Michael Goldenberg

Michael Goldenberg is an American screenwriter and director, known within the Harry Potter franchise for writing the screenplay for the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. He is the only individual other than Steve Kloves to have a sole screenwriting credit on any of the eight original Harry Potter films.

• Michael Goldenberg was hired to adapt the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, for the screen. The resulting film was released in 2007 (film).
• He took over the role from Steve Kloves, who had written the screenplays for the first four films and needed a break from the series. Steve Kloves would later return to write the adaptations for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and both parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (film).
• According to reports, Goldenberg was in contention to write the screenplay for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows before the studio ultimately secured the return of Steve Kloves to finish the series he had largely shaped on screen (film).
• His work on Order of the Phoenix involved condensing the longest book in the series into what would become one of the shorter films, a task that required significant structural changes from the source material, such as omitting the St Mungo's visit with Neville Longbottom's parents and the Quidditch subplot (film).