Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince

[MacGuffin]

David Yates Returns for Harry Potter 6
Source: SCI FI Wire

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix director David Yates confirmed to SCI FI Wire that he will helm Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth film in the franchise, as well.

"I am doing Half-Blood Prince, and I'm doing it because I love the world, I love the characters," the BAFTA-winning director said. "I think I have more business with this world and these characters."

"I've made a kind of tonal shift with the fifth film, which I want to continue and develop into the sixth film," Yates added. "And I can see the fifth story evolving into the sixth story in a really interesting way. So I'm on a journey with this material and this world, and I'm keen to complete it."

"Order of the Phoenix" opens in theaters and IMAX on July 13, while "Half-Blood Prince" is eyeing a November 21, 2008 release.

[MacGuffin]

Naomi goes potty
Source: news.com.au

HEAVILY pregnant Naomi Watts isn't letting motherhood – or nationality – stand in the way of a good role.

Naomi has just signed on for a supporting role in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, reportedly to play Draco's nasty mother Narcissa Malfoy.

Naomi – whose baby with partner Liev Schreiber is due in a few weeks – won't have to start work on the sixth Potter instalment until September, but clearly has been lobbying hard for the job.

Landing a coveted role in the all-British cast certainly explains a few things she's said in the press.

Back in April, Naomi miffed many of her Aussie fans when she told a British newspaper she felt more like a Pom, despite spending her teenage years and a good part of her adult life in Sydney.

"I consider myself British and have very happy memories of the UK," she said at the time. "I spent the first 14 years of my life in England and never wanted to leave. When I was in Australia I went back to England a lot."

Nationality aside, Naomi as Narcissa would make sense given her platinum blonde hair and milky white complexion.

Also joining the Half-Blood cast is Joseph Fiennes – real life brother of Voldemort Ralph Fiennes – and one-time boyfriend of Charlize Theron, Stuart Townsend.

[MacGuffin]

Harry Potter's Newest Teacher: Jim Broadbent To Play Horace Slughorn In 'Half-Blood Prince'
Oscar-winning actor says Hogwarts potion master is 'quite comic.'
Source: MTV

The Slug Club just got its leader: Jim Broadbent will play Hogwarts potion master Horace Slughorn in the upcoming "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the Oscar winner recently revealed to DarkHorizons.com

The former head of Slytherin house, Slughorn is "drawn back out of retirement" by Harry and Dumbledore at the beginning of the novel "because he's got some secrets they need in the battle against the Death Eaters," Broadbent said. Indeed, Harry's quest for a particular memory of Slughorn's is a central mission in the blockbuster sixth novel.

For his part, Slughorn is initially reluctant to reveal details about a seemingly innocent conversation with a young Tom Riddle that centers on Horcruxes, or vessels in which a wizard can imprison part of his soul to keep him immortal. Thinking the damage to be irreversible, Slughorn isn't swayed until Harry confronts him during a particularly emotional scene in Hagrid's cabin.

But despite these dark and tragic undercurrents, the character is "quite comic," insisted Broadbent. "An older man [who wears] tweedy sorts of things."

Part of what makes him comic, of course, is his appearance: Slughorn is described by author J.K. Rowling as a short wizard with a bald head, large belly and an enormous walrus-like mustache. But Slughorn is also something of a professorial groupie, surrounding himself with the best and brightest witches and wizards. As leader of the Slug Club, he has an uncanny knack of picking the Hogwarts students who ultimately go on to accomplish the greatest things.

"He's quite star-struck as a teacher, and he's drawn back into the fold because he likes to notch up celebrity students," Broadbent explained. "He's drawn back by Harry."

Broadbent, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "Iris" in 2002, will film "Half-Blood Prince" until "May," the actor told Dark Horizons. The film will open next November.

[MacGuffin]

Teaser Trailer here.

[cinemanarchist]

This makes Irreversible look positively cheery. I just want to see kids eating fart flavored jelly beans, what the hell is this? Good lord!

[Sleepless]

Harry Potter VI bumped to '09
Source: Variety

Harry Potter is climbing on his broom and flying into next year.
Warner Bros. has decided to bump the release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" from Nov. 21 to July 17. Shift puts it up against Universal's bigscreen adaptation of "Land of the Lost," starring Will Ferrell.

In response, Disney has moved its animated feature "Bolt" up a week into the open November slot.

Move comes as Warner Bros. is looking for ways to beef up its summer schedule, which had been light on major tentpoles -- a result attributed mostly to the writers strike, which kept the studio from developing big-budget pics.

Last-minute move comes as Daniel Radcliffe appears this week on the cover of Entertainment Weekly's fall movie preview, published by Warners parent Time Warner.

Outside of "Terminator Salvation," which it is distribbing for Halcyon, Warners had a summer lineup that featured mostly small comedies and genre fare like the Todd Phillips laffer "Hangover," Robert Rodriguez's "Shorts" and "Final Destination 4 3-D."

"Like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films -- changing the competitive landscape for 2009 and offering new windows of opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of," said Alan Horn, prexy and chief operating officer of Warner Bros.

Sixth installment of the "Harry Potter" franchise will open day-and-date internationally.

Last "Harry Potter" installment, "The Order of the Phoenix" earned $938 million worldwide during summer 2007. It also bowed in July.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," based on the final book in the series, will not be affected by the latest release-date shuffle, and will still be split into two parts to bow in fall 2010 and summer 2011.

[El Duderino]

Fuck. I've been looking forward to this for a while. It's my favorite book of the series. I mean, it's Harry Potter, you know that it's gonna make an insane amount of money, summer or not.

[MacGuffin]

Call it "Harry Potter and the Revolt of the Muggles."

A day after Warner Bros. announced that it would be pulling the sixth "Potter" film off of its November release schedule and instead releasing it next July to take advantage of skimpy competition in the summer, fans of the popular franchise were lighting up the Internet with their rage Friday. Thousands signed online petitions, others organized boycotts and protests and a vast number expressed their reaction with tears or clenched fists.

At Petitionspot.com, more than 12,000 fans had signed a demand that "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," in postproduction in London, be returned to the long-promoted November date. Their posted comments made clear that Warner Bros. Chairman Alan Horn had, for a day at least, replaced Voldemort as the main villian in the hearts of "Potter" fans.

"They are doing this for no other reason than to make more money," 25-year-old Brooklyn resident Patrick Allen wrote in an e-mail to The Times. "This is ridiculous and I assure you that the millions of Harry Potter fans who have been looking forward to this release will not stand for it."

[Reinhold]

warner bros should release 20 minutes of deleted scenes or stuff that would end up as special features on the dvd in theaters for free on the november release date and then still make a killing on the summer release date.

[RegularKarate]

"They are doing this for no other reason than to make more money,"

yeah, before they were doing it for the fans... that's what studios make movies for... for fans.

"the millions of Harry Potter fans who have been looking forward to this release will not stand for it."

they'll mostly sit... on thier asses... and probably cry.

[matt35mm]

I agree with RegularKarate--this Patrick Allen guy should be hacked up into little pieces and fed to zoo animals.

[cinemanarchist]

Harry Potter and cold weather just go together and that's all there is to it. Santa Claus might as well be in these movies.

[MacGuffin]

International Teaser Trailer

[Bram]

The video is no longer available.

[Sleepless]

The first trailer was far better anyways.