic and the Aurors, but it seems as if all of the jobs that require magic are simply there to prevent other people from using magic or keeping muggles out of the loop. If we were to continue the stories set in this world, I would want to explore why it’s so important for generations of wizards to maintain their traditions and become powerful sorcerers and sorceresses.

What if the wizards existed to keep the balance between nature and technology in check? The point could be that they keep to these traditions in order to protect fantastic beasts from muggles and vice-versa. They could also be working to prevent man from soiling nature with industrialization.

For all I know, this may have already been brought up in the books or debunked, but I still think it would make a fantastic story with adult wizards at the centerpiece. Exploring the fragile relationships between muggles and wizards would definitely be fascinating territory to cover, after all.

Or we could just pull from the fan art…

harry potter spinoff

Thanks for Reading! You can subscribe to this blog by email via the prompt on the sidebar. Otherwise, be sure to stay connected with me on Twitter (@JonNegroni). I’ll follow you back if you say something witty and awesome.

Review: ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’

When Harry Potter jumped from book to major motion picture, it crossed a cultural threshold that truly shaped the new millennium of not just cinema, but books, television and even theme park rides.

We began to demand for stories rich with lovable characters, epic moments and fantastical settings on a mainstream scale, something that hadn’t really been demanded since Stars Wars.

hunger games

Recall that it was during this era that comic book movies exploded with appeal, and an “impossible” story like The Lord of the Rings captured everyone’s attention. Basically, fantasy was king over the last decade.

Of course, all good things come to an end (that is hopefully as good), and we said goodbye to Harry Potter and his friends toward the end of the 2000s. Since 2008, we’ve been bombarded with more book-movies than ever before, with studios rushing to create the next Twilight franchise of success.

Surprisingly for movie-makers (but not moviegoers), 2013 was not the year that Beautiful CreaturesThe Host or The Mortal Instruments achieved mainstream appeal (for good reason I might add). No, it was the sequel to a movie based on a book that isn’t about vampires, chosen ones, destiny or other fantastical themes. It’s about people.

Go on…Review: ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’