David Yates
102 connections found
Filmography
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 2009 
The Girl in the Café 2005 
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 2010 
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 2011 
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 2007 
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2016 
The Legend of Tarzan 2016 
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald 2018 
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore 2022 
Pain Hustlers 2023 View:
Connections, in both directions
X-Men (2000)
Directed by Bryan Singer
influenced Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
Themes Visuals
The wizarding community has been forced underground due to intolerance that channels "X-Men."
It’s the same logical flaw that operates in both the “Avengers” and “X-Men” franchises, and Rowling doesn’t have much to add to the “Potter” franchise … yet.
In the wake of several violent attacks on New York, causing all manner of social, political and architectural upheaval, the movie makes the compelling argument that the willful repression of one’s supernatural abilities can lead only to destruction and chaos — a point that harks back to Bryan Singer ’s “X-Men” movies, with their resonant subtext equating mutant powers with homosexuality.
That hatred toward those who possess unique powers (something highlighted in the film's opening that features related newspaper headlines that, as in the "Potter" films, come along with animated panels) and the need for those to lead secret lives also gives the flick something of an "X-Men" vibe, particularly when Farrell's character shows displeasure toward regular folk getting more regard than wizards.
As with mutants in the X-Men movies , there’s a Civil Rights-era difference of opinion between leaders in the minority community with peaceful visions, like Professor X and Martin Luther King Jr., and those with more violent visions, like Magneto and Malcolm X.
There are scenes, typically the most destructive ones, that could be plopped into any old "X-Men" movie.
Jumanji (1995)
Directed by Joe Johnston
influenced Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
Plot
That sort of gives the flick a "Jumanji" feel (at least in terms of critters running amok), but Rowling has other plot workings and themes in mind.
But Yates and his collaborators seem enamored of their “Jumanji”-on-acid zoo exhibit in a way that is easier to admire than to share.
Reminding often of 1995's "Jumanji" (minus the board game), "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" hedges its bets on the rampaging computer-generated beasts of the title and their silliness/adorability factor.
The film fares better when it charges into magical Jumanji mode, characters chasing beasts rather than running away.
The Jungle Book (1967)
Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman
influenced The Legend of Tarzan (2016)
Visuals Plot Themes
“The Jungle Book” delivered CG environments that melded seamlessly with their human hero, and animated animals that looked so photo-real you could practically reach out and stroke their fur.
In flashbacks throughout the film, you do see the legend according to Burroughs — of the white orphan baby raised by an ape mother in the African jungle where his buddies, just as in Kipling’s “The Jungle Book,” are wild animals from whom he learns to swing ape-like from tree to tree via those ever present vines.
Disney’s live-action remake of The Jungle Book had no real tigers or snakes either, but the animals in that one talked and occasionally sang.
The Legend of Tarzan is a lot like The Jungle Book in that respect, although in this movie no talking bears start singing.
If you enjoyed the new version of "The Jungle Book" then you should enjoy "The Legend of Tarzan."
With its ultra-serious reboot structure screams Batman Begins and its CGI jungle environments trying (and failing) to match the likes of The Jungle Book, what The Legend of Tarzan really needed was a dose of fun personality ala Pirates of the Caribbean to add some energy to its doldrums.
Star Wars (1977)
Directed by George Lucas
influenced Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
Visuals
It’s an underground bank raid that combines elements of the trash compactor from Star Wars, the sorcery scene in Fantasia and Indiana Jones’s mine car ride.
She may borrow from Charles Dickens, James Bond, “Star Wars” and Greek mythology, but she does it with flair.
The fact is, moving from the Harry Potter films to Fantastic Beasts feels a bit like moving from the original Star Wars trilogy to the Star Wars prequels .
With the richest fictional world this side of “Star Wars,” the “Harry Potter” universe is one the great achievements in modern popular culture.
David: Renowned author J. K. Rowling --- the creator of all things Harry Potter, in case you've been living under a rock --- has written her first screenplay, and in the process has unleashed the wildest collection of creatures since the original "Star Wars" in 1977.
Out 1 (1990)
Directed by Jacques Rivette
influenced Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
Visuals
After a perfunctory couple of shots lifted from the end of the first installment of The Deathly Hallows , the film begins in earnest with a scene of slow, quiet urgency at an oceanfront cottage that could have been imported from Jacques Rivette’s Out 1 .
The Lady Eve (1941)
Directed by Preston Sturges
influenced Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
Characters
He’s part earnest conservationist in the David Attenborough mould, part hapless innocent in the vein of Henry Fonda in The Lady Eve, and Newt has barely arrived in America before he finds himself in trouble with the Magical Congress (Macusa) .
Brazil (1985)
Directed by Terry Gilliam
influenced Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
Themes Visuals
“Part 1” opened with the “Hostel”-like torture of a Hogwarts teacher and, intriguingly, conjured memories of Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” by equating the rise of Voldemort and the Dark Forces to the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany.
