Harry Potter adaptation. How much control does JKR have?

[EdenPalmersVenomViper]

'The Rings of Power' has been an example of just how awful a TV programme can be if the writers have no respect or understanding of the source material. It doesn't matter how much money you throw at something if it is badly written. The etherial Galadriel, is torn down, her character changed beyond recognition and she is set up to be 'shipped' with Sauron (just WTF?) and so on...

Now we know that a TV version of HP is in the works and that there are many people who would like the characters/story/plot changed to better suit how they see the world (and to piss off JKR), However, I had thought that she retained some level of control. I really hope she does, because the attached screenshot does not look promising.

So he should write his own stuff.

JKR is famous for having a huge amount of control over Tv or film adaptations of her work. I can’t imagine for one minute she don’t have the same over the Tv adaptation

As for mr greenwald he sounds like a complete bellend

edited after checking - he has read the first few books but not the last ones

No way to tell. It's whatever control was negotiated for in the contract (+ additional pressure JKR could bring to bear outside it, perhaps). There's no inherent control over adaptations beyond the ability to sell the authorisation.

However, someone who doesn't respect the original material should not be involved in adapting the original material. At the bare minimum, they should not be saying it openly. I doubt that every adaptation is a project full of passion for those responsible for the adaptation, but they should not be treating it with contempt and should not speak openly about not knowing or liking it. 'Not a rigorous' adaptation might overwise be explained by the difference between page and screen where somethings from Harry's perspective might get lost and instead we might see more about other characters; that seems natural. Hopefully he's going to read the books now?

There's been so much hype over this adaptation that it's doomed to be a bag of shite.

For most book writers, selling tv/film rights is potentially life changing. If you are spending years working on a book in exchange for maybe, 10-20k, getting offered 6, maybe even 7 figures mean you'll sign a contract that lets them make whatever changes they want. JKR isn't in that position. She'd only sell rights she was really, really happy with.

She retained significant control selling the initial film rights back when she was less wealthy. Now, she has no need to ever earn another penny, while also being well aware that a bunch of powerful weirdos would love to do whatever they can to hurt her and her legacy. That contract will be ironclad!

There's no inherent control over adaptations beyond the ability to sell the authorisation.

There are moral rights (which can be waived), see particularly "The right to object to derogatory treatment of a work":

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-rights-granted-by-copyright#moral-rights

The US is different but a potential roadblock in the UK would encourage a productive negotiation.

We will have to wait and see how it turns out. I do think that hoping that an adaptation respects the source material and has well written scripts should not be too much to ask.

Andy Greenwald underestimates his audience if he thinks he can take liberties with the source material. I work with an ardent Potter fan. His knowledge of the minutiae in the Potter canon is slightly unsettling. The fans will not support it and could make enough noise to force a rethink by the studio. Studios are all about the bottom line and won’t want to spunk money on something which will tank.

Full disclosure: I haven’t read the later HP books either and I’m not fussed about the franchise.

The people who will want to watch this will want it be accurate to the source material. Changing it seems like a costly mistake before they've started.

I'm sure that JKR won't let us down.
She doesn't need to sacrifice her principles for cash.

I'm hugely loving the Rings of Power. And a vision of a younger Galadriel. Thought the ending of the last series was excellent. It's great to have a fresh perspective on LOTR and that world vision.

I'm hugely annoyed it was trashed by right wing anti-diversity Trump/far right supporters before it even began. It has been swimming against negative bias since then. But many are loving it. It's noteworthy that many criticising it are also still hate watching. Hate watching is a new phenomenon I find interesting where people watch solely to have something to go on social media later to criticise. Happened also with the Picard series which I love-hated. I refuse point blank to watch the WoT series, as it is in my opinion a complete travesty of the books I adored my whole life, and not funded properly. But that's my bag. Others love it, good for them if it introduces them to the work.

There's has to be room for fresh interpretations of previous classics and JKR's work is no more sacred in that regard than anyone else's surely? Yes some changes might be controversial, but if it's a truly bad reinterpretation it won't stand up for long. See the recent flopping of The Colour Purple remake, some of the latest Star Wars spin offs etc.

What we can't have is creative people being too afraid to change elements of previous works as though they are sacred totems or purely political devices. I think it's shame is JKRs work has fallen into the latter camp - instead of just being delightful (originally intended) children's books.

The Rings of Power is based on barely a dozen pages of Appendices to The Lord of the Rings.

It's not really Tolkien at all.

Almost all the very liberal Tolkien fans of my acquaintance who defended it to begin with have now given up on it, complaining that it's unwatchable.

I think ROP is different because as @Chersfrozenface has said it’s based on a few appendices whereas HP is based on the 7 books. A better comparison would be If a LOTR series was made based on the trilogy that introduced random new characters or completely changed the story arc of eg Sam to make him a class warrior against the squireocracy of the Baggins family

What changes are they proposing?

We watched ROP, it's a bit boring. The second series seems a bit more interesting. I was a bit annoyed with the Oirish accents, I mean what's the point going for inclusivity while simultaneously stereotyping irish people.

