David Yates Teases 'Deathly Hallows' Split

With so many disappointments this summer, it's easy to forget that we'll finally get to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and that we'll finally start hearing more about the final chapter as it makes its way to the big screen.

But of course, the biggest question about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows still centers on where they'll make the split between Film 1 and Film 2. Director David Yates dropped a hint to the LA Times, and if you haven't read the book, here be spoilers:

"We're here in the forest, we've just finished the scene where Harry, Hermione and Ron are captured by the Snatchers after being chased through the woods. The Snatchers are brutal and scary but they aren't the most intelligent of creatures.They're trying to figure out exactly who it is they've caught ... Things can change when you edit, of course, but the idea now is that it will be not long after the sequence that we are filming here today. That's what we're experimenting with. We've had three or four different ideas about where to cut off the seventh film. Traditionally, the movies have ended with a death or a bereavement, some sort of passage or arrival. This time we think we will end with more a cliffhanger. Again, though, that's the thought as of this moment."

I haven't read Deathly Hallows since it came out (and oh, I still remember pulling an all nighter at ComicCon for fear someone would spoil it) , so I had to go back and check this part out. The book is chock full of cliffhangers, but ending it here would definitely give Part 1 a terrifying conclusion, the kind I'm still disappointed Peter Jackson didn't go with in The Two Towers.



Yates also defended Warner Bros decision to split the final film into two parts, brushing off claims that it was purely for profit. He pointed out that fans will benefit from the decision because the film will receive more money. "I will get the benefit of two budgets, the running time of two films and all the resources that brings with it to tell this huge adventure; more time, more money, more special effects. There are always things that are lost when you adapt a book to a film. With two films, much less will be lost."
While I've been annoyed as any Potter fan at the Half Blood Prince delays (a decision that crushed Yates as well), and the knowledge that more precious years will go by before I see the Deathly Hallows play out, this brutal summer makes me kind of glad they're stretching it out. It's like knowing you have a delicious dessert awaiting a lot of really crappy courses.