Guillermo del Toro did not mince words when trying to convince frequent collaborator Alfonso Cuarón to direct “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.”
According to Oscar winner Cuarón, fellow Academy Award winner del Toro simply called him an “arrogant asshole” for even hesitating to take on the beloved franchise installment. However, Cuarón might have had a point in questioning Warner Bros.’ decision to offer him the directing gig: At the time, his most recent film was “Y tu mamá también,” which is decidedly not YA material.
“I was confused because it was completely not on my radar,” Cuarón told Total Film of “Harry Potter”. “I speak often with Guillermo [del Toro], and a couple of days after, I said, ‘You know, they offered me this “Harry Potter” film, but it’s really weird they offer me this.’ He said, ‘Wait, wait, wait, you said you haven’t read “Harry Potter”?’ I said, ‘I don’t think it’s for me.’ In very florid lexicon, in Spanish, he said, ‘You are an arrogant asshole.’”
“Harry Potter” film producer David Heyman told Total Film that “Y tu mamá también” actually was why the offer was extended in the first place.
“I’d seen ‘Y tu mamá también,’ which I loved, and I oddly thought he’d be the perfect director for the third Potter,” Heyman said. “That’s not what some might think. Can you imagine what some thought Harry, Ron and Hermione would get up to, having seen ‘Y tu mamá también’?”
Now, that would be a different type of hairy “Harry” situation…
Heyman added, “‘Y tu mamá’ was about the last moments of being a teenager, and ‘Azkaban’ was about the first moments of being a teenager. I felt he could make the show feel, in a way, more contemporary. And just bring his cinematic wizardry.”
Well, that’s one “Challengers”-esque way to put it, wands included.
