Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)

With Prisoner of Azkaban, production of the Harry Potter films switched to an eighteen-month cycle, which producer David Heyman explained was "to give each [film] the time it required."[9] Chris Columbus, the director of the previous two films, decided not to return to helm the third instalment as he "hadn't seen [his] own kids for supper in the week for about two and a half years."[39] Even so, he remained on as a producer alongside Heyman.[40] Guillermo del Toro was approached to direct, but had envisioned a more Dickensian version of the stories, and was put off by the first two films which he found too "bright and happy and full of light".[41] Marc Forster turned down the film because he had made Finding Neverland (2004) and did not want to direct child actors again.[42] M. Night Shyamalan was considered to direct but turned it down because he was working on his own film, The Village (2004).[43] Warner Bros. then composed a three-name shortlist for Columbus's replacement, which comprised Callie Khouri, Kenneth Branagh (who played Gilderoy Lockhart in Chamber of Secrets) and eventual selection Alfonso Cuarón in July 2002.[44] Cuarón was initially reluctant to direct, as he had not read any of the books or seen the films. Del Toro berated him for his arrogance and told him to read the books.[45] After reading the series, he changed his mind and signed on to direct,[46] as he had immediately connected to the story.[40]

Cuarón's appointment pleased J. K. Rowling who loved his film Y tu mamá también (2001) and was impressed with his adaptation of A Little Princess (1995).[47] Heyman found that "tonally and stylistically, [Cuarón] was the perfect fit."[9] As his first exercise with the actors who portray the central trio, Cuarón assigned Radcliffe, Grint and Watson to write an autobiographical essay about their character, written in the first person, spanning birth to the discovery of the magical world, and including the character's emotional experience. Cuarón recalls, "Emma's essay was 10 pages long. Daniel's was exactly two. Rupert didn't deliver the essay. When I questioned why he didn't do it, he said, 'I'm Ron; Ron wouldn't do it.' So I said, 'Okay, you do understand your character.' That was the most important piece of acting work that we did on Prisoner of Azkaban, because it was very clear that everything they put in those essays was going to be the pillars they were going to hold on to for the rest of the process."[10][48]

Albus Dumbledore's costume used in the film.

Cuarón wanted to establish a more mature tone in the characters' costumes and the sets. He explained, "What I really wanted to do was to make Hogwarts more contemporary and a little more naturalistic." He studied English schools and noted, "Each teenager's individuality was reflected in the way they wore their uniform. So I asked all the kids in the film to wear their uniforms as they would if their parents weren't around."[49] Columbus considered the costumes changes as "a reflection of the character development within the books themselves" and their transition to teenagers.[49] Whereas in the first two films the characters are constantly in their uniforms, in Prisoner of Azkaban the characters often wear modern street clothes.[11] Rowling, who had to be consulted on this change, stated, "for me the cloaks and everything makes sense for the academic time but in personal time they would be wearing their own clothes."[11]

For Lupin, costume designer Jany Temime opted for "tweeds typical of England." Cuarón stated that the character should look like "an uncle who parties hard on the weekends", so Temime preserved his gown "unkempt and more shabby than the other teachers’ robes."[49] For Trelawney, Thompson made sketches of the costumes and sent them to Temime and Cuarón. Thompson saw the character as "a person who hasn't looked in the mirror for a long time". In order to highlight the character's short-sightedness, Temime used material filled with mirrors and eyes, as well as oversized glasses with magnifying lenses.[49] Cuarón wanted Dumbledore to look like "an old hippie, but still very chic and with a lot of class". Temime used tie-dyed silk that would float behind him while walking, which she considered "a much lighter look" that gave the character more energy, in contrast with the "heavy and majestic" costumes designed for Harris' portrayal of Dumbledore.[49]

Hogwarts model at the Making of Harry Potter tour in London.

Cuarón's main concern was for Hogwarts to have a larger scope and be grounded in the real world.[50] The scale model of the Hogwarts exterior designed for the first film was expanded by around 40% for Prisoner of Azkaban. Production designer Stuart Craig and art director Gary Tomkins added constructions including a clock tower and a courtyard,[51] and the hospital wing was redesigned and rebuilt.[50] Other sets constructed for the film included the Hogsmeade village and The Three Broomsticks public house.[49]

The use of real-life locations significantly changed the look of Hagrid's hut. For Prisoner of Azkaban, the landscape around the set changed from being completely flat to the side of a hill.[52] The hut doubled in size, with a separate bedroom built on the back and the addition of a large pumpkin patch and a chimney.[52][53] Craig cited the Shrieking Shack as a particularly challenging set to create. It was built on a large hydraulic platform with the help of the special effects department, "creaking and moving as if being continually buffeted by the wind" in order to appear almost alive.[49]

Some sets were either reused from earlier films or used for more than one space. The Defence Against the Dark Arts and Divination classrooms were filmed in the same set.[49] The Honeydukes set was a redress of the set of Flourish & Blotts that was seen in Chamber of Secrets, which, in turn, had been redressed from the Ollivanders set from the first film.[54]

Loch Shiel, where scenes from Prisoner of Azkaban were filmed.

