NEW YORK (AP) – Director Alfonso Cuaron says the moment he read J.K. Rowling’s third ”Harry Potter” book, he was hooked.
”It’s a myth for our times,” Cuaron tells Entertainment Weekly magazine in its Jan. 23 issue. ”You read about Fudge and the Ministry of Magic – that’s Tony Blair! And Guantanamo is not that different from Azkaban. There are Dementors there, too.”
Cuaron, director of ”Y Tu Mama Tambien,” was hired by Warner Bros. to follow Chris Columbus, who directed the first two ”Harry Potter” films.
When asked how Rowling reacted to some cosmetic changes he’s made to her world, Cuaron replied: ”Really cool. She actually encouraged me: ‘Please don’t be literal.’ At the same time, we wrote a scene where there was this organ, and tiny people were jumping on the keyboards. She said, ‘Nope, no tiny people at Hogwarts.”’
”Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” will open June 4.