There’s some bad news to pass along to Harry Potter fans this Memorial Day. According to the Spanish news service EFE (via Digital Spy), director Alfonso Cuarón confirmed that he won’t be at the helm of Warner Brothers’ upcoming Harry Potter spin-off, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. In a statement, Cuarón said:
"I'm coming out of a five-year process of doing visual effects and now I sort of want to clean my palate of that a little bit."
Gravity was a huge movie, and many of the special effects techniques had to be invented on the fly. The shoot was rigorous and constricting, especially for a director like Cuarón, who doesn’t necessarily come from an effects background. So it’s completely understandable that he wants his next movie to have less of an emphasis on the special effects end of filmmaking.
Plus, after the success of Gravity, Cuarón basically has the ability to pick and choose his next job. There is no word on what this might mean for those recent Shining prequel rumors that he was attached to.
[EFE via Digital Spy]
