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Friday, November 20
While fans won't get a new Harry Potter movie in theaters this season — last year's schedule bump changed that rhythm — they do get a new DVD. On December 8, The Half-Blood Prince releases.
Unsurprisingly, the sixth installment in the Potter series had some book-to-movie plot changes, a necessity when adapting such rich books. That said, there were a few changes that surprised us and left us wondering how they would affect the final two movies.
We surveyed top Harry Potter fansites to see what movie changes they believed was most significant for the Deathly Hallows, as well as how they thought/hoped David Yates would deal with those changes. Find out what they told us.
Posted 11/20/2009 by reelz
Related: Daniel Radcliffe | Emma Watson | Rupert Grint | David Yates | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
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Monday, October 5
In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Helen McCrory (who plays Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's mother) had all sorts of updates on the status of the two-part conclusion to the boy wizard's epic adventures. She is joining the rest of the cast for a read through of the script for the second part of Deathly Hallows today, and said that the sense of anticipation is really palpable.
We finish in April and it does feel different on set actually. Some people have been doing it for 10, 11 years. It's part of their lives. So although I've just joined them at the end, a lot of people have a huge emotional commitment to it. There are children that have grown up with the people on the set, like the directors and the costume designers backstage. It's a very big occasion for those people.
As a conclusion, she says Deathly Hallows can also offer something that none of the earlier Harry Potter movies could:
It's got a full stop. I think up to now, every director who has done a Harry Potter has had to do a dot-dot-dot. They know it's a sequel, they know there's another film coming out. But with this one, we can actually make everything have an epic ending. It's going to be final. And it's going to be huge. There doesn't have to be any more pauses or dot-dot-dots. So they're letting out all the stops with this one.
The underlying theme of these last two movies is how Harry becomes a man. And that, she emphasizes, really sets the stage for a dramatic finale.
Posted 10/5/2009 by Bill
Related: Helen McCrory | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
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Monday, July 20
Unlike some wizards we could name, Bill Nighy is hitting the books to get up to speed for his role as Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And since he wasn't in any of the previous Harry Potter movies, there is a whole lot to catch up on. Although he hasn't read the books yet, Nighy says he is in the midst of getting a "serious crash course."
Talking about his take on the character, Nighy says:
...he's a kind of tragic figure. You have that element. And he knows what's coming. So that's a very moving thing to play. He's also very powerful, and he's had a very complicated progress to the top. And he has an interesting relationship with Harry [Daniel Radcliffe], because Harry views him initially with complete contempt, but then it's softened by subsequent events.
Nighy also adds that he's especially pleased about landing the role because he'd begun worrying about ending up as the "only English actor of a certain age who wasn't in Harry Potter."
Posted 7/20/2009 by Bill
Related: Bill Nighy | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
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Saturday, July 11
With Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince debuting in just a few days, filmmakers and stars have already started ramping up expectations for the series' two-part finale. At a New York press conference, director David Yates revealed that shooting for the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is roughly 85% complete, and since the movies are being shot in tandem, about 10% of the shooting for the second part has been done as well.
The two parts are going to be quite different though, the director explained:
The first movie is a road movie basically, and it's quite intense and very raw and we're way away from Hogwarts, and it's a bit like three refugees being pursued across the landscape by these terrible Death Eaters. We're really enjoying it actually. It feels very different. ... The first one is very verité and documentary and edgy and on the road, and the second part is a big opera basically, a great big epic with huge battles and very oddly moving, because it concludes the whole saga really. So they're two very different films.
Not only will they be different from each other, but a big change from what came before as well, according to Daniel Radcliffe:
I'm so excited about the seventh film. I don't know if anybody else had the same experience as me over the last couple of days, but seeing the sixth film again, it does suddenly strike me that we are doing something very, very different with the seventh film.
As to the precise details of the movies, where part one will end, and exactly what the movies will and will not include, filmmakers were a bit more circumspect. And some key issues haven't been resolved yet.
Different ideas for how to do the final scene, in which the characters 19 years later are sending their own children off to Hogwarts are still being explored. "Probably not Benjamin Button technology," Yates says. But producer David Heyman adds, "We're going to do everything we can and it will be Dan, Rupert and Emma in those parts, not some other actors."
