Certainly more than a few eyebrows were raised when Warner Bros. tapped Alfonso Cuarón to direct the third installment of its most popular franchise, “Harry Potter.” Though Cuarón, 42, wowed critics in 2001 with “Y tu mama tambien,” a risqué Mexican indie made for under $5 million, nothing on his resume suggested he was fitted to helm the $130 million, kid-friendly spectacular that is “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” Of course, skeptics also abounded back when a virtually unknown New Zealander named Peter Jackson was handed the reigns to “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and we all know how that turned out. Expect similar good fortune here, because replacing Chris Columbus (who is still on board as a producer) appears to be an ingenious gambit that has reenergized the “Potter” series (see review this page), and suddenly made Cuarón the town’s hottest filmmaker.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 4, 2004. Read the original PDF.