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Please don't screw up Harry Potter movie, Logan students tell Hollywood, LA Times By
Kay Dee Johansen
Children love J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. So much so, that when the fourth-graders at the Edith Bowen School, on the USU campus, learned Chris Columbus was picked to direct the upcoming Harry Potter movie, they felt it was necessary to take steps. So with the help of Vaughn Larsen, media specialist, they sent an e-mail to the movie studio voicing their complaint. In the e-mail the students said, "We want Harry Potter to be as big as Jurassic Park and have the special effects of the Phantom Menace -- OK, let's just say we want Steven Spielberg." Brian Linder of the IGN FilmForce responded to the e-mail by telling the students that although he agreed the tone for Potter is somewhat different than the rest of Columbus' work, which includes Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire, he was confident in his abilities as a director. "I think Columbus has shown promise and the ability to take films in the direction that Potter needs to go," Linder said. Although this was exciting for the fourth-graders at Edith Bowen, the story doesn't stop there. When Lynnette Harris, who works for USU's media relations and marketing office, heard about the e-mail she sent the information to Valerie J. Nelson, a friend and reporter for the Los Angeles Times. On April 3, the LA Times ran a story entitled "Casting a Spell-and a Film." The article, written by Nelson, voiced the concerns that Potter fans are having about the upcoming movie and also dedicated a paragraph to the Edith Bowen School. Nelson said, "At the Edith Bowen, a grade school on the Utah State University campus, an informal poll of the kids revealed a 'lack of excitement' over Columbus and concern over his perceived lack of subtlety." Warner Bros. plans to start filming the movie based on Rowling's first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, this summer. Potter fans must be hoping, as the Edith Bowen students put it, "Chris Columbus doesn't screw up this movie!"
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