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11.14.2009
Sorcerer's Stone behind-the-scenes clip
Labels: behind the scenes, Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, ultimate collectionreadmore »»
11.04.2009
Where everything Started
Labels: books, Harry Potter, ROWLING
The cafe where JK Rowling started writing the Harry Potter books - with baby daughter Jessica by her side - has reopened. The cafe had closed and turned into a chinese buffet a few years ago, but a new owner has changed it back: Owner Moira McFarlane, 42, says she’s more than happy for customers to escape the cold and spend the whole day reading, writing or chatting with friends. She said: “It’s a big space, so we need to make it cosy – we will welcome people to come along and sit all day – and write books if they like. ”The businesswoman, who already owns the Spoon Cafe in Old Town and runs the Storytelling Centre coffee bar on the Royal Mile, says the cafe is unlike any other.
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9.08.2009
Obama mentions Harry & Rowling in speech to schoolkids
Labels: Harry Potter, obama, ROWLING
In a speech to the schoolchildren of America, President Obama mentioned Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling to remind kids of the power of perseverance. As The Times Online reports: Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
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9.07.2009
J.K Rowling working on Encyclopedia
Labels: encyclopedia, Harry Potter, J.K.ROWLING
Yesterday on BBC Radio Five Live Radio Simon Mayo, author Ian Rankin, a friend of J.K. Rowling, revealed that the last time he saw her, she was working hard on the Encyclopedia. He also mentioned he saw her drawing up family trees. It should be mentioned that Rankin said he has not seen Rowling in some time and that he didn't know whether the encyclopedia was for her own fun or not. Could the Encyclopedia be nearing its release? Let's hope so!
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8.08.2009
7.31.2009
Happy Birthday, Harry
Labels: birthday, Harry Potter
Today - July 31st 2009, we are celebrating the birthday of the boy who we've spent countless hours reading about, Harry Potter! Celebrating the 29th anniversary of his birth today, The Boy Who Lived is currently working as an Auror in the Ministry of Magic, and is married to Ginny Weasley with three children; James Sirius, Albus Severus and Lily Luna. It was exactly eighteen years ago that Harry discovered who he was (thanks to Hagrid knocking down a door ) and we've not looked back since!
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Harry Potter : Best beach book ever
Labels: beach book, books, Harry Potter
J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series has topped National Public Radio's poll of the 100 Best Beach Books Ever! Here are the top ten books on the list: 1. The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling 2. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee 3. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini 4. Bridget Jones's Diary, by Helen Fielding 5. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen 6. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells 7. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald 8. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams 9. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, by Fannie Flagg 10. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
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7.17.2009
Half-Blood Prince sets worldwide record
Labels: HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE
Earlier we told you that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince had broken the record for midnight box office sales. Now Reuters is reporting that the film has also set a worldwide box office record--$104 million in its first day in theaters. "Quite simply, we owe this record-breaking opening to the remarkable fans who have stood by us and who stood in line to be among the first to see 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,'" Warner Bros President and Chief Operating Officer Alan Horn said in a statement.
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Half-Blood Prince crosses $58.4 million in first 24 hours
Labels: HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE
Half-Blood Prince broke the record for midnight box office sales. WB has announced how well Half-Blood Prince did in its first 24 hours: Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" grossed a magical $58.4 million from 4,275 theaters as it opened Wednesday at the domestic B.O., including a potent $22.2 million in midnight shows. Film was pacing well ahead of the $44 million earned by "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" on its opening Wednesday exactly two years ago. "Order of the Phoenix" posted a five-day opening gross of $139.7 million. "Half-Blood Prince's" midnight runs were the best ever for any film, besting the $18 million earned by Warners' "The Dark Knight" last summer, as well as the $16 million grossed by Paramount's sequel "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" earlier this summer.
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7.10.2009
Half-Blood Prince clip At The Three Broomsticks
Labels: Harry Potter, HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE, HERMIONE GRANGER, RON WEASLEY
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6.28.2009
Bonnie Wright on Half-Blood Prince
Labels: bonnie wright, HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE, interview
The first one is from The London Evening Standard with Bonnie Wright. Among other things, she talks about how to survive the Potter set after all these years: 'In a banqueting scene, you must never be filmed actually eating,' she says very seriously. Otherwise you'll have to keep on for the sake of continuity. The food gets cold and stale, and you start to feel really sick.' (Especially if the director is David Yates, notorious for his numerous retakes.) You have to make sure the spoon only goes as far as your lips.' Bonnie has learned such tricks the hard way, having joined the cast to play Ginny Weasley, Ron's little sister, when she was a mere nine years old and had no acting experience whatsoever, barring roles in school plays. Over the past nine years, she has seen her role expand from infant sidekick to leading lady. In the forthcoming film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, she and Harry fall for one another, and their relationship proves more durable than his earlier ill-fated fling with Cho Chang.
