Potter movie not 'light, frothy'

2005-11-28 10:23

Adelaide - The teenage star of the Harry Potter movies said on Saturday that the latest film in the series is "dark" and should not be toned down to get a rating that deems it suitable for young children.

Daniel Radcliffe, the 16-year-old who plays a boy wizard in the movies based on JK Rowling's best-selling children's novels, said the fourth and latest film, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," is at times intense.

"The nature of the book - a 16-year-old kid dies in Harry Potter four - you can't make that light and frothy," he said in the southern Australian city of Adelaide ahead of the blockbuster movie's opening in the country on Thursday.

Radcliffe said audiences would have been disappointed if the story had been softened to avoid its rating in Australia of being unsuitable for children under 15 The first three were deemed suitable for children with parental guidance.

"If you are going to do justice to the book, it has to be dark," he said.

Exploring other career ventures

Radcliffe also said he was enjoying playing a role other than Harry Potter in the low-budget December Boys, being filmed in Adelaide and on Kangaroo Island in South Australia state.

While he has reportedly signed a £6m (about R67m) deal to make the fifth Harry Potter movie, his current venture has a total budget of less than Aus$4m (about R19m).

In the film, Radcliffe plays one of four orphans who compete for the attention of prospective adoptive parents.

The actor, believed to be one of Britain's wealthiest teenagers, appears to be weighing his future career plans at least partly on how he's received - and how well he does - in December Boys.

"Ultimately, it comes down to whether everyone else will want to see me, be able to see me, as another character," Radcliffe said.

"It's partly up to me, because I have got to give a really good performance," he said.

- AP