Mike Newell, director of the upcoming film, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," said the amount of material taken from the fourth book in the landmark series of novels had to be significantly reduced in order to make the movie as strong as possible, according to a report on SciFi Wire.

"This is a very difficult matter, and is worked out in huge discussions between representatives of Warner Brothers, the scriptwriter, the producer, the director and sometimes J.K. Rowling," Newell said in an interview with a fan for Update magazine.

"It takes a long time, and while it's happening you constantly seesaw back and forth on certain thingsÑDobby should be in, Dobby should be out, Dobby should be in, Dobby should be out, and so forth," he said. "After a while, everybody gets a feel for what would work in a movie as opposed to what works in a novel."

What about the rumors that the book might be divided into two films rather than one long one?

Newell confirmed that the filmmakers had indeed looked into splitting the book into two films, but eventually decided that it was possible to eliminate enough "extraneous" material to tell the story in a single film.

What will be removed? According to Newell, for example, scenes with Harry's foster family, the Dursleys, will not appear. "Because we were making one, not two films, and something had to be let go, we decided the Dursleys were one of those things," he said. "We were sad about it."

"What's good about it being one movie is that the Tri-Wizard Tournament and Voldemort's plot to get Harry become very taut and very exciting because a lot of the purely descriptive stuff in the novel must be let go," Newell said. "That means the main story becomes a very tight, exciting, fast-paced thriller. Of course, what you miss are the fascinating little details which, in some cases, there just isn't room for."

Warner Brothers will be promoting the film at the 2005 Comic-Con International convention, which will be held in San Diego July 14 through 17. During that same weekend, the sixth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, goes on sale July 16.