Principal photography began on 24 February 2003,[25] at Leavesden Film Studios, and wrapped in late November 2003.[55]

The third film was the first to extensively use real-life locations, as much of the first two films had been shot in the studio. Three sets for the film were built in Glen Coe, Scotland, near the Clachaig Inn.[56] The indoor sets, including ones built for the previous two films, are mainly in Leavesden Film Studios. The Black Lake was filmed from Loch Shiel, Loch Eilt and Loch Morar in the Scottish Highlands.[57] Incidentally, the train bridge, which was also featured in the Chamber of Secrets, is opposite Loch Shiel and was used to film the sequences when the Dementor boarded the train.[53] A small section of the Knight Bus scene, where it weaves in between traffic, was filmed in North London's Palmers Green.[58] Some parts were also filmed in and around Borough Market and Lambeth Bridge in London.[59]

Director of photography Michael Seresin considered the story much darker compared to its two predecessors, so he employed "moody [lightning], with more shadows". He used a variety of wide-angle lenses to amplify Hogwarts prominence in the story, and only used close-ups sparingly. "We prefer to observe the kids from further away, as I find body language to be very interesting", Cuarón explained.[49]

Rowling allowed Cuarón to make minor changes to the book, on the condition that he stuck to the book's spirit.[46] She allowed him to place a sundial on Hogwarts' grounds, but rejected a graveyard, as that would play an important part in the then-unreleased sixth book.[46] 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."[47] 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.[46]

The Knight Bus sequence was shot over several weeks at various locations in London. In order to give the impression of the vehicle moving at 100 miles per hour (161 km/h), stunt coordinator Greg Powell explained, "We drove the bus at about 30 miles per hour [48 km/h] and the other cars were going only about 8 [13]. It took weeks of planning with stunt drivers, and even the people you see on the street are stunt men and women, who were trained to walk incredibly slow just to make the bus look faster."[49]

A dementor at the Making of Harry Potter tour in London.

Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Framestore handled the key visual effects shots for the film, while The Moving Picture Company, Cinesite, and Double Negative crafted additional VFX material.[49]

Cuarón originally wanted to move away from CGI toward puppetry. He hired master puppeteer Basil Twist and experimented with underwater puppets to figure out the movements of dementors.[9][49] The tests were shot in slow motion, but ultimately the method wasn't practical. The water test footage provided creative direction for the visual effects team, adding the intangible metaphysical quality Cuarón was seeking. Visual effects supervisors Tim Burke and Roger Guyett, the Industrial Light & Magic VFX team, and Temime collaborated in the creation of dementors.[49]

Buckbeak at the Making of Harry Potter tour.

Cuarón commented on the difficulty of creating Buckbeak, which took months of research and preparation, beginning with the creature's skeletal design. Cuarón said, "Once we worked out the physiology, the way his bones would actually move, we had to capture his personality, which is a mixture of regal elegance, particularly when he is flying, and the clumsy and greedy creature he becomes back on land." Creature effects supervisor Nick Dudman created several practical hippogriffs for the production, while Burke and Guyett oversaw the creation of the computer-generated version. Guyett cited the complex movement of the feathers as an achievement that had "never been done before."[49]

The inflation of Aunt Marge was achieved practically. Ferris said, "I wore various prosthetic bodies, which inflated at different rates, and at my largest I was about four and a half feet wide." The 50 pounds (23 kg) costume prevented Ferris from walking and eating. Thirty-eight tweed suits of increasing size were used for the sequence.[49]

Cinesite was in charge of the time travel shot featured in the film, which was over a minute long. The main action was filmed on a steadicam against bluescreen, and four minutes of background footage was shot separately. The background was then sped up and composited behind the main action. Two other plates of background footage were tiled together as the camera turned.[51]

Prisoner of Azkaban was the third and final film to be scored by John Williams. The soundtrack was a significant departure from the previous two, as Cuarón wanted the score to take a different approach.[60] One of the new themes, "Double Trouble", was written during production for a children's choir to perform in Hogwarts's Great Hall in one of the film's earlier scenes.[61] The lyrics of the song were taken from William Shakespeare's Macbeth.[61] The soundtrack album was released by Atlantic Records on 25 May 2004.[60]

