Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire

[modage]

EXTRA talks over the new trailer... http://extratv.warnerbros.com/v2/news/0805/12/3/video.html

i think it looks GREAT.  really dark and about a million times better than the earlier trailer.  with the advance word being really strong (best of the series) and supposedly the best source material to work from (best book of the series) i'm really looking forward to this now.  REALLY.

[A Matter Of Chance]

I always thought this was the best book (I haven't read the last two). This trailer looks fantastic.

[Ghostboy]

New Trailer

Voldemort looks pretty great.

[RegularKarate]

MUCH better trailer.  and at least they're acknowledging the fact that this is a really pivotal chapter in the series... "Everything's going to change now, isn't it?".

[MacGuffin]

A Fiennes Voldemort
Actor discusses becoming You-Know-Who in new Potter film.

You can't have a great movie hero without a good nemesis. And so for the forthcoming film version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, filmmakers knew they had to bring in actor with some serious chops to fill the role of the evil Lord Voldemort. After all, the fourth installment in the fantasy film series is, for all intents and purposes, Voldemort's coming out party.

Ultimately, Brit thesp Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient, Red Dragon, The Constant Gardener) was chosen for the role -- a proven actor with striking angular facial features that just say "evil." Despite his extensive experience, Fiennes says the role was still a challenge for him.

"It's quite hard to play someone who is is the essence of evil," says Ralph Fiennes. "In my discussions with Mike about the character, we talked about giving Voldemort human qualities, because to just play 'evil' is really impossible. 'Evil' is often conveyed through gnashing of teeth and a lot of spit. I wanted my portrayal of Voldemort to be deeply, truly evil. That comes from fear, frustration and unhappiness. Voldemort was a rejected child. He had a very unhappy childhood, and that's where his anger, jealousy and hatred began to fester."

"Voldemort is someone who knows no love," producer David Heyman notes. "He thinks of love as a flaw. He is the embodiment of pure evil. Someone who is powerful and attractive. Ralph is an actor of great depth, and he captures the complexity of Voldemort's charisma and darkness brilliantly."

"The term 'enemies' doesn't do their relationship justice," says Potter star Daniel Radcliffe. "Harry hates Voldemort with every fiber of his being. He wants to murder him for killing his parents. At the same time, he is also absolutely terrified of him."

Enraged that the legend of Harry Potter - the boy who lived - has eclipsed his own, Voldemort has spent the last thirteen years regaining the powers he lost on the fateful night that Harry's parents died. With help from his sniveling servant Wormtail, the Dark Lord triumphanty returns to human form to destroy Harry once and for all.

"[Director] Mike [Newell] was very keen to explore Voldemort's unexpected mood swings, his explosive rage," Fiennes says. "There are moments when anger spits out of him at Harry and other moments when he can be almost pleasant. You never quite know what he's going to do.

"People are incredibly scary when they're charming but you suspect they might suddenly do something very violent," he continues. "If you sit across the table from someone who offers you a glass of wine and a present, but you know that he stabbed his wife to death, it's quite unnerving."

Fans got a brief glimpse of Fiennes as Voldemort in the most recent theatrical trailer for the film, but they'll have to wait until the film hits the big screen on November 18th to see He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in all his glory.

"Ralph is really frightening as Voldemort," Newell confirms. "(You can see he's mad, gone somewhere else in his eyes.) I'm nailed to the floor when he's onscreen in this film."

"It was a very intense experience," Radcliffe says of filming his scenes with Fiennes. "I learned from watching him, the way he used his body and his hands, especially when Voldemort first regains his human form. It's fantastic."

"Daniel had to put up with a lot from me," Fiennes says with a chuckle. "Here's a boy who's tied up with a man pushing his finger into the wound on his head, laughing and delighting in the pain he's causing. He had to act as though he was in agony and terror without having many words to say. I was full of admiration for him."

Fiennes' proved a suitable palate for the film's designers to work with. "When Ralph joined the cast, David Heyman said to me, You're gonna mess about with his face, aren't you?" Newell recalls. "I said No, no. Ralph can play evil. He'll dredge it up from the inside of his psyche. Then I went home over the weekend and thought, I really should mess about with his face."

