HBO’s ‘Harry Potter’ Series Will Be “More In-Depth” Than the Films, Says Warner Bros. Boss
HBO‘s Harry Potter series will be “a little bit more in-depth than a two-hour film,” the company’s television boss Channing Dungey has confirmed.
Dungey, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Television Group, was a keynote speaker at MIPCOM’s C-Suite Conversations, a partnership between MIPCOM Cannes and Variety, on Monday afternoon. She heads up the world’s biggest television studio, currently producing content across all formats and genres, including hits such as Shrinking, Abbott Elementary, Ted Lasso — season four of which Dungey said show star, head writer and co-creator Jason Sudeikis is “really excited” about (more on that below) — The Sex Lives of College Girls, Harley Quinn and The Bachelor.
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But there’s one project no one can stop talking about, which Variety co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton acknowledged on Monday, “I don’t think, legally, I’m allowed to let you off the stage without asking about this,” she said. “What can you tell us about the Harry Potter project?”
Dungey replied: “There’s not a lot to talk about at this moment. We’ve got our fantastic writing staff in place and they are doing what they need to do. And casting calls have opened up in the U.K. and Ireland, so the process is moving along. It’s going quite well.”
When probed further on the excitement of having an IP like J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books to play with, Dungey said: “It’s an unbelievable dream, honestly, and as somebody who is a huge fan of books, the opportunity to get to explore them in maybe a little bit more in-depth than you can in just a two-hour film, that’s the whole reason we’re on this journey.”
In June, the series named Francesca Gardiner as its writer and showrunner and tapped Mark Mylod to direct multiple episodes. Both are Emmy winners for HBO’s Succession — Gardiner as part of the show’s producing team and Mylod as both director and producer.
When talk turned to Ted Lasso, for which the viewers and even co-creators are waiting on Sudeikis to give the official green light another season, Dungey said, “We are in conversations about season four and they are very exciting conversations, but it’s still early days. But what I will say is that we had always been clear that there wasn’t going to be more [Ted Lasso] if Jason and the team weren’t feeling excited about it. I can tell you firsthand that he’s in a place where he’s feeling really excited and very good about it.”
In recent conversations with The Hollywood Reporter, his co-creators Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein both reiterated that the ball is in Sudeikis’ court, even with Apple TV+ picking up options for some of the cast. “Jason Sudeikis is the character, but he’s the voice of the show. He’s the head writer. … Out of 100 percent respect, the first time anybody hears who’s gonna be involved, what anybody’s doing, what’s happening, it’s because he’s ready to talk about it. So I’m going to politely say I’m in for whatever the captain of the ship wants me to be in for,” said Lawrence.
At MIPCOM, Dungey was also asked about the transition that Hollywood is currently going through and how it’s no longer an industry of broadcasters but much, much more — and how learning to adapt has never been more vital in order to survive. “The business has been in such a period of transition, really, since the start of this decade,” Dungey said. “Because COVID really pushed a lot of things into a different space and forced us to think about producing differently.
“There have been economic challenges that we’ve had to work through,” she admitted. “And then the two strikes, right? It’s been nonstop. What I think we’re all grappling with is that the business has fundamentally changed.”
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