£1.5BN POTTER CASH TO MAKE TV SMASH
Bosses to splurge on Hogwarts series
TV BOSSES are ready to conjure up £1.5billion to put Harry Potter on the small screen.
That is the projected cost of making up to eight seasons – one for each of the books – of a series based at Hogwarts.
It will make it the most expensive TV show ever, even eclipsing current recordholder Game Of Thrones. Its eight seasons, spanning 73 episodes, ended up costing HBO just over £1.1bn.
Executives at the network’s streaming spin-off HBO Max, which is backed by movie giant Warner Bros, have refused to confirm their Potter plans, leaked this week to trade magazines Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.
But a senior studio production source insisted: “A preliminary budget is being worked out and it’s already obvious it will overtake Game Of Thrones, even without a single actor having yet been cast.”
The Potter TV project comes 10 years after the last movie hit cinemas.
The eight films cost a “mere” £880million to make and earned £5.6bn at the box office worldwide.
No actors or crew have been hired yet but Variety reported that “conversations have taken place with multiple writers”, with Potter author JK Rowling likely to be a co-producer as she was on the films. JK maintains tight control over the young wizard’s name and portrayal and is reportedly likely to bank an “eight-figure sum” for the series, to add to her £795m fortune.
The writer, 55, whose Potter novels have sold more than 500 copies, has faced recent criticism after being accused of being antitrans following a series of tweets and a lengthy essay about gender in June last year. But our studio insider said:
“The feeling is that we’ve moved on and this will no longer be an issue by the time we’re all ready to go to work on this, and that is months and months away.” Although no actors have yet been hired, Hollywood pundits reckon the original stars from the movies – Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, inset left, Rupert Grint as Ron and Emma Watson who played Hermione – are “unlikely” to figure among the new TV cast but could make guest cameos.