The New York Times has another new interview with screenwriter Steve Kloves where he talks about his experience working on the Harry Potter films.  Producer David Heyman also chimes in with his thoughts about splitting the book into two films.

“I took my cues from Jo,” Mr. Kloves said, speaking of Ms. Rowling. “The first day I met her, she said: ‘I know the movies can’t be the books. All that I ask is that you be true to the characters.’ And I believe I’ve fulfilled that request.”  Ms. Rowling always vetted his scripts, however, stepping in when she could see Mr. Kloves veering off course. Early on, for instance, she redirected his approach to Dobby, the downtrodden house-elf. “I had elected to slightly de-emphasize him, and she said, ‘Dobby’s going to be important, and so you want to revisit the scene,’ ” Mr. Kloves said. (Dobby plays a pivotal role in the new movie.)

After a while, Mr. Kloves said, “I had a remarkable ability to anticipate events, because I swam in the narrative for 10 years.” For example, he said, he always suspected that behind the oily nastiness of Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) lurked a man of deep bravery with his own lonely integrity. You can never decipher where Jo will take the plot, because she is completely original,” Mr. Kloves said. “But there was no question in my mind that Snape was going to be heroic, and I wrote him that way from the start.”

Ms. Rowling has always said the series would end with “Deathly Hallows.” But years of back-and-forth correspondence with her, Mr. Kloves said, have revealed that the material in the books is just “the barest surface of what she knows about that world. If you can get her to talk about it, it’s so remarkable what she knows,” he said. “I once e-mailed her and asked her what were the 12 uses of dragon’s blood” — information that is taught to Hogwarts students — “and she wrote back in 30 seconds what they all were. If I ask about Ron’s uncle, I get back five pages about Ron’s uncle, who never appears in the books.” “I can’t tell you how great this stuff is,” he added. “It’s almost a crime for it not to be published.”