Year Four: Champions & Challenges
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Harry’s fourth year at Hogwarts is about to start and he is enjoying the summer vacation with his friends. They get the tickets to The Quidditch World Cup Final but after the match is over, people dressed like Lord Voldemort’s ‘Death Eaters’ set a fire to all the visitors’ tents, coupled with the appearance of Voldemort’s symbol, the ‘Dark Mark’ in the sky, which causes a frenzy across the magical community.
That same year, Hogwarts is hosting ‘The Triwizard Tournament’, a magical tournament between three well-known schools of magic : Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. The contestants have to be above the age of 17, and are chosen by a magical object called Goblet of Fire. On the night of selection, however, the Goblet spews out four names instead of the usual three, with Harry unwittingly being selected as the Fourth Champion. Since the magic cannot be reversed, Harry is forced to go with it and brave three exceedingly difficult tasks.
The most exhilarating and difficult times of his life await Harry Potter as he returns to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for his fourth year of study in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth film adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s immensely popular Harry Potter novel series.
Not only must Harry compete in a dangerous international tournament that pits him against his older and more experienced peers, but he will also be forced to confront his nemesis, the evil Lord Voldemort, who is determined to return to power – and finish Harry off once and for all. This harrowing news pales only in comparison to Harry’s genuine anxiety over having to find a date for Hogwarts’ Yule Ball.
The school year will also bring significant changes for Harry’s best friends Ron and Hermione, who may finally acknowledge a change in their feelings for each other. Meanwhile, as the teens deal with the onset of hormonal angst, romance blossoms among the adults too – when sparks fly between Harry’s trusted advisor Hagrid and Madame Maxime, the statuesque headmistress of the Beauxbatons Academy.
“This is one of the most challenging of all the films,” notes David Heyman, producer of the Harry Potter film series. “We needed someone who could direct a dark and suspenseful thriller, drive exhilarating action sequences and yet at the same time, be intuitive and sensitive to the comic angst of being a teenager. You’ve only got to look at films as diverse as Dance with a Stranger, Donnie Brasco and Four Weddings and a Funeral to appreciate that there are very few directors as skilled and multi-talented as Mike Newell.”
“For me, the essence of this story is a thriller,” Newell says. “There are wonderful set pieces, from the excitement of the Triwizard Tournament to the humor and heartbreak of the Yule Ball, but driving the story is this marvelous thriller in which something truly evil is out to get Harry – and only he has the power to do something about it.”
Portending the danger to come, as the story begins, Harry is beset by an eerie nightmare that leaves his notorious lightning bolt scar searing with pain. His pain turns to bone-chilling dread at the Quidditch World Cup, where Lord Voldemort’s fearsome followers, the Death Eaters, scorch the night sky with the wicked wizard’s Dark Mark, publicly heralding their leader for the first time since his disappearance thirteen years ago.
Not even Hogwarts’ venerable Headmaster Dumbledore is certain what to make of these mysterious events. In an effort to establish ties between the three largest European schools of wizardry, Dumbledore announces that Hogwarts will host the Triwizard Tournament, a thrilling competition that welcomes students and teachers from two other European wizarding schools to live and study at Hogwarts for the school year.
“Dumbledore is trying to prepare the wizarding world for the dark times ahead,” Heyman observes. “His gesture also underscores a theme of the film, which is learning to get along with people who are different from you. If they’re good, it doesn’t matter where they’re from.”
Due to the life-threatening risks inherent in the Triwizard competition, Barty Crouch, the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, decrees that no student under the age of 17 may enter – precluding 14 year old Harry and his friends from participating. But when the magical Goblet of Fire selects one champion from each of the three wizarding schools to compete in the Tournament, it stuns everyone by naming a fourth: Harry Potter.