He also plays within the genre, referencing Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (which is ironic, considering that the ex-pat Python was the first director approached about helming the Potter franchise) and drops a foray into Lord of the Rings territory (as when Robbie Coltrane’s Hagrid shares a ‘secret’ with Harry and Hermione).
Yates tosses in dashes of snappy thematic touches from films like "1984," "Brazil" and even "The Exorcist," to create a subtext-rich visual palate for a narrative that compartmentalizes sentimentality into a handheld crystal ball.
Yet dark, too — the downtown Wizard headquarters of MACUSA, overseen by Madam President (Carmen Ejogo), may remind you of nothing so much as the Kafkaesque office building in Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil.”
Great Expectations (1946)
Directed by David Lean
influenced Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
First, I love the Potter movies because they (the movies, not the books, which are a wee bit overwritten) remind me of growing up enthralled with English childhoods—not British but English childhoods, meaning that no matter how much a character felt like an outsider, she or he had skin as white as Jean Simmons in Great Expectations.
Jurassic Park (1993)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
influenced Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
Visuals
After a roller-coaster-like journey into the underground lair, Harry's, Ron's and Hermione's subsequent escape back to the surface on the back of a dragon who had been guarding the vault is as technically impressive (a mixture of solid CGI, practical effects and models reminding of the seamless work done in 1993's "Jurassic Park") as it is ultimately wondrous when the lot of them take to the sky.
Starting with the first foggy fade-in, my scribbled list of allusions included "Citizen Kane," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Jurassic Park," "West Side Story," "Spartacus," "Aliens," "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Gone With the Wind."
King Kong (2005)
Directed by Peter Jackson
influenced Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), The Legend of Tarzan (2016)
Visuals Themes Plot
Haciendo contrapeso al usual barroquismo digital de los efectos CGI, Yates crea un meticulosamente fino Nueva York post-Gran Depresión así como un mundo de burocracia mágica que remite a una serie de hitos culturales: Kafka, el Art Decó y Ciudadano Kane (1941) hasta el King Kong de Peter Jackson, suavemente coloreado por la lente del cinefotógrafo francés Philippe Rousselot.
(One of those next bits is lifted directly from Peter Jackson’s King Kong, which is just inexcusable.)
Imagine if Peter Jackson had done his King Kong reboot in Brussels.
The outcome is an elegant but incomparably dull action adventure movie that makes Peter Jackson’s sluggish “King Kong” remake look like an EDM festival by comparison.
??? Directed by "Harry Potter" veteran David Yates and scripted by Adam Cozad and Memphis' Craig Brewer, the first major live-action Tarzan movie in three decades rehabs the problematic and elides the indefensible aspects of Edgar Rice Burroughs' story about a white baby raised by apes who proves to be the natural lord of both jungle animals and black-skinned Africans; at the same time, the film embraces the seductive "noble savage" fantasy of a new century-old Western pop myth that -- as with "Frankenstein," "Moby Dick" and "King Kong" -- offers endless, thorny avenues for sexual, racial, political and historical analysis.
Shot entirely at Leavesden Studios in London, The Legend of Tarzan integrates state-of-the-art computer-generated animals and foliage into a shamelessly old-fashioned jungle adventure that regularly evokes King Kong and The Jungle Book.
Boyhood (2014)
Directed by Richard Linklater
influenced by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
The pinnacle of its dazzled subjectivity happens when young Mason and a group of kids, all dressed in homage to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter , line up to receive copies of the newly published Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince .
Some years later, the kids are lining up at midnight to buy “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”
In contrast to the professor and the Iraq War veteran Olivia marries next, Mason Sr. turns out to be a lovable companion father, taking them to purchase Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and treating them to an Astros baseball game.
Pop music and culture moments serve as markers: Lorelei’s sassy impersonation of Britney Spears’s 2000 hit Oops! … I Did It Again; a 2005 night-time trek to buy the first copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; the Nintendos and iPods and speculation about the future of Star Wars.
Linklater introduces “time markers” into the movie so you sort of know where you are in time: The young boy, named Mason after his dad, lines up in costume one midnight to purchase “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”
There are ball games and bowling, notes passed in class, the resentment of having to move, the awkward feeling of facing classmates after a bad haircut, the thrill of attending a long-anticipated event (in this case, the 2005 midnight book-release party for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"), the fear that goes along with being trapped in the middle of unhealthy adult relationships, and the pubescent excitement of talking to the opposite sex.
Amélie (2001)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
influenced Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Director David Yates and "Amelie" cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel brilliantly evoke the magical world, narrow, constricting spaces emphasizing the dire circumstances and adult awareness closing in on the characters.
But cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, who photographed Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "Amélie" and "A Very Long Engagement," adds an otherworldly sheen to an overcast world that is drained of life and color until all the floating candlesticks are extinguished.
The film looks fantastic, with gorgeous eye candy throughout provided by cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel ("Across the Universe," "A Very Long Engagement" and "Amelie").
He has created another fantastic looking film with a distinct look from its predecessors thanks to the gorgeous cinematography of Bruno Delbanel (“Amelie”) while Nicholas Hooper’s score continues to make one forget all about John Williams.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Directed by Peter Jackson
influenced Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
That final dalliance is reminiscent of the lengthy epilogue causing The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King to be an utter bladder buster.
People complained about the long epilogue of “The Return of the King,” but Peter Jackson wasn’t ending a two and a half hour movie, he was ending three of them.
The result is a more satisfying conclusion to a series than The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King or any other similar film in memory.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is a towering achievement, a staggering, out-of-nowhere pop filmmaking triumph on par with The Dark Knight , The Return of the King and Spider-Man .
And there is much singing and celebration in a manner not unlike that scene in “Hatari!” where they make Elsa Martinelli the elephant queen or whatever she was.
From the silent features of the 1910s and 1920s through the kinda terrible Johnny Weissmuller B-movies of the 1930s and 1940s through the horrific “Tarzan the Ape Man” with Miles O’Keeffe and Bo Derek in 1981 through the ambitious and competent “Greystoke” in 1984 through Disney’s animated “Tarzan” in 1999 (not to mention all the stage plays and TV shows and radio serials), we’ve had tons of Tarzan adaptations — but not a single legitimately great movie.
Like James Bond, Tarzan on screen has never gone away, but unlike the dapper double-oh agent, his movie appearances rarely generate much notice — one would have to go back to the final year of the last century to find a Tarzan flick that more than 12 people saw (that would be Disney's 1999 animated take).
The last live-action Tarzan movie was released in 1998 (Disney produced an animated one the following year), and like a lot of his contemporaries – the Lone Ranger, Green Hornet and Burroughs’ John Carter among them – Tarzan’s name doesn’t conjure up a certain kind of classical pulp adventure but rather a hazy memory of something your grandparents once watched in black and white.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Directed by Peter Jackson
influenced Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)
Plot Visuals
And a lengthy siege scene, while grim and thrilling, seems to borrow equally from Ran and The Two Towers .
However, with the Battle of Hogwarts, they do not do what Peter Jackson did with the Battle of Helms Deep in The Two Towers and expand it beyond what was on the written page.
The acting is uniformly superb — better than in, say, “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” — especially Alan Rickman as the morally ambiguous Snape, who deserves an Oscar for his exemplary work here.
Much of that material could have pared down in the film version, but Yates and Kloves unwisely opt to keep it in, along with a number of other minor scenes and references to secondary characters that may delight fans of the book but don’t contribute anything substantial to the film’s storyline.Unlike other movies that end on cliffhangers—like, say,or The Two Towers never develops its own specific narrative arc.
Though the film is, essentially, the second part of a trilogy, and thus starts without a beginning and ends without a conclusion, writer Steve Kloves (who has adapted six of the seven films in the series) does a yeoman's job of structuring the narrative so that Deathly Hallows 1 does function as a story, more or less; in contrast to something like The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers , which is virtually incoherent considered as an individual movie.
Tarzan and the Lost City (1998)
Directed by Carl Schenkel
influenced The Legend of Tarzan (2016)
Characters
(I’m ignoring the 1998 “Tarzan and the Lost City” because nobody even saw it, let alone talked about it.)
Although there have been more than 70 feature films based on the character of Tarzan, the son of a British lord who was raised by apes in the jungles of Africa, the last one of any significance was Disney’s 1999 animated version (and, just prior to that, 1998’s embarrassing Tarzan and the Lost City starring Casper Van Dien).
Wicked: For Good (2025)
Directed by Jon M. Chu
influenced by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)
The first parts of multi-installment movies shot back-to-back, like The Deathly Hallows or Breaking Dawn, mostly tread water to ensure all the narrative chess pieces are in place for the grand finale.
Splitting franchise films into two parts made sense for young adult books like “Harry Potter,” “Twilight” and “The Hunger Games,” given that each series boasted thicker tomes with each subsequent release.
His Girl Friday, made in 1940, has a scene where a room full of newspapermen (and Rosalind Russell) talk about a little African-American boy born in the back of a truck.
Cremaster 4 (1995)
Directed by Matthew Barney
influenced Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
Visuals
The vault sequence couldn't have been done much better by Guillermo del Toro; some hallucinatory close-ups of Voldemort as he wrestles with Harry will kindle fond memories of the satyr in Matthew Barney's Cremaster 4; and the design of one glutinous creature (the exact nature of which I will not divulge), coated in a blood-and-mustard mucus, is positively Cronenbergian.