So Apparently Alfonso Cuarón Finally Decided To Direct "The Prisoner Of Azkaban" After Guillermo Del Toro Hassled Him

At that point, Cuarón hadn't actually read any of the Harry Potter books.

Recently, the Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón has been spotted all over the world promoting his new movie Roma.

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It's nothing new for the famed director, who's achieved critical success for his work with the Hollywood classics A Little Princess and Y Tu Mamá También.

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And of course, he's also known for directing the third installment of the Harry Potter movies: Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, back in 2004.

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The movie was his first major Hollywood production.

But APPARENTLY, that ~magical~ match between Cuarón and the Harry Potter franchise almost didn't happen!!

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And we have one person to thank: the Oscar-winning director and master of fantasy himself, Guillermo Del Toro!

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Apparently, it all started after Cuarón finished shooting and promoting Y Tu Mamá También, according to IndieWire.

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Del Toro had been asking Cuarón about his next project, and Cuarón had joked about going after the third Harry Potter movie. At that point, Cuarón hadn't actually read any of the books.

Del Toro, being a fan of all things magical and fantastic, of course, apparently got mad at Cuarón and told him off for not taking the Harry Potter franchise seriously.

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Apparently, Del Toro said something along the lines of "Fuckin’ flaco, you’re such a fuckin’ arrogant bastard. You are going right now to the fuckin’ bookshop and get the books and you’re going to read them and you call me right away," as Cuarón recalled.

Now, I don't know about you guys, but if my BFF was the iconic director Guillermo Del Toro and he told me to check out some books, I'd be high-tailing it to the nearest book shop.

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And apparently, that was exactly what Cuarón did, too.

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According to his story, he read the Harry Potter books and when he was halfway through The Prisoner of Azkaban, he called Del Toro to tell him that the material was "really great." And at that moment, he decided to definitely wanted to direct the next movie.

Cuarón has also admitted that the whole situation had been humbling.

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"As a filmmaker, it was almost like a lesson of humility, of saying how am I going to do it my own, but at the same time, respecting what has been beloved in those couple of movies," he said.

And that, my friends, is the story of how Alfonso Cuarón ended up directing one of the best-loved Harry Potter films.

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Because let's be honest: friends don't let friends miss out on Harry Potter.

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Tag the Guillermo to your Alfonso for us this weekend, k?

This post was translated from Spanish.