I think with HP, the fans that hate JKR would also hate changing the lore.

I'm glad that there are people who are enjoying RoP. I have no problem with people enjoying things that I don't like.

The issue I have with RoP is that I think it doesn't respect the source material and that the scripts are badly written. Galadriel is so different from the books, they should have given the character a different name. If Tolkein's Catholic undertones were so undesirable to the writers, they should have come up with an original idea for a fantasy world.

TBH, I'm getting to the point where I completely ignore any 'it's being trashed by right wing anti-diversity Trump/far right supporters' and judge it on the thing itself. I'm not in the US, I don't care what Trump supporters think, I don't care what the RSoH thinks. I want to watch good programmes and films. I want good plots, good character development, action scenes that drive the story forwards and that don't break the magic by having awful special effects.

Maybe that's the key. If you don't want to respect the source material, it would be better to come up with an original story where you can put in all the things that you want and it will feel natural and not shoehorned in. So, with HP, I think I'm in the camp of do it right, or don't do it at all (and make something else instead).

There is a lot of nonsense circulating about HP currently, such as whose in it (despite the makers making it clear that they are only just starting the casting!) I would take any article with a pinch of salt.

This keeps happening to me: The Witcher, Star Trek Discovery, Star Trek Strange New Worlds, Rings of Power, Star Wars The Acolyte, and The Winchesters to name but a few.

Showrunners and writers who don’t seem to actually like the source material, or who have no real knowledge about, or genuine interest in, the source material keep being given telly series and they go on to ruin things with bad storytelling and awful characters and (to quote a YouTube meme) they prioritise The Message. And so many of these writers/showrunners seem to be from Bad Robot and trained in JJ Abram’s woeful mystery box + fast moving action style of writing 😭

I had high hopes for the Potter series.

Ahhh! No!
I was thinking about watching Alias (which I think is a JJ Abrams and Bad Robot TV series) as I missed it when it was originally on. I had heard good things about it, so hopefully it's old enough to be a good character driven series. I guess that I can always stop watching if it's not my cup of tea.

I disagree completely. Classic works don't need "fresh interpretations." They're classics for a reason. Only the most arrogant, self-important rando writer would think he has the talent to improve a long-standing classic work.

I missed watching at the time because I didn’t have satellite telly but, from what I’ve heard over the years, Alias starts promisingly but eventually falls prey to narrative dysfunction - a bit like how Lost and Heroes went wonky after series one.

I do intend to finally get around to watching Alias at some stage, it’s on my list to binge watch and pass the time for when I next have a cold or flu.

I read 'The Message' there in a wry Scottish accent @UtopiaPlanitia

Yeah, @GeorgeOrwellsTurningGrave these days, that’s the way I hear the phrase in my head too - I’ve grown quite fond of it 😬

The HP films deviate quite a lot from the books (and of course had to miss out whole chunks of plot due to time constraints) and JKR would have had a level of approval of that. The TV series is being pushed as a more faithful adaptation of the books than the films were, so that rather sets people's expectations and Andy might need to suck it up!

JKR will have as least the same level of control as she did over the movies. Remember she never signed over complete control. Warner Brothers Discovery are making lots of money from the franchise already they just want to make even more. So they need to keep JKR happy and the audience. They know there is huge interest because of the success of Hogwarts Legacy, the boom in HP amusement parks [WB does not make much money from these as they could as JKR did a deal with Universal as well.]

Note WB really really need HP TV to be a hit. They have put out a bunch of duds recently like Joker 2, and various other DC films. Their wider financials are also in trouble. HP is the big hope to get people to subscribe to MAX streaming service in numbers. They are fighting with SkY over screening rights to the series in the UK.
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/sky-warner-bros-harry-potter-lawsuit-1236158357/

Obviously Disney and Amazon have made some bad choices in recent series, upset fans and seen their revenue drop.

So WB know the dangers and they are desperate. We know JKR was consulted over the casting for the TV series because she said so. I suspect she will have a chance to advise on the scripts if she wants. The problem is in the early books there is a big need for extra scenes because the books are way shorter and they need 10 episodes. So there is potential for screwing things up. However simply adding more class room scenes, and extra Quidditch matches and lengthening other sections could work if done well. To be honest given the weakness in the Fantastic Beast franchise which JKR had huge input on, having a wider set of views on the series could help make it better too. She is capable of learning from mistakes herself as well though. The fact they are just expanding on existing books make it more likely for things to work. Deliver more of the same and you have the formula.

While Greenwald has not read the books, he is one of only three writers attached so far, and he also said:

“the idea of an incredibly rigorous text-to-screen adaptation is, I think, a probably safe bet to be a success,” and added, “These are really, really rich and they’re very long books, especially later in the series. People adore them and successive generations are discovering them and loving them every day.”
https://www.therowlinglibrary.com/2024/10/12/three-writers-join-harry-potter-tv-series-ones-past-comments-spark-interest/

So he knows and others do that upsetting fans is not a great plan if you want a huge hit. The writers and showrunners know that and will face huge pressure to deliver. Get it right and the money to be made is massive.