Despite Harry’s protests, the Goblet’s decision is binding, and he has no choice but to compete in the grueling Tournament against older students with far superior wizarding skills. “What I really like about Harry is that he’s not a hero in the classic sense, a brave allconquering Superman,” says Daniel Radcliffe, who watched thrillers like North by Northwest at Newell’s suggestion in preparation for filming. “Harry’s vulnerable. He’s scared. Even though he’s helped so many people, I think he’s always yearned to leave his past behind him and let the ‘hero’ thing end. But when his name comes out of the Goblet, he’s instantly back in the limelight again. Not only does he have to cope with criticism from everyone, he also knows he didn’t put his name in the Goblet – so someone else must have.”
When Harry turns to his trusted mentor for guidance and protection, he is surprised to discover that Dumbledore himself is struggling to uncover the meaning of these mysterious events. “Harry’s world is completely shaken,” says Radcliffe. “For the first time, Harry sees Dumbledore as an old man who is no longer at the height of his abilities, and it’s very unsettling. Something or someone has infiltrated Hogwarts and is trying to get to him, but Dumbledore doesn’t know what it is, where it’s coming from or how to stop it.”
“Dumbledore is no longer in control and he’s frightened,” says Michael Gambon, who reprises his role as the highly respected Headmaster in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. “He carries tremendous weight on his shoulders, ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the students, and when evil penetrates Hogwarts, he doesn’t know how to deal with it.”
Suspecting that whoever put Harry’s name in the Goblet didn’t intend for him to win the Tournament, Dumbledore asks Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody, Hogwarts’ eccentric new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, to keep his highly perceptive eye trained on the teenage wizard until they discover the true meaning of these ominous events.
Moody is a legendary Auror, or dark wizard catcher, credited with filling half the cells at Azkaban prison with Voldemort’s followers. But years of fighting evil on the front lines have taken their toll. Battle scarred and verging on paranoid, Moody relies on his magical, all-seeing blue eye to help him thwart the evil he sees lurking in every shadow.
“Moody is a gunslinger with a wand,” says Brendan Gleeson, the versatile actor known for his powerful performances in films such as Braveheart, Cold Mountain, Troy and The Gangs of New York. “He’s someone who has chased the demons away from goodness to the extent that he’s gotten quite warped by it. One of the things Mike Newell suggested when we first discussed the character was that Moody’s great wounds have damaged him greatly. It’s a very interesting arc to play with this character, who comes into Hogwarts as death warmed over and grows into someone the kids learn to trust.”
There is a method to Moody’s madness, though his irreverent brand of tough love often terrifies his students and draws criticism from his peers. “What appealed to me about the character,” says Gleeson thoughtfully, “is that he reminds me of some of my old teachers. He has no time for book learning or pussy-footing about. He wants to show these young men and women what they’re up against – evil exists and they better know what they’re getting themselves into. He’s a one-man initiation ceremony, a walking rite-ofpassage. He doesn’t believe in treading lightly with Harry or the other students because that won’t prepare them for the real world.”
“Moody is a complex, challenging character,” Heyman observes. “Brendan brought a great balance of ferociousness and humor to the role that makes him both formidable and lovable.”
“You seldom find an actor of Brendan’s depth and calibre,” adds Newell, who previously worked with Gleeson on the 1992 family adventure Into the West. “Perhaps it’s true of all Irishmen, but Brendan has an elemental quality to him that is part savage and part wide-eyed innocent, which suited him well in playing this multifaceted character.”
Moody’s piercing blue mechanical eye was created for the production by creature effects supervisor Nick Dudman and visual effects supervisor Jimmy Mitchell. “The eye became a character in itself,” Newell says, “although to reveal exactly how we created it would spoil the illusion for audiences.”
Costume designer Jany Temime was inspired by spaghetti westerns when she created Moody’s signature black coat, a battered hunk of leather and buckles that appears as worldweary as its owner. “Moody is a warrior. The man has no house, no home. He literally lives in his coat,” Temime surmises. “We had a team of people who spent a week aging and distressing the coat to give it a lifetime’s worth of wear.”
