“Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone” was the first chapter in the Harry Potter cinematic canon. It helped translate the hit children’s book series to film and kicked off the highly profitable movie franchise, which is still going to this day, albeit through lukewarm received spinoffs. Harry Potter’s first outing was largely a safe one. It kept things true to the books for the most part and captured the sense of magic and wonder. But … there was no Peeves.
“The Sorcerer’s Stone” director Chris Columbus revealed that the original version of the movie was three hours long and included fan favorite Peeves, a poltergeist with “a seamless blend of humor and malice,” according to his description in the first “Harry Potter” novel. The theatrical cut of the “Sorcerer’s Stone” was two and half hours long, so it’s no shocker that they left some scenes on the cutting room floor. Still though, no Peeves ought to hurt a true Potter fan’s heart.
Well, there’s been this trend lately of having fans petition for super-cuts of their favorite films. Sometimes it’s not even their favorite films, but movies they felt could have been better. I mean, the Snyder Cut was essentially that. Take an insanely long cut of a movie that could never have been released in theaters, and then plop in on a streaming service, and BOOM, you got some “premium” content for the fans.
If there is a franchise that has a group of fans who are willing to sit down for three hours just to see a one-off book character on screen, it’s Harry Potter fans.
In fact, while you’re at it, capitalize on the “Dune” hype and release David Lynch’s 5 hour cut of “Dune.” Will it be good? Will any of these redo/glorified director’s cuts be good? I don’t know, probably not in all likelihood. But still, the Snyder Cut was an improvement over the original and the original “Justice League” was far, far from great.
So, if you just make the original a little better, then fans will be pleased. So Warner Bros., what are you waiting for? Release the Peeves Cut on HBO Max already!