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Emma Watson's life on the Potter set
Labels: EMMA WATSON, HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE, HERMIONE GRANGER, interview
Emma talks about what a typical day on the set is like, and her feelings about the franchise after being involved for so long: On the Potter set, "it takes an hour to get ready every day. They call us at 7.30am." Watson leans forward across the trailer's Formica table to show me the extensions plaited into her backcombed light brown hair to give it Hermione Granger's messy curls. Plus there are fake scars – "They must have rubbed off - I just took a nap" - and plenty of slap to make her lightly freckled skin matt and witchy. The heavy eyebrows are for real, though. Watson is still thankful she was not forced to wear the buck teeth allotted to Hermione in the books. When she put them in, she couldn’t talk, and the director dumped them, along with Radcliffe's green contact lenses, both too hard on the young stars. Watson still found her role a burden as well as a pleasure. "When I was little, I didn’t understand that other kids thought I actually was Hermione, really geeky. It was devastating. I thought no one would ever fancy me. And the costumes..." There was the school uniform, all stiff and buttoned up for Hermione and hanging out for the boys. When the mini-witch was having fun, she wore frumpy, Brillo-pad jumpers in ugly colours. Indeed the Potter series has been a triumph for bad knitwear. “When I was just becoming a teenager, I took some coaxing to get into those horrible jumpers, but now I really use the discomfort, the itchiness, the backcombed hair, to get into character.”
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6.24.2009
The Guardian's Half-Blood Prince set report
Labels: HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE, interview
Of particular interest was this information concerning WB's involvement with the films:
According to everyone I speak to at Leavesden, Warners has been remarkably hands off. It's only when Yates started to get a bit arty on The Half-Blood Prince that the studio had something to say.
"The only major run-in we've had since I came on board is regarding the look of this film. We had a fairly major negotiation about its look. Bruno Delbonnel, who was also cinematographer on Amelie, made it look very distinct and different to the previous Potters by using all these monochromatic washes. The studio wanted more colour added to it and we obliged. And actually it's no less artful with the new grade; it looks more beautiful, more inviting. When you're sending 28,000 prints around the world to goodness knows how many cultures, you need a show that pulls you in."
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Jessie Cave Interview 2
Labels: HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE, interview, jessie cave, RON WEASLEY, RUPERT GRINT
As part of their ongoing Half-Blood Prince sneak peek series, the Los Angeles Times has a new interview with Jessie Cave. She'll be playing Lavender Brown in Half-Blood Prince. In the interview, Jessie touches on all aspects of the film including how she initially got the role: Q: For your final audition, what scene did you get to act out with Rupert? A: We actually had to improvise for a good 15 or 20 minutes, which is very scary. It’s a really long time. The director, David Yates, was there and he was just like, “Hi. Right. Here’s a plate of biscuits, Jessie. It’s a lovely plate of chocolate biscuits and I want you to do whatever you want with these biscuits.’ Rupert was in the room, sitting on the sofa, and I just thought, ‘What the hell am I going to do with this plate of biscuits?’ Q: What did you end up doing? A: I thought, ‘I’m just going to go for it.’ And I think Rupert was a bit scared, really. The biscuits were past the sofa, away from me so I kind of just tangled myself around Rupert and just made it really obvious that I didn’t really care about the biscuits. I just wanted to be near him. I think he was quite scared.
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6.21.2009
Harry Potter And The Halfblood Prince Rating 12A
Labels: HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE, rating
'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince', a fantasy adventure film based on the book of the same title, finds Harry and his friends returning to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for their sixth year.
The film contains moderate threat. The moderate threat occurs in one quite scary sequence in which Harry and Professor Dumbledore are attacked by menacing looking creatures that have emerged from an underground lake. Harry is pulled into the lake and dragged beneath the water. The scene has the potential to upset younger or more sensitive children.
In another scene Draco Malfoy kicks Harry (below screen) and appears to break his nose; blood can be seen on Harry's face. Tables are turned later on in the film when Harry defeats Malfoy in a wand battle in the school toilets. Malfoy, who is rendered unconscious, has several bloodstains on his white shirt and his blood can be seen to mix with and cloud the water on the flooded floor.
Malfoy, however, is soon completely healed by a nearby teacher. The film contains mild language including the words 'God', 'bloody', tosser', 'sod', 'hell' and 'git'.
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Interview With TIM ALEXANDER
Labels: inferi, interview, tim alexander
In the second part of its Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince countdown, the Los Angeles Times has a new interview with Tim Alexander, the visual effects supervisor in charge of bringing the Inferi to life.So how many Inferi lie in the lake?
A couple million? Above water, you’d probably see about a hundred at a time. But when Harry gets dragged into the lake, there is a whole underwater environment…and it’s actually covered in bodies. It’s all just ... bodies crawling on top of each other, and that’s how you get into the millions.
That sounds … disturbing. Certainly, more so than the previous “Potter” films.
It’s certainly much bolder and scarier than we imagined that they’d ever go in a "Potter" movie. Director David Yates was really cautious of not making this into a zombie movie, so we were constantly trying to figure out how not to make these dead people coming up look like zombies. A lot of it came down to their movement – they don’t move fast, but they don’t move really slow or groan and moan. We ended up going with a very realistic style. They move like anyone coming up out of water.
