Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1097515
DGA QUARTERLY 71 PHOTOS: (TOP LEFT) EVERETT; (TOP RIGHT AND BOTTOM) PHOTOFEST "I thought it was a great thriller, like a Hitchcock thriller." — M I K E N E W E L L O N H A R R Y P O T T E R A N D T H E G O B L E T O F F I R E BLADE RUNNER (1982), Ridley Scott > It's hard to believe we've caught up with the time frame, 2019, in which Ridley Scott transformed Los Angeles into what he termed a near-future, "mul- tinational megalopolis," where a rogue group of synthetic humans, known as replicants, are tracked down by a world-weary cop played by Harrison Ford. The action unfolds in a gritty, highly polluted, over-populated cityscape snarled with tra c, neon- lit ghettos and massive electronic billboards. Scott didn't view the fi lm as sci-fi so much as the natural progression of things. "It touches on a near future, which is only 40 years away," Scott said at the time of the fi lm's release. "So things haven't changed that much—just enough to be a little spooky." HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE (2005), Mike Newell > This fourth installment of the Harry Potter fi lm franchise was highly praised as one of the best of the series. As usual, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry provides the visual template, while Mike Newell—who hailed from character-driven fi lms like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Donnie Brasco—gave added dimension to the performances. The Wall Street Journal noted that Newell's take was "even richer and fuller, as well as dramatically darker" than its predecessors. "I thought it was a great thriller, like a Hitchcock thriller," said Newell, who was inspired by Hitchcock's North by Northwest and Alan Pakula's The Parallax View. "They're all about people who don't know what's happening to them."