The release date for the sixth Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was pushed back on Thursday to July 2009 from its original slot in November 2008, movie studio Warner Brothers said. Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc, said it had decided to make the change to bolster its release schedule for the lucrative summer moviegoing season – a period that can account for as much as 40 percent of Hollywood’s annual box office receipts.
Warner Brothers President Alan Horn said the studio was also still feeling repercussions from the three-month Hollywood screenwriters strike that ended in February but has “impacted the readiness of scripts for other films. We know the summer season is an ideal window for a family . . . release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment,” Horn said.
The studio said the change of date would not alter production plans for the final, two-part Potter movie adventure, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The release date for part one is tentatively set for November 2010.
I call BS on this. After ruining Order of the Phoenix by forcing a shorter cut, now they are sticking it to Harry Potter fans by delaying the movie so Warner can make more money. What a blatant example of the hubris and greed of movie executives. I’d say that I would boycott the movie next summer to send a message to Warner that the Harry Potter movies should be about the fans. It will make money no matter how long it is, whenever it opens. But who am I kidding, I’m a Potter fan, and I’ll be seeing it opening weekend in November or July. I just felt the need to comment on the corporate greed that is ruining the Harry Potter franchise – again – for its fans.
After months of rumors, Warner Brothers and the producers of the massively successful movies will announce Thursday that they plan to split Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling’s seventh and final Harry Potter novel, into two blockbuster films – one to be released in November 2010 and the second in May 2011, says the Los Angeles Times.
The films will be titled, simply, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II, according to producer David Heyman. Director David Yates, who returned for his second tour of Potter duty with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and is quite popular with the cast, will direct both Deathly Hallows films, which will be filmed concurrently. Screenwriter Steve Kloves also returns and, by completion of the franchise, will have written seven of the eight films.
Continue reading Warner Brothers Official Splitting Deathly Hallows
Mugglenet is reporting that two new actors have been cast for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. David Legeno will play the role of the werewolf, Fenrir Greyback and Ralph Ineson has been cast for the part of Death Eater Amycus Carrow.
Timothy Spall has confirmed to Moviehole that he’ll be back as Peter Pettigrew in the next two Harry Potter movies. The actor says “Well I’m actually…. yes… I’m in the next one and I’m also in the one at the end – I have a very big scene in that.” He also revealed one interesting possibility “I think they might be shooting two of them back-to-back – hard to know though, what with this writer’s strike and all. They’re shooting the penultimate one at the moment – which I have a brief appearance in it. I should be doing that soon.”
Spall appeared as Wormtail, aka. Peter Pettigrew, the servant of the Dark Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) in both the third and fourth films – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
The Mail On Sunday is reporting that Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows is scheduled to be filmed and released in two parts. Crew working on the sixth Potter film, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, have been told that Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, will be released in two halves. Sources insist the reason behind the two-movie plan is artistic rather than financial. The books got progressively longer – the first, the Sorcerer’s Stone, had 223 pages while Deathly Hallows has 776. Warner Brothers are rumored to be thinking of Oscars and a big-name director such as Steven Spielberg for the final film.
Warner Brothers has final made a good decision regarding the Harry Potter franchise, only two movies too late. This is the way they should have filmed Order of the Phoenix, and it’s how the Half Blood Prince should be filmed. While I enjoyed Order of the Phoenix, it felt very rushed. I was left wondering what the movie could have been if Warner would have let the movie have a longer running time. I felt that most of the film was montages. I don’t see how the Half Blood Prince will be any better unless Warner allows for a longer running time.
Radtke at UGO’s Movie Blog was invited to an exclusive IMAX screening of the first six minutes of The Dark Knight. Before the clip ran, directory Christopher Nolan stood before us, dramatically lit from behind by the glowing 80-foot IMAX screen. He shot several scenes using the IMAX camera; a first for a feature length film. These six minutes introduce Heath Ledger’s interpretation of The Joker to the world. Nolan intended this scene to act as a short film.
Continue reading Nolan Previews The Joker’s IMAX Introduction
Warner Brothers announced that casting has been completed on the sixth installment of the Warner Brothers Pictures Harry Potter film franchise, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Warner Brothers revealed that nine-year-old Hero Fiennes Tiffin is playing the role of the young Tom Riddle at age 11, while 16-year-old Frank Dillane is playing the teenage Riddle, who is already on the path to becoming the evil Lord Voldemort. They join Jessie Cave, recently cast as Lavender Brown, who has eyes for Ron Weasley.
Already cast newcomers, Jim Broadbent has been set to play Potions Professor Horace Slughorn, who gives Harry an old Potions textbook that had once belonged to the Half-Blood Prince, which proves invaluable to the young wizard, and Helen McCrory will play Narcissa Malfoy, mother to Draco Malfoy and sister to the evil Bellatrix Lestrange. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be released on November 21, 2008, by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Brothers Entertainment Company.
CBBC Newsround is reporting that newcomer Jessie Cave has been cast as Lavender Brown in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, opening in theaters on November 21, 2008. Cave will appear in the CBBC drama “Summerhill,” which is set to premiere early next year in the U.K. In the book, Lavender Brown becomes Ron Weasley’s first girlfriend, and the pair get on everyone’s nerves because they can’t stop kissing.
Warner Brothers has set Greg Berlanti to direct Green Lantern, a live-action take on the DC Comics superhero, Variety reported. Berlanti will write the script with Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green. Donald De Line will produce; Andrew Haas is executive producer. Berlanti hopes to make the jump to big-budget fantasy fare after serving as writer and executive producer on such TV series as Dirty Sexy Money, Brothers & Sisters, Everwood and Dawson’s Creek. Green Lantern was created in 1940. Hal Jordan, a second-generation test pilot, is an ordinary man who has been charged with defending a sector of the universe.
Variety is reporting that Beatrice Rosen (Peaceful Warrior) and Joshua Harto (The Believer) have joined the cast of Warner Bros. and director Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Rosen’s credits include Chasing Liberty and Cuts. Harto’s guested on such shows as Veronica Mars and Without a Trace.
