Chris Columbus is glad Harry Potter reboot won't have same 'restrictions' as his films
'Harry Potter' filmmaker Chris Columbus has opened up on how the HBO reboot series can achieve things the movies couldn't.
'Harry Potter' director Chris Columbus is glad the upcoming reboot won't have the same "restrictions".
The 66-year-old filmmaker - who was at the helm for 2001's 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' and 2002's 'Chamber of Secrets' - has reflected on the challenges he faced trying to "get as much of the book in as possible".
He told PEOPLE magazine: "I think [the HBO series is] a spectacular idea, because there's a certain restriction when you're making a film.
"Our film was two hours and 40 minutes, and the second one was almost as long."
Each series of the upcoming reboot - which is expected to start production soon - will focus on one of J.K. Rowling's books, which gives the producers greater scope.
He explained: "The fact that they have the leisure of [multiple] episodes for each book, I think that's fantastic.
"You can get all the stuff in the series that we didn't have an opportunity to do... all these great scenes that we just couldn't put in the films."
The 'Home Alone' director insisted he's excited to see what the team do with the same source material.
He added: "I look forward to seeing what they're trying to do with it. I think it's great."
Casting for the series is underway, with fans waiting to find out who will be stepping into iconic roles likes Harry himself, as well as Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Albus Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort.
Columbus previously revealed how his casting for the original movies was influenced by his experiences working with Macaulay Culkin on 'Home Alone'.
Speaking in Demi Lovato's documentary 'Child Star', he said: "We went from shooting ‘Home Alone’ [where] nobody cared, but in the course of a year, Macaulay Culkin became a huge star, and that was unexpected.
“It’s not like ‘Harry Potter,’ where you know that it may be extraordinarily successful…
"I came from a working-class family, and I’ve seen it a couple of times with kids when you see someone who comes from a working class family, and suddenly they’re thrown into — the kid becomes the breadwinner for the family.”
He noticed that, from the very beginning, his casting for 'Harry Potter' was capturing the imagination of the whole world.
He added: "You go on the street, you go into a pub, you go anywhere, and people are saying, ‘Who are you gonna cast? Who’s gonna be Harry Potter, who’s gonna be Harry Potter?’
"You take that information and you bring it back to the actor and the actor’s parents: ‘This is gonna get pretty intense.'”
He "felt a tremendous responsibility" to ensure any child cast in 'Harry Potter' "knew what they were getting into", particularly as he'd seen how Culkin - who has since been outspoken about his troubled family life, including his "abusive" father - struggled with fame.
Columbus said: "Suddenly, I realised that parents had to be a big part of it.
“I can’t have [an actor] go home to a really sort of shaky environment for the sake of a film. It’s not worth it. It was as important to cast the parents as it was to cast the kids.”
