GoF Director, Mike Newell
Biography, filmography, and Potterography

After an American and a Mexican director, most fans would say that it's about time the "British only" Harry Potter films were finally directed by an Englishman! The most recent Harry Potter production, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, was directed by the Mexican, Alfonso Cuaron, and was a smash at the box office. It was nothing like Potter fans could have ever imagined. And to fill Cuaron's shoes, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will be directed by Mike Newell.

Newell was born on the 28th of March, 1942, in St. Alban's, Hertfordshire, England. He studied and graduated from Cambridge University with an English degree before attentding Granada Television as a trainee in 1963 for three years. At Granada, he learned about the many factors involved in television production and was able to obtain useful experience for his later years as a director. The Man in the Iron Mask (1977) served as his U.K. television debut.

His most recent projects include Donnie Brasco (1997) (Oscar nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay), starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp, Pushing Tin (1999), starring John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton, and Mona Lisa Smile (2003), starring Julia Roberts. It is quite obvious that he is a protean figure in the entertainment industry, going from Mona Lisa to Harry Potter, so the action-packed, comedic, emotional, romantic, and thrilling story that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is should be no problem for him, and judging from his attitude toward filming the fourth movie, it seems as though he has no doubts either.

"I am of a generation in England that was brought up [at a time when] you could work and find out how to work in television," Newell explains. "And television was omnivorous then. It was very varied and it was full of extraordinarily diverse opinions and points of view and talents. You could never say, 'I don't comedy. I don't do thrillers. I don't do this or that or the other.' You did everything."

When asked about Goblet of Fire, he addressed it as "an absolute classic thriller. At the beginning, the antagonist, the anti-hero, the creature of supreme evil has a plan. He needs one tiny, tiny little thing from the boy: three drops of blood. Therefore he sets up this gorgeous piece of clockwork which will get him what he needs. And the boy, classically, starts, as all thriller heroes do, in complete ignorance, and then you watch him ratchet around until he and the antagonist are in exactly the same place at the same time, knowing everything."

With that kind of eager attitude toward the storyline, it seems as though Harry's in good hands. Filming for the fourth installment began in Spring 2004, most of which takes place at Exmoor, Devon.

And when asked if there is one section of the book that, as a filmmaker, is especially irresistible for him to tackle, he is very clear and excited. "Yeah, the big denouement, the big shootout at the end is very exciting, not least because the antagonist starts as a kind of horrible fetus wrapped up in a bundle of rags and has to become this great looming presence. You have to transform it."
Right about now, the new director sounds quite hyperactive with all the eagerness displayed from him, but he is quite focused and knows what he needs to do with this film as well. "The way you literally make a film is that you take a subject and you hone it and you hone it and you hone it until it is an arrow, and it goes as straight as you can make it to the middle, if you can manage it, of the target. These stories aren't that at all. These are like Bollywood* in that they're all singing, all dancing. They're like variety shows and you can have that spine to them, but, at the same time, you've got to hang the baskets of flowers off of the spine. That's a huge and very amusing challenge to take on."

Quite clearly, Newell knows the fourth Potter film will be challenging, not only because the whole world will be breathing down his neck until the 18th of November, 2005, the tentative release date for the fourth film, but also because after the international critical acclaim of Alfonso Cuaron's adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, it's hard to imagine Potter getting any better. Fortunately, we can count on his labile nature; it hasn't let him down yet.

* Bollywood is the India equivalent of Hollywood; however, in India, most movies feature a lot of singing and dancing scenes as Disney films might, in that characters somewhat randomly burst out in song and dance. Hopefully Newell won't turn Goblet into a musical...