Yates also sees Phoenix as a cautionary tale about political repression. In the story, the powers that be at the Ministry of Magic refuse to believe that the genocidal maniac Voldemort has risen from his purgatorial exile and is gathering acolytes rapidly. So, Minister Cornelius Fudge installs a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), who forbids the students to practice self-protective magic. That forces Harry and some loyal friends to take their education into their own hands. Honoring their beloved headmaster, they form the D.A. (Dumbledore's Army) to teach themselves new spells and hexes to counter Voldemort's power. ''We're basically the French resistance,'' says Radcliffe. Even as Umbridge tries torturing Harry into confessing that he's a liar, the dark lord's evil thoughts seep into the lad's mind, leaving his very consciousness up for grabs. If you're looking for a rah-rah Quidditch match or a joyful welcoming banquet to leaven the proceedings, you're out of luck this time around. ''This one's not comedic,'' says series producer David Heyman. ''It's very much about the brink of war.'' And in Yates' hands, echoes of Muggle-world conflicts — from World War II to the war on terror — ricochet through every scene.
It all might have played out less starkly if director Mike Newell, who brought a bawdy, English-music-hall- meets-Bollywood vibe to the fourth Potter film, Goblet of Fire, had signed on for Phoenix as well. He was invited to do so, according to producer Heyman. But when Newell passed, execs at Warner Bros., the underwriter of a series that had already sold more than $3.5 billion worth of tickets worldwide, scrambled to approve a new director. Since Harry and Co. only age a single year in the course of each novel, a prolonged delay would hurt Radcliffe and his castmates' credibility. (Emma Watson, who plays Hermione, is also 17. Rupert Grint, who plays Ron, turns 19 next month.) The Potter team considered Mira Nair (The Namesake) and Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake) before Heyman and executive producer Lionel Wigram zeroed in on Yates. As it turned out, the director had never read a Potter book, but he'd won a pile of awards for Sex Traffic, a telefilm about enforced prostitution on Britain's Channel 4, and good reviews for a miniseries called State of Play. Heyman figured Yates' gritty sensibility would suit Phoenix — and Yates agreed. ''I could see why they wanted me to have a go at this,'' he says.
While Yates worked with new-to-the-franchise screenwriter Michael Goldenberg on pruning Rowling's extremely dense, complicated Phoenixplotline, Warner Bros. geared up for what would become by far the most expensive film in the series to date. The studio reports a final price tag of about $200 million, yet a rival exec insists it must have been significantly higher, given the heavy CG work required for sequences like the climactic dueling-wizard battles. Plus, Warner had to renegotiate contracts with most of the adult actors — a huge, increasingly indispensable roster — since most had initially signed on for just four movies.
On the sets at Leavesden Studios, outside London, Yates wrestled with the complexities of the elaborate effects. He says it was hell to pre-edit sequences based on CG shots that didn't arrive in fully rendered form until very late in the process — which is typical with CG. Because he wanted to convey the wider world beyond Hogwarts, Yates also had to deal with the demands of location shoots: There's a spectacular early sequence involving Harry and friends flying on broomsticks over Big Ben and the houses of Parliament. Yates, however, did have one logistical advantage over previous Potter directors, at least for part of the shoot — his star's full attention. Radcliffe turned 17 last July, smack in the middle of Phoenix's 10-month filming schedule. He no longer had to cope with three-hour rounds of studying each day, since he'd finished with the equivalent of an American high school education. Says Yates, ''It helps when you can concentrate on just one thing.''
NEXT: ''I've started to see Harry instead of myself,'' says Radcliffe.
