The long arm of Warner Bros. law strikes again. For many years now, the studio has been known for being quite strict with their projects. I'm not sure if any property felt that quite so much as the television world of Buffy; numerous fan sites were shut down during the run of the show, and post-finale, the uber popular Musical events were nixed. Now it's happening to fans of our favorite young, big-screen wizards.
The BBC reports that a woman planning a couple Harry Potter supper club nights for Halloween has been told to stop infringing on the studio's rights. Ms. Marmite Lover runs a small restaurant of sorts out of her home -- selling tickets and then making food for her guests, sometimes themed. For Halloween, she chose to make a Harry Potter-themed meal with a Diagon Alley entrance with password, a sorting hat, and food that includes butterbear and Fizzpop chocolate frogs. As