As Moody attempts to protect Harry from the mysterious forces threatening his life, the teenager must contend with a hostile force of a different kind: muckraking reporter Rita Skeeter. As unscrupulous as she is intense, Skeeter will stop at nothing and stoop to anything for her outrageous gossip columns.
“Rita writes what people want to hear or what she thinks will keep them reading,” says internationally acclaimed actress Miranda Richardson, whose diverse film credits include The Hours, Sleepy Hollow, Enchanted April and Mike Newell’s hit 1985 thriller Dance With a Stranger. “She’ll do whatever it takes to get the story she’s already pre-written in her head. Whenever the danger is heightened, she gets more excited. The idea of imminent death or potential injury makes great press. And that really makes her tick.”
“Rita is calculating and tough, but she oozes charm – that’s how she gets the scoop,” Newell explains. “Miranda is such a gifted actress. She has a wonderful sense of comic timing, and at the same time she’s able to portray a delicious menace.”
Skeeter fans the flames of the Harry Potter backlash that erupts in the wake of his dubious selection for the Triwizard Tournament, and delves deeply into his personal life – and Hermione’s. “She’s absolutely horrible!” Emma Watson exclaims. “Rita seems to have it in for Hermione. She highlights the insecurities Hermione harbors about herself, like being a bookworm or the teacher’s pet, much as Professor Trelawney did in the third film.”
It’s no surprise that the flamboyant journalist’s fashion sense is as dazzlingly outlandish as she is. “Rita feels it’s as much her duty to dress for the occasion as it is to tell the truth – as she sees it – for her readership,” says Richardson. “As far as she’s concerned, she’s the only one who is well-dressed.”
“I was inspired by the 1980s,” Jany Temime says of her desgin for Rita Skeeter’s wardrobe. “Strong colors, very angular and specific to the story she’s investigating. For example, when the Triwizard contestants face their first challenge with the dragons, she’s dressed in a snakeskin kind of material with scales. When she attends the diving challenge, it’s no accident that her outfit is a poisonous, sickening green.”
Harry does his best not to be distracted by Moody’s unorthodox manner or Rita Skeeter’s insidious gossip, as he fears an encounter with Lord Voldemort – the dark wizard who murdered his parents – is inevitable. “You-Know-Who,” as he is tremulously referred to by citizens of the wizarding world, is brutal, fiendish and without remorse. Harry is the only person ever to survive the Dark Lord’s killing curse – an astonishing feat that left him with emotional wounds far worse than the scar emblazoned on his forehead.
“The term ‘enemies’ doesn’t do their relationship justice,” Radcliffe says. “Harry hates Voldemort with every fiber of his being. He wants to murder him for killing his parents. At the same time, he is also absolutely terrified of him.”
“It’s quite hard to play someone who is is the essence of evil,” muses Ralph Fiennes, whose career has encompassed a vast range of heroic, romantic and villainous characters in films such as The Constant Gardener, Red Dragon, Maid in Manhattan, The English Patient and his Oscar-nominated turn in Schindler’s List. “In my discussions with Mike about the character, we talked about giving Voldemort human qualities, because to just play ‘evil’ is really impossible. ‘Evil’ is often conveyed through gnashing of teeth and a lot of spit. I wanted my portrayal of Voldemort to be deeply, truly evil. That comes from fear, frustration and unhappiness. Voldemort was a rejected child. He had a very unhappy childhood, and that’s where his anger, jealousy and hatred began to fester.”
“Voldemort is someone who knows no love,” Heyman notes. “He thinks of love as a flaw. He is the embodiment of pure evil. Someone who is powerful and attractive. Ralph is an actor of great depth, and he captures the complexity of Voldemort’s charisma and darkness brilliantly.”