Posted 7/11/2009 by Bill
Related: Daniel Radcliffe | David Heyman | David Yates | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
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Saturday, July 4
Against precedent, the Harry Potter film franchise has managed to keep fans of the wildly popular novel series by J.K. Rowling content, despite the many editorial necessities inherent in scaling down the lengthy books into movie-sized installments. Though actor Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry in the series, is on the record complaining that the latest film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, isn't "dark" enough for him, Radcliffe said that the tonal switch is essential to the overall arc of the films:
I don't think we're holding back, I'm giving my all on the set as I've been brought up to do. But it's true that this is very much a lead-in to the seventh installment, it's setting up the final events, and that's why it might be a harder film to come to grips with. So that's why there are moments where we can be freer, we can have more jokes and a bit more fun with it. You don't always have to think about an immediate danger. Voldemort's not the main source of fear or evil; that's another character.
The decision to cut the seventh and final movie into two installments may have been prompted by financial considerations, but Radcliffe says that it was essential in order to honor the original story:
I'm very happy that the seventh book is being made as two films because I was worried they would have to cut important scenes.... The problem with doing that with the final book is that there is nothing that doesn't relate to the main story or drive it forward. There's not much you could cut. So we've given ourselves the room and opportunity to do it justice.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince also stars Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, and Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore.
Next Showing: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens July 15
Posted 7/4/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Daniel Radcliffe | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
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Monday, June 29
It seems like professional suicide to step away from a successful acting career to attend college, but that's exactly what Emma Watson plans to do following the conclusion of her Harry Potter duties. Watson hasn't revealed which university she plans on attending, but in an interview with Teen Vogue, she said:
There's not, like, a burning passion in me that I have to act and I don't care what I do. Until something comes along that I feel as strongly about as I did Hermione – like, I felt that it was life or death – I don't want to act again.
Watson said that she will study English Literature and that she wants to be just like every other student, even sharing a dorm room:
I probably sound like a paranoid nut, but I'm doing this because I want to be normal. I really want anonymity.
Watson is currently promoting the sixth film in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and is currently filming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which will be split into two films. She reprises the role of Hermione Granger, which she has been playing for nearly half of her life, alongside Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter and Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley.
Next Showing: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince debuts July 15
Posted 6/29/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Daniel Radcliffe | Emma Watson | Rupert Grint | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
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Friday, May 15
Jamie Campbell Bower, the young British actor currently playing Volturi member Caius in The Twilight Saga: New Moon, has been confirmed to star in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. He's set to play dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, childhood best friend to Albus Dumbledore, in the final installments of the franchise.
The Deathly Hallows movies are due for release in 2010 and 2011, with the former currently shooting in Wales, England. Bower isn't the only Twilight actor to star in both rival movies. He now joins fellow Brit Robert Pattinson, who was seen in 2005's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Here's hoping vampire and wizard fans will play nice with each other -- we'd hate for a franchise war to break out.
Posted 5/15/2009 by Jenny
Related: Robert Pattinson | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 | The Twilight Saga: New Moon | Jamie Bower
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Wednesday, May 13
Fans and paparazzi are crowding the windswept beachfront in Wales where Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has been filming this week. The life-size version of the magical Shell Cottage created among the dunes is proving quite a draw for spectators.
Another big draw was the funeral for the house elf Dobby, who falls victim to Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter). The Daily Mail has a good selection of photos from the scene.
Posted 5/13/2009 by reelz
Related: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
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Tuesday, April 21
Although fans still have to wait until July 15 for the long-delayed release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, filming for the two-part follow-up is already in full swing. Pictures and video from the London filming of Deathly Hallows -- including an action shot of Hermione (Emma Watson) and her magical handbag -- are starting to make their way on line.
The decision on how to divide the movie has been made, as well. The split will come, Daniel Radcliffe tells Empire, "at a very tense cliffhanger." Where, exactly, he doesn't say. But producer David Heyman clearly wants to keep fans guessing, adding that it is not the first place the filmmakers considered but "a place that we think is very exciting, and I think quite bold, in that it's not necessarily where one might expect."
Next Showing: Deathly Hallows Part I arrives in theaters November 19, 2010
Posted 4/21/2009 by Bill
Related: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
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Thursday, January 29
Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter) recently extended a personal invitation to President Barack Obama's daughters Malia and Sasha to visit the The Deathly Hallows set when filming begins next month. In fact, he even volunteered to be their personal tour guide.
But the president may want to rethink that invitation after yesterday's preproduction events. Harry Potter's stunt double was hospitalized with severe back injuries after "a planned blast somehow went wrong" during the rehearsal of an ariel sequence, sending the 25-year-old man crashing to the ground. Radcliffe and his co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were not on the set at the time.
Posted 1/29/2009 by reelz
Related: Daniel Radcliffe | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1