The Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Alfonso Cuaron, director of the latest movie in the Harry Potter series, says the film's villain, the evil wizard Voldemort, reminds him of a combination of President George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein. "They both have selfish interests and are very much in love with power. Also, a disregard for the environment. A love for manipulating people," he tells Newsweek in the August 4 issue (on newsstands Monday, July 28). "I read books four and five, and Fudge" -- author J.K. Rowling's slippery Minister of Magic -- "is similar to Tony Blair. He's the ultimate politician. He's in denial about many things. And everything is for the sake of his own persona, his own power. The way the Iraq thing was handled was not unlike the way Fudge handled affairs in book four."

Meanwhile, to prepare for the older, bolder Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, star Daniel Radcliffe has been listening to the Sex Pistols -- which broke up 11 years before he was born -- as well as edgy new acts like the Strokes and the Dandy Warhols, reports London Correspondent Carla Power in an exclusive, behind the scenes look at the third installment in the Potter franchise. He's also watching Francois Truffaut (The 400 Blows) and Vittorio De Sica (The Bicycle Thief) to get a handle on Harry's "feelings of hopelessness."

"Azkaban" is the puberty movie in the Potter franchise -- the one, says Emma Watson, who plays Hermione, in which "all those lovely, lovely hormones start coming out." Mexican director Cuaron, who's taken over the series' reins from Chris Columbus, notes that his teenage cast is coming of age just as the characters are and that hormones on the set are raging. "You don't need to encourage it. You allow it to be. And believe me, they have a lot of it." Watson, who's 13, has a sign on her dressing-room door that reads BEWARE: BABE INSIDE.

With the series' two lightest chapters out of the way, the stage is perfectly set for Cuaron, who got an Oscar nomination last year for the teen-sex romp Y Tu Mama Tambien. "Alfonso is much more gritty than Chris ever was," says Watson. "He's really into the idea that [shooting] should be fluid and natural. People can be eating an apple during a take." Columbus, who says he was "too physically exhausted" to direct the third movie, is serving as producer and he makes no bones about the fact that he's doing it to "protect" the Potter world he adores.

"Azkaban" is a spookier story than the first two -- the soul-sucking dementors, who guard Azkaban Prison, make their first appearance -- and Cuaron promises that the movie's palette will reflect the gathering darkness. Cuaron also reimagined the role of Professor Dumbledore, played by British actor Michael Gambon in place of the late Richard Harris, styling him as an elegant old hippie.

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