How so?
When we go underwater with Harry, this female Inferi kind of comes up and grabs him and is pulling him down, but it’s more like a hug. Like an embrace. Like she’s trying to encourage him to join them. We were always trying to avoid turning the scene into one you’d see in a horror film.
Tell me about how the Inferi look. How did the design come about?
The art department on the film gave us a lot of references, like Dante’s "Inferno," where they have all those bodies. The Inferi themselves are very skinny and emaciated people. Very humanoid, but way skinnier than humans could be. Waterlogged and gray. We used the old lady that comes out of the tub in ‘The Shining’ as a reference. Most of the Inferi are adult, but we did also build two children, too.
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6.19.2009
LA Times Interview with Screenwriter Steve Kloves
Labels: HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE, interview, Steve Kloves
What, if anything, can you say about the climactic moment between Snape and Dumbledore? In the book, it’s a short but intense scene.It is informed by everything [Potter readers] have come to know is true. So if you watch the film carefully, there are performance moments that are quite extraordinary, Alan Rickman [who plays Snape] especially. There is something we added that you can look forward to, a short scene between Harry and Snape prior to the big event. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays to the audience. It should be a haunting moment for Harry. While I was writing, I just had a notion about a moment between him and Snape, something Harry could look back on and question as to why he didn’t act differently. I’ve also read that most of Dumbledore's pensieve memories of young Voldemort, then Tom Riddle, have been cut from the film. (Not to mention: Dumbledore's funeral!) In my original draft, I had every single memory but one, I believe. I even dramatized a couple of things that weren’t in the book in terms of Voldemort, like the death of Tom’s parents, things like that. I'm a Harry Potter fan, so my first drafts tend to reflect that, in that they tend to be long and all-inclusive. When [director] David Yates came in, he had a very specific point of view, which was that he wanted to showcase Voldemort’s rise without getting overly involved with his past as Riddle. He didn’t think that most of the memories would be as compelling on-screen as they are on the page. He liked them in the script, but he really felt that in the movie experience Voldemort’s story was more important than young Riddle‘s. We went back and forth on that for quite a bit. But he was very convincing, and I think it wound up working out well.
Are there any other changes or additions that you can talk about? I know one thing David is very proud of is getting Quidditch right. I do think it’s the first time that it feels like a sport. And it’s comic, which is fun. Rupert Grint [who plays Ron] is great. We also do a lot with the kids coming of age, navigating sexual politics and all that. It’s pretty interesting to see these characters doing that because the movies have always been a bit chaste, and they continue to be on some level, but there’s more happening in this one. You realize how complicated it is between boys and girls. It’s a lot of fun seeing Ron navigate his first girlfriend
What kind of things do you run by Rowling? A range of things, even something really simple. I once asked about the 12 uses of dragon’s blood, which is referenced in the books. There are writers who would write “12 uses of dragon’s blood” and not have a clue what they are; it just sounds cool. But I emailed her to ask (and this was 10 years ago), and 25 seconds later I get an email back with a list. Do tell. She's only mentioned "oven cleaner" in interviews. One is an oven cleaner, yes. Another is a spot remover. . . . It was really amazing. Really, the books are only the thinnest surface of what she knows about the series. Where Jo is helpful in a more serious way for me is when I want to know more about motivation or background, when Harry realized certain things, when characters understood things. There was one case where I was violating a plot thing -- it had something to do with Dobby, I think -- and she said, "No, you don’t want to do that," as she knew what was to come. She’s a great resource for problem solving and she has such a facile mind, she can help with complicated things. Though her plots are so fiendish that they’re really difficult for cinema.
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Daniel Radcliffe interview at Leavesden
Labels: DANIEL RADCLIFFE, Harry Potter, HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE
Australia's Herald Sun visited the set of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last year and interviewed Daniel Radcliffe. The article describes Leavesden Studios and a day on the set when Slughorn's Christmas party was being filmed. Radcliffe’s not in this scene, but he’s happily watching what Jim Broadbent, who makes his Potter debut in the Half-Blood Prince as Horace Slughorn, does with his several go-throughs. Slughorn is greeting guests, including Luna Lovegood (played by the wonderfully eccentric Evanna Lynch) dressed up like a silver Christmas tree, and with each take Broadbent mixes it up — easy stuff for a veteran of his status. ‘‘I wasn’t in the first shot this morning but I went down to watch it just ’cos . . . I’m just interested in it and I want to see how other people act together. It’s about learning, for me,’’ Radcliffe says.
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6.18.2009
HBP UK site reveals new posters, score previews
Labels: HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE, posters
Browsing the site will get you those score previews, and the site can even be put into "Full Screen" mode for a nice browsing experience.
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6.17.2009
Simon McBurney to cast as Kreacher in Deathly Hallows
Labels: HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE, Kreacher, Simon McBurney
We've learned that the casting agency representing actor Simon McBurney lists him as having the role of Kreacher in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Presumably he will just be lending his voice for the character. McBurney has also starred in such films as The Golden Compass and The Duchess.
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