May 11 2007 3:21 PM EDT

'Harry Potter' In Rob Zombie's Hands? 'Very Violent With A Lot Of Nudity'
Zack Snyder, David Fincher and more directors weigh in on what they'd do with final 'Potter' flick.
By Jennifer Vineyard

Del.icio.us Digg Newsvine Send Print You Tell Us

Is the revolving door done spinning?

After the first two "Harry Potter" films, it appeared there would be a different director for each subsequent flick — with Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell and then David Yates stepping in to expand on the world Chris Columbus first created onscreen.

But now that Yates — who helmed the forthcoming "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" — has signed on to return for "Half-Blood Prince" (see "MTV News Exclusive: David Yates To Direct 'Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince' "), that leaves only one slot left if the franchise passes the wand yet again.

(See the directors of "American Beauty," "Napoleon Dynamite" and more talk about what they'd bring to the final "Harry Potter" film.)

While it's anyone's guess whether one of the previous directors will finish the series off, we wonder — what if someone new came aboard? What would the final film look like if, say, Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton were heading it up? Since the Potter-verse offers so many possibilities, we've asked this question before, with varying results (see "Harry Potter, You Got Served! How Other Directors Would Handle The 'Potter' Flicks"), and we're still asking. Here's our latest batch of answers:

Rob Zombie ("Halloween"): "I'd probably be very violent with a lot of nudity. That's what it needs. Harry should say 'f---' a lot. That would spice it up."

Zack Snyder ("300"): "The problem with Harry Potter is that you can't do it different from the books. Do you want to see them having sex or shooting each other or fighting? Sure. My knee-jerk reaction is to just make everything an R-rated movie, and so I'm like, 'They should be darker!' you know? I do kind of feel they're going in the right direction. They've been sort of growing the films with the characters. So the films are getting darker and intense as the kids have been getting older. I think that makes sense. And it'd be awesome [if Harry dies in the end]."

David Fincher ("Zodiac"): "Could I make it darker than Alfonso's? I don't know. [Should Harry die?] As all good teenagers must."

George Miller ("Happy Feet"): "The thing that struck me, thinking back to the '60s and '70s, is that at the end of every really popular movie, the heroes or the protagonists died in some way. From 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,' 'Bonnie and Clyde' ... the last movie that did that seems to have been 'Thelma & Louise.' If you really look back, there's so many movies where it was just OK for the main characters to die. It was just part of what was happening. I still don't understand what that was, whether there was a kind of fatalism that came in the '60s as a result of the Vietnam War, I have no idea. It'd be interesting — and bold — [if Harry dies in the end]. Then it would be like that has come a full life cycle."

Tom Tykwer ("Perfume"): "What I like about the 'Harry Potter' series is, the older Harry gets, the more scary the movies are, and I think I would push for the scary parts more than what has been done. It's getting there. I'm curious how far they're daring to go there."

Edgar Wright ("Hot Fuzz"): "I think I'd like to see Daniel Radcliffe naked and mutilating horses [like he did in the play 'Equus' in London's West End]. It's amazing in the U.K., the poster outside the theater is absolutely enormous. It's crazy. It's three stories high — a picture of Daniel Radcliffe with his shirt off. It's quite distressing."

Edward Zwick ("Blood Diamond"): "At the time of the first 'Harry Potter,' I think my first daughter was 8 or 9 and I was reading it to her. I certainly would have known what to do with that. That would have been fun. She would have been very happy had I done it, trust me. But now? I don't know. I think it was wonderful when I saw Cuarón's third episode of it. I think he reinvented it. He did a really great job. I'm not sure I'd want to be the fifth director, though."

Guillermo del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth"): "I actually got offered the third one, before Alfonso, and I actually asked the question, 'What about Alfonso?' Because I thought he was perfect for it. I really love the books, they're incredibly rich and textured, incredibly well-informed and -researched, and I think they have a very dark universe — it's actually darker than the movies have been, up until Alfonso came onboard. Now they have a darker tone. I would hope that he would return, because out of all the movies that I've seen, that have been released, his is the one that I've liked the most. I would love for him to come back into that universe. I hope he gets to play in it again. [If he doesn't,] I would love to do one, but I would love to do one where I can kill off one of the characters. I would love to kill off one of them. I would like to be the guy who ends the franchise — I come in and destroy everything that everyone else has created! [He laughs.]

Check out everything we've got on "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."

Visit Movies on MTV.com for more from Hollywood, including news, reviews, interviews and more.

Want trailers? Visit the Trailer Park for the newest, scariest and funniest coming attractions anywhere



I wish he (Rob Zombie) did do them.

 

Motion Seconded.

 

Well, nudity would certainly spice things up. For instance, Harry and Cho could do more than just kiss I don't see the point in making the movies more violent than the books are, though.

 

Better Idea.

Quentin Tarantino directing the HP movies.

 

The thing is staying as true to canon vs making it your own. I think the movies could be done very well with the right director and script. To have a more mature director make the movies into a more older teenager oriented movie would be welcomed, as people my age were the ones the books were directed at, at the time they came out. So sex, nudity and violence is whats exactly needed. No weak shit aimed at just retelling the story, its about creating a damn good movie using the books for the plot.

 

If Rob Zombie did it I think it could be really awesome.

We can have a visceral teenage love scene (frantic clothes ripping, sloppy kisses, rough sex) when boom, Harry busts in the door covered in blood carrying Snape's head (a la House of a Thousand Corpses). The Final Battle would be a literal bloodbath instead of a fight scene where curses are just beams of light and leave a fully cauterized wound if that. A few cutting curses, some explosions, and a Harry that doesn't have to worry about Molly Weasley washing his mouth out with soap.... Sounds like the recipe for the best HP movie EVER.

 

Betterer idea!

Tarabtino and Zombie working together. The Epicness of it would have people dying in the theaters.

 

...from self-inflicted wounds.

 

I must have been influenced by this thread, because last night I dreamed that I was watching the fifth movie with hardcore porn scenes in it. I must say I rather enjoyed it

 

just give me chris columbus the director of 1 & 2 and I will be happy.

madeyemoody

 

I don't know if Columbus could handle the darker stuff. But the other directors could take a leaf out of his book and stick more to the goddamn plot.

 

I'm for del Toro.

I'd only be afraid he would chuck the Threstals and other magical horses.
He's just that weird.

But he like to do alot of subtle work in the background and pays attention to detail. He could actually bring a good representation of the last book.