Enraged that the legend of Harry Potter – the boy who lived – has eclipsed his own, Voldemort has spent the last thirteen years regaining the powers he lost on the fateful night that Harry’s parents died. With help from his sniveling servant Wormtail, the Dark Lord triumphanty returns to human form to destroy Harry once and for all.
“Mike was very keen to explore Voldemort’s unexpected mood swings, his explosive rage,” Fiennes says. “There are moments when anger spits out of him at Harry and other moments when he can be almost pleasant. You never quite know what he’s going to do.
“People are incredibly scary when they’re charming but you suspect they might suddenly do something very violent,” he continues. “If you sit across the table from someone who offers you a glass of wine and a present, but you know that he stabbed his wife to death, it’s quite unnerving.”
“Ralph is really frightening as Voldemort,” Newell confirms. “(You can see he’s mad, gone somewhere else in his eyes.) I’m nailed to the floor when he’s onscreen in this film.”
“It was a very intense experience,” Radcliffe says of filming his scenes with Fiennes. “I learned from watching him, the way he used his body and his hands, especially when Voldemort first regains his human form. It’s fantastic.”
“Daniel had to put up with a lot from me,” Fiennes says with a chuckle. “Here’s a boy who’s tied up with a man pushing his finger into the wound on his head, laughing and delighting in the pain he’s causing. He had to act as though he was in agony and terror without having many words to say. I was full of admiration for him.”
Much consideration was given to the design of Voldemort’s look, as it’s the Dark Lord’s first appearance in full human form in the Harry Potter film series. “When Ralph joined the cast, David Heyman said to me, You’re gonna mess about with his face, aren’t you?”
Newell recalls. “I said No, no. Ralph can play evil. He’ll dredge it up from the inside of his psyche. Then I went home over the weekend and thought, I really should mess about with his face.”
“My nieces and nephews were dying to come to the set and see Uncle Ralph as Voldemort,” Fiennes recalls, “but when they arrived they didn’t recognize me!”
Creature effects supervisor Nick Dudman and his team created the key concepts for Voldemort’s makeup, in which minimal prosthetics and transfers were used to cast a sickly, transluscent pallor to Fiennes’ skin and suggest a snarl of veins running down his skull, arms and hands.
“The makeup is quite simple and strong in its design,” notes Fiennes, whose head, arms and chest were shaved as part of the process. “I wanted to wear as little makeup as possible, to be free to move. The idea is that Voldemort has just gotten this new skin. He’s new in this body, so he’s testing it, relishing the power of it.”
A light silk fabric was used to create Voldemort’s black flowing shroud, giving him the appearance of a “floating reptile,” as Fiennes describes his wardrobe. “When you see Voldemort in full figure, it’s as if he’s wearing this black, floating skin. And no shoes. It didn’t feel right that he would have shoes on. He’s just come out of a cauldron.”
“We wanted a costume that had a simplicity about it, something that isn’t as heavy as those worn by the professors,” adds Heyman. “It’s quite spare, not overly ornate, because he is anti-aesthetic. The Death Eaters may enjoy the jewels and finery, but not Voldemort.”
In post-production, the visual effects team digitally re-shaped Fiennes’ nose, flattening it and adding slits to evoke a serpentine look that underscores Voldemort’s Slytherin origins. “It’s really creepy,” Heyman says of Fiennes’ digital transformation, “but in a very subtle, disquieting way.”
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Directed by: Mike Newell
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon, Robert Pattinson, Bonnie Wright, Jason Isaacs, Stanislav Yanevski, Mark Williams, Tom Felton
Screenplay by: Steven Kloves
Production Design by: Stuart Craig
Cinematography by: Roger Pratt
Film Editing by: Mick Audsley
Costume Design by: Jany Temime
Set Decoration by: Stephenie McMillan
Art Direction by: Andrew Ackland-Snow, Mark Bartholomew, Alan Gilmore, Alastair Bullock, Neil Lamont, Gary Tomkins, Alexandra Walker
Music by: Patrick Doyle
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: November 18, 2005
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