The good folks over at Snitchseeker, a well known Harry Potter fansite just had a great interview with Matthew Lewis, the actor who plays Neville Longbottom in all the Harry Potter movies. From what he was saying it looks like we are in for a whole new kind of movie when the first part of the final chapter hits theaters later this year.
Here’s what he had to say:
The previous ones have had a formula: You go to school, bad things happen and he [Harry] sorts it out and jobs a good en’ nice ending. But in this year it’s all completely different. They’re [the trio] not in the school for a start and, literally, it’s such an epic battle. It’s like something from the Lord of the Rings. And David [Yates, director] as well and Steve Kloves [screenwriter] haven’t shied away from the more severe stuff in it that was in the book. It’s bloody and it’s gory and it’s very real. But it’s been cool and it’s not like anything I’ve had to do before. So I think you’re going to enjoy it.
It’s something that we’ve not tried before. We’re trying to keep as much stuff as they can from the book in the film. We want to hit all the points and no one’s making it into a good film everyone enjoys – we’re going to stick to the book and we’re gonna say, ‘Look, some of it is quite harrowing, some of its quite serious. People do die and you’re just gonna have to …’ It’s not sugar-coated. It’s right there, it’s quite raw and all the performances have had to step up.
Add that to what Director David Yates has said about the final battle of Hogwarts lasting for 30 minutes and it sounds like Harry Potter is going to go out with an epic bang.