teen audience appeal.” It’s kind of poetic that Rickman wanted what Snape wanted: fewer meddling teens. And you are brilliant.” In a 2009 note, which he titled “Inside Snape’s Head,” Rickman jotted down some of his complaints about Snape’s story line while working on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: “It’s as if David Yates has decided that this is not important in the scheme of things i.e.

“I know, at times, you are frustrated but please know that you are an integral part of the films. “Thank you for making HP2 a success,” producer David Heyman writers in one letter. According to The Independent, a few of them hint at his reservations about playing Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies. Two years after his death, some of the actor’s personal letters have been put up for auction. That is why we should never judge the book by its movie.Turns out that Alan Rickman, as you might expect, had a quibble or two about one of his most famous roles. His insecurities, on the other hand, reveal his vulnerable side, something that is completely glossed over in the films. In the books, he has all the funny lines and he is loyal to a fault. One of my pet peeves has to be the fact that the filmmakers reduced Ron Weasley to a sidekick. For instance, where is the wonderful story behind the Marauder’s Map, and how can Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire even proceed without telling us that the hack Rita Skeeter is an unregistered Animagus? Don’t even get me started on how easy the labyrinth was in the final task in the Triwizard Tournament. Potterheads have their absolute favourite scenes from the books that have often been ruthlessly cut on the editing table. Even the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in America and Harry Potter World in London are tours organised by the producer, the Warner Bros studio. Be it the figurines or the colouring books, they are all based on the movies. The younger generation will always think of Daniel Radcliffe when they think about The Boy Who Lived, rather than Jim Kay or Mary GrandPré’s illustratations in the novels. Movie adaptations of popular books tend to set the dominant visual cues for fans. Without the movies, Alan Rickman would not have been seared in our collective memory as Severus Snape. The movies have been a means of remembering and revisiting the books that we all love. Conversely, the Percy Jackson films were pretty much a disaster when compared to Rick Riordan’s funny and fantastic books.įor Potterheads, there’s always the tussle between endlessly discussing how the movies are not a patch on the books while devouring them just to get one more gulp of the wizarding world. This match is possible in a television show that stretches over several episodes instead of being scrunched up into 120-minute editions. Some adaptations, such as the Game of Thrones series, come close to doing justice to their literary roots.

(I won, in case you were wondering.)Īll of us have versions of our beloved books in our heads. A friend and I had a really long argument over the pronunciation of Sirius – she insisted it is Cyrus, and I couldn’t believe she was “serious”. As a reader, I have definitive ideas of how Hogwarts and its moving staircases should look, whether Cedric Diggory resembles Edward Cullen (no, he does not), and how the Mandrakes cry when pulled out of the soil. Ginny in the books wouldn’t tie anyone’s shoelaces, she may actually trip them instead.įew movies can do justice to a book series, especially one as rich as JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels.

Not even if you were to use a Revealer (that bright red eraser that makes invisible writing visible). You will not find that stupid scene in the books. While watching it in the movie theatre, I wanted to fling up my hands in despair and yell, “What! Why?!” There is a point in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince when Ginny Weasley bends down to tie Harry Potter’s shoelace at The Burrow.

Never judge the book by its movie: this is especially true for the screen versions of JK Rowling’s novels.

Alan rickman snape