Seriously?

Now don't get me wrong, I adore Soapdish, I could quote fifty lines of dialogue from it right this second if put on the spot, but this just seems... really random. From DH:

"Access Hollywood reports that Michael Hoffman is in talks to direct the next Harry Potter installment "Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince".

The Hawaiian-born Hoffman previously directed such films as "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "The Emperor's Club", "Soapdish" and last year's "Game 6".

An official announcement is expected on the helmer sometime before Christmas."

To be fair, I haven't seen any of Hoffman's other films (I've seen pieces of AMSND, never felt too into it), so I don't really know what to think of this. Do you think someone was unhappy with Alfonso Cuarón's take on the franchise, though, and so they've decided against using directors that have more of a singular vision, instead using, dare I say, a merely capable hired hand? The directors they've chosen have gotten progressively less auteuristic (is that a word?) since the one-two punch of Cuarón and Newell. Nothing against David Yates, who's filming the fifth to-be-released-next-summer film, Order of the Phoenix, but he's as much as - even more, really - an unknown quantity as this Hoffman fellow would be if chosen.

Why have they become afraid of hiring big name directors? I guess they're in a rush, gotta churn these things out before Danny Radcliffe and the gang start getting too big for their robes. Still, what I'd give to see someone like, say, Spielberg take one of these suckers on.
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