Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Scris de **|Weirdo.|** Sam Iun 28, 2008 8:48 pm

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a 2004fantasyadventure film, based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. Directed by Alfonso Cuarón, it is the third film in the popular . It stars Daniel Radcliffe as the teenage wizard , and Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry's best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Gary Oldman and David Thewlis joined the cast as the new characters Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. In this movie, the role of Albus Dumbledore was played by Michael Gambon who took over from the late Richard Harris who died of Hodgkin's disease. Steve Kloves returned as screenwriter, while Chris Columbus (the director of the previous two films) became a producer, alongside David Heyman. The film was released on May 31, 2004 in the United Kingdom and on June 4, 2004 in the United States.
The film was nominated for two Academy Awards — Academy Award for Original Music Score and Academy Award for Visual Effects at the 77th Academy Awards held in 2005.

Development
With Prisoner of Azkaban production of the Harry Potter films switched to an 18-month cycle, which producer David Heyman explained was "to give each [film] the time it required ,the director of the previous two films, decided not to return and helm the third installment as he "hadn't seen [his] own kids for supper in the week for about two and a half years^. Even so, he remained on as a producer alongside Heyman.Guillermo Del Toro was approached to direct, but considered the film "so bright and happy and full of light, that [he] wasn't interestedWarner Bros. then composed a three-name short list for Columbus's replacement, which comprised Callie Khouri, Kenneth Branagh (who played Gilderoy Lockhart in Chamber of Secrets) and eventual selection Alfonso Cuarón.Cuarón was initially nervous about accepting as he had not read any of the books, or seen the films. After reading the series, he changed his mind and signed on to direct, as he had immediately connected to the story.Cuarón's appointment pleased J. K. Rowling who loved his film Y Tu Mamá También and was impressed with his adaptation of(1995_film).Heyman found that "tonally and stylistically, [Cuarón] was the perfect fit

Filming

Principal photography began on February 24, 2003, at Leavesden Film Studios, and concluded in October 2003.
Some of the sets for the film were built in Glen Coe, Scotland, near to the Clachaig Inn. The indoor sets, including sets built for the previous two films, are mainly in Leavesden Film Studios. The Hogwarts lake was filmed from Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland. Incidentally, the train bridge which was also featured in the movie is opposite Loch Shiel and was used to film the sequences when the Dementor arrived on the train. A small section of the triple-decker bus scene, where it weaves in between many different cars, was filmed in Palmers Green in North London. Some parts were also filmed in and around Borough Market and Lambeth Bridge in London.
The set of Honeydukes seen in this film is a redress of the set of Flourish and Blotts seen in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which, in turn, was a redress of the set of Ollivander's from the first film.
Rowling allowed Cuarón to make changes to the book, on the condition that he stuck to the spirit of the book.She let him place a sundial in the Hogwarts' grounds, but told him could not add in a graveyard, as it would play an important part in the then unreleased sixth book. Rowling said she "got goosebumps" when she saw several moments in the film, as they inadvertently referred to events in the final two books, she stated "people are going to look back on the film and think that those were put in deliberately as clues When filming concluded, Cuarón found that it had "been the two sweetest years of my life," and expressed his interest in directing one of the sequels.
Effects

Cuarón originally wanted to move away from CGI toward puppetry. He hired master underwater puppeteer Basil Twist to help, using puppets to study the potential movement of the Dementors.Once it became apparent that puppetry would be too expensive and unable to portray the specific elements of the Dementors, Cuarón turned to CGI; however, he and his team did use footage of Dementor puppets underwater as a basis for the flowing movements of the computer-generated Dementors.
The Knight Bus segment when Harry is being taken to The Leaky Cauldron uses the film technique known as bullet time, popularised in The Matrix series of films. This segment takes humorous advantage of the quality of the Harry Potter world by having the Muggle world go into bullet time while inside the Knight Bus, Harry, Stan Shunpike and Ernie Prang (and the talking shrunken head) keep moving in real time.

Music

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (soundtrack)
The Academy Award nominated score was composed and conducted by John Williams and released on CD on May 25, 2004. In general, his music for this third film is less lyrical and more sombre (and at times more frightening) than that of the previous films. Other than brief quotes of "Hedwig's Theme" and the "Nimbus 2000" theme, Williams' score also consists of entirely new themes.