As with the series' previous instalments, Prisoner of Azkaban was a large merchandising opportunity.[69] The video game version, designed by EA UK, was released on 25 May 2004.[70] Mattel released film tie-ins that included the Harry Potter Championship Quidditch board game and character action figures.[71] Lego also expanded on its previous merchandising for the first two films with the release of sets that included the Knight Bus, Shrieking Shack and a new Hogwarts castle.[72]

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was released on DVD and on VHS on 23 November.[73] The 2-disc Special Editions later came out on DVD and Blu-ray on 4 October 2016.[74][75] The film was also released on Ultra HD Blu-ray on 7 November 2017.[76]

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban held its New York premiere at Radio City Music Hall on 23 May 2004,[77] followed by its London premiere at Leicester Square on 30 May 2004.[78] The film then opened in the United Kingdom on 31 May 2004,[79] and on 4 June 2004 in the United States.[80] It was the first film in the series to be released in both conventional and IMAX theatres.[80] Upon release, the film broke the record for a biggest single day in the United Kingdom's box office history making £5.3 million on a Monday.[81] It went on to break records both with and without previews, making £23.9 million including previews[82] and £9.3 million excluding them.[83] Prisoner of Azkaban had the highest-opening weekend at the UK's box office, until Spectre beat the record in 2015. It went on to make a total of £45.6 million in the UK.[84] The film made $93.7 million during its opening weekend in the United States and Canada at 3,855 theatres, achieving, at the time, the third-biggest-opening weekend of all time.[85] This opening also broke Hulk's record ($62.1 million) for the highest-opening weekend for a film released in June.[85] Prisoner of Azkaban held this record for five years until Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen topped it in 2009 with $108.9 million.[86] The film was also No. 1 at the North American box office for two consecutive weekends.[87]

Prisoner of Azkaban made a total of $796.7 million worldwide,[4] which made it 2004's second-highest-grossing film worldwide behind Shrek 2.[88] In the U.S. and Canada, it was only the year's sixth-highest-grossing film, making $249.5 million.[89] However, it was the year's number one film internationally, making $546 million compared to Shrek 2's $487.5 million.[90] Despite its successful box office run, Azkaban is the lowest-grossing Harry Potter film, and the second lowest-grossing film of the Wizarding World series (ahead of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald).[91]

Prisoner of Azkaban is often regarded by critics and fans alike as one of the best films in the franchise.[92] On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 90% based on 259 reviews, with an average rating of 7.85/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Under the assured direction of Alfonso Cuarón, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban triumphantly strikes a delicate balance between technical wizardry and complex storytelling."[93] On Metacritic the film has a score of 82 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[94] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[95]

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle lauded the film's more mature tone and said it was "darker, more complex, rooted in character."[96] The Hollywood Reporter called the film "a deeper, darker, visually arresting and more emotionally satisfying adaptation of the J.K. Rowling literary phenomenon," especially compared to the first two instalments.[97] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars: "Not only is this dazzler by far the best and most thrilling of the three Harry Potter movies to date, it's a film that can stand on its own even if you never heard of author J.K. Rowling and her young wizard hero."[98] Stephanie Zacharek of Salon considered it "one of the greatest fantasy films of all time."[99] Nicole Arthur of The Washington Post praised the film as "complex, frightening, [and] nuanced."[100] Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, saying that the film was not quite as good as the first two, but still called it "delightful, amusing and sophisticated."[101] Claudia Puig from USA Today found the film to be "a visual delight," and added that "Cuarón is not afraid to make a darker film and tackle painful emotions,"[102] while Richard Roeper called the film "a creative triumph."[103] Sean Smith from Newsweek said: "The Prisoner of Azkaban boasts a brand-new director and a bold new vision," he also called the film "moving," praising the performances by the three main leads,[104] while Entertainment Weekly praised the film for being more mature than its predecessors.[105]

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban received two Academy Award nominations: Best Visual Effects and Best Original Score for John Williams.[106] The film was also nominated for four BAFTA Awards: Best British Film, Best Production Design, Best Makeup & Hair, and Best Visual Effects, and won public-voted Orange Film of the Year award.[107] It received nine Saturn Awards nominations.[108] It won two Visual Effects Society Awards and was nominated for three others.[109] The Broadcast Film Critics Association nominated it for Best Family Film, Best Young Actor (for Daniel Radcliffe), and Best Young Actress (for Emma Watson).[110]

The film ranks at No. 471 in Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.[111] IGN designated Prisoner of Azkaban as the fifth best fantasy film.[112] Additionally, Moviefone designated the film as the tenth best of the decade.[113] In 2011, the film was voted Film of the Decade at the First Light Awards by children aged 5–15.[114] The American Film Institute nominated it for the 2007 revision of AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies,[115] and for AFI's 10 Top 10 in the fantasy genre.[116]