Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves, who penned every single Potter movie except one, shares with us the character he created for the movies, who never made it onto the screen.
Plus Kloves explains what happened to the beloved ghost, Peeves —and what his biggest Potter regret is.
We managed to corner Kloves at the junket for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, for a few quick questions. And what he revealed was pretty massive.
Did you ever invent a character that didn't make it to the screen?
Steve Kloves: Yes, I did. I did. Alastair. It was a spider in the closet, in the cupbord in the beginning, who he [Harry Potter] had befriended and talked to. My vision of the first movie was quite different in terms of how you first perceived him [Harry]. There was a spider in there and all these broken soldiers that he had filched from the rubbish bin of Dudley's [bedroom]. And he had this broken army and he would talk to Alastair. And so when Hagrid arrived in the motorcycle you wondered if maybe Harry was mad, and was imagining being rescued. Then you found out it was real. That was my original vision of the movie.
On a different note, what about some characters in the books who never appeared on screen? What ever happened to Peeves?
Kloves: Peeves was always an issue. Chris Columbus was determined to put him in the first movie. I think there were even some technological problems with him initially, and [not] being satisfied with how he looked. He was always a bit tangential. I think [Argus] Filch, in a way, became that energy in the movies. And he was actually sort of beloved at a certain point, Filch. So I think to have Peeves, it would have felt like we were doubling up on that. It's not exactly the same but it's a bit like that. But he was a character we all loved.
Later on, at the press conference Kloves discussed the one Harry Potter movie that he didn't write, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and what was on the 30 pages of his version of Phoenix.
Kloves: They asked me [to write the Order of the Phoenix] on the wrong day, that's kind of the way that I am. It's amazing that I wrote seven of them, if they'd asked me on the wrong day [then] I wouldn't have written one of those. I'm not being glib about it, it was just one of those things. I knew I'd made a mistake, because I'd already written 30 pages of it. So it was insane. And I really like those 30 pages, to this day. I don't know. It's just one of those things. I've never run my career particularly well. It may seem like it. I wish I'd done it, but I didn't. It's my one regret on Potter.
What was on those 30 pages?
Kloves: The only thing of significance, and I think it was significant was that I had written quite a significant moment with Aunt Petunia which tried to humanize her. And dramatize the loss she felt at Lily. It was a scene between her and Harry, which I loved. And it really made you think, "Oh, she's not a cartoon. There's a reason for the way she is, and a reason she's bitter and angry." It's one of my favorite scenes I've ever written and it will never be filmed. Unless I film it, and that would just be bizarre.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 will be in theaters on July 15th!
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