"My nieces and nephews were dying to come to the set and see Uncle Ralph as Voldemort," Fiennes recalls, "but when they arrived they didn't recognize me!"

Creature effects supervisor Nick Dudman and his team created the key concepts for Voldemort's makeup, in which minimal prosthetics and transfers were used to cast a sickly, transluscent pallor to Fiennes' skin and suggest a snarl of veins running down his skull, arms and hands.

"The makeup is quite simple and strong in its design," notes Fiennes, whose head, arms and chest were shaved as part of the process. "I wanted to wear as little makeup as possible, to be free to move. The idea is that Voldemort has just gotten this new skin. He's new in this body, so he's testing it, relishing the power of it."

In post-production, the visual effects team digitally re-shaped Fiennes' nose, flattening it and adding slits to evoke a serpentine look that underscores Voldemort's Slytherin origins. "It's really creepy," Heyman says of Fiennes' digital transformation, "but in a very subtle, disquieting way."

[MacGuffin]

Radiohead for Harry Potter
Jonny and Phil join Pulp's Jarvis Cocker on the screen and in the soundtrack.

If you were a powerful wizard, wouldn't you conjure up a few members of one of the world's biggest bands? Okay, that and maybe a hobbit. Today, fan site ateasweb.com reports that Radiohead members Jonny Greenwood and Phil Selway will appear as part of a band in the upcoming Harry Potter film, with help from Jarvis Cocker (Pulp), Steve Claydon (Add N to (X)), and Jason Buckle. The wizard-worthy supergroup also contributes three songs for film's soundtrack -- one of which is titled "This Is The Night."

Of course, this isn't the first time members of Radiohead have broken away from the pack. Jonny Greenwood worked with bandmate and brother Colin Greenwood for 2003's Bodysong documentary soundtrack.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is scheduled to hit theaters on November 18.

[MacGuffin]

Row over Potter film budget

He had the backing of one of Hollywood's biggest studios and a budget he called "colossal," but British director Mike Newell was continually fighting over money while filming the latest Harry Potter blockbuster.

In a weekend interview to promote "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," Newell said his experience was not unlike that on smaller movies where he felt there were never enough funds to get the job finished.

But he praised Warner Brothers executives for giving him creative freedom and allowing him to explore the dark side of the world of sorcery in his movie based on the fourth of seven books planned in J.K. Rowling's bestselling Harry Potter series.

Scenes of death, destruction, and a graveyard confrontation between Potter and his nemesis, the evil Lord Voldemort, mean the movie has been rated unsuitable for pre-teenagers to watch unaccompanied by adults, limiting its box office potential.

"I very clearly remember that within a couple of months of starting work I was intensely angered by the lack of money, that there wasn't enough money to make the film properly and that really pissed me off," Newell told Reuters.

He gave the example of the effects-laden opening scene, set at the Quidditch World Cup, which was the subject of heated debate among filmmakers and producers.

Eventually he argued successfully for its inclusion, saying that without it Potter fans would feel short-changed.

Creatively, however, he had an easier ride.

"Warner Brothers and the producers were quite extraordinary about letting me go."

FUN, FEAR

Newell believes he was chosen to direct the fourth film in the hugely successful Potter series because of his reputation both for romantic humor, as in "Four Weddings and a Funeral," and for darker films like "Donnie Brascoe."

The result is a movie that ranges from the comic awkwardness of teenage romance as the pupils of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry prepare for the Yule Ball, to fear and danger as Voldemort tries to destroy Harry.

The 63-year-old director described the resulting two-and-a-half hour feature as "a kind of fusion of a children's film and an adult's film."

He did not disclose the budget of Goblet of Fire, which goes on general release on November 18, though Web sites have said it was between $130 and $170 million.

Not that bigger budgets means bigger box office.

The first Harry Potter film released in 2001 cost an estimated $125 million to make and amassed $976 million at the box office, while the third film, released three years later, cost around $130 million to make and took in $790 million.

Newell, the first Englishman to make a Potter film, said he would like to direct the seventh and final episode in the Potter series. He is also in talks to bring Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "Love in the Time of Cholera" to the big screen.

Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry in the films, said he felt growing pressure as the series progressed.

"There's so much pressure on them now to be getting better and better, and also we felt we were going to have to go an extra mile to top what Alfonso (Cuaron) did (with the third film)," the 16-year-old told Reuters.

As well as dueling with Voldemort, Potter faces the equally daunting task of asking his teenage crush, Cho Chang, to the annual prom, a problem Radcliffe himself has faced.

"I'm getting better now, but I used to be incredibly awkward with girls," said Radcliffe. "I think any guy who says 'I've never had an awkward moment with a girl' is a liar."

[Ghostboy]

Clip from the beginning of the movie

This is a terrifying scene in the book, and it seems to have been translated to the screen almost perfectly; it bodes well for the rest of the film.

[Tictacbk]

if i'm (pathetically) really looking forward to this movie, should i not watch this clip?  I'm always a little apprehensive about watching clips before the movie comes out.

[Pubrick]

if i'm (pathetically) really looking forward to this movie, should i not watch this clip?  I'm always a little apprehensive about watching clips before the movie comes out.

it reveals nothing but it might make u want to see it more.

[Tictacbk]

watched it. you were right, thanks.


...and i agree completely with ghostboy.

[MacGuffin]

"Harry Potter" Carjacked

Here's a new book title for J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Thief of the Anglia.

Muggles everywhere should be on the lookout for one blue 1962 "flying" Ford Anglia, registration number 7990 TD, after an enterprising thief snuck onto a British studio lot and stole the vehicle made famous in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Police are investigating but have no suspects, but it seems like the work of You-Know-Who to us.

The magical coupe, originally bewitched by Arthur Weasley and used by Harry Potter and Ron Weasley after they missed the Hogwarts Express and needed alternate means of transportation to school, had been parked out in the open on the grounds of the South West Film Studios in the southwestern English county of Cornwall. It apparently vanished sometime between 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday and 4:15 p.m. on Thursday.

The car thief would have had to use a trailer, tow truck or magic to make off with the Anglia, since it was not capable of driving.

"The film prop was being stored under a tarpaulin. It was not in good condition and could not have been driven away under its own steam," a police spokesman told the U.K.'s Press Association.

The classic automobile was reportedly the only prop from the Harry Potter films stored on the lot.

Harry has become something of a target for ne'er-do-wells. In May 2003, a British forklift driver was arrested for swiping an advanced copy of Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix and offering it for sale.

The latest heist comes three weeks before the arrival of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which is scheduled for release Nov. 18. In addition to the regular Potter players, Ralph Fiennes makes his debut as the flesh-and-blood Lord Voldemort.

Meanwhile, Rowling's latest installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, has sold an astounding 300 million copies worldwide since hitting bookstores July 16.

[Pubrick]

Meanwhile, Rowling's latest installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, has sold an astounding 300 million copies worldwide since hitting bookstores July 16.

other words i would use to describe that statistic.. amazing, bewildering, breathtaking, extraordinary, impressive, inconceivable, miraculous, mind-blowing, outrageous, phenomenal, remarkable, spectacular, staggering, startling, stunning, stupefying, unbelievable, unearthly.

[mogwai]

Meanwhile, Rowling's latest installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, has sold an astounding 300 million copies worldwide since hitting bookstores July 16.

other words i would use to describe that statistic.. amazing, bewildering, breathtaking, extraordinary, impressive, inconceivable, miraculous, mind-blowing, outrageous, phenomenal, remarkable, spectacular, staggering, startling, stunning, stupefying, unbelievable, unearthly.

you forgot orgasmic.

[polkablues]

Meanwhile, Rowling's latest installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, has sold an astounding 300 million copies worldwide since hitting bookstores July 16.

other words i would use to describe that statistic.. amazing, bewildering, breathtaking, extraordinary, impressive, inconceivable, miraculous, mind-blowing, outrageous, phenomenal, remarkable, spectacular, staggering, startling, stunning, stupefying, unbelievable, unearthly.

you forgot orgasmic.

But that only applies if you're J.K. Rowling.