Director of ‘Azkaban’ brings his own vision to author’s characters

It’s almost as eerie as one of the plots from her beloved best-selling books.

“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling says that Alfonso Cuaron, who directed the new movie version of “The Prisoner of Azkaban,” inadvertently foreshadowed events that will happen in books six and seven — which she has yet to complete.

“I really got goose bumps when I saw a couple of those things, and I thought, ‘People are going to look back on the film and think that those were put in deliberately as clues,’ ” Rowling says.

For his part, Cuaron says: “In a way, it was intuition, but everything is so emotionally eloquent, the book gives you all the hints.”

Cuaron’s movie is a less by-the-book take on Rowling’s novel than the previous two Potter films, which were directed by Chris Columbus. It’s also shorter.

Rowling particularly was impressed by his vision of the otherworldly prison guards, the dementors.

“They are just as frightening as I imagined, just superb,” she says. “One of the biggest themes in the book is Harry’s conquering the dementors. And the dementors for me were about depression, and not just sadness. I think Alfonso’s really done a great job on that, in showing what that can feel like and the circumstance in which you become vulnerable to that.”

Rowling said she was immediately intrigued by the idea of Cuaron directing the third movie, having “really, really loved” his acclaimed 2001 film, “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” a sexually charged coming-of-age tale about two teenage Mexican boys.

“Alfonso just obviously understands teenage boys, and you know my characters are 13 now,” she says.

Rowling says she sees “Azkaban” as “Alfonso’s version of my world. It’s his baby. … He’s put a lot of humor in there, and I think it’s fantastic.

“I’d be very, very surprised if most people didn’t find their favorite parts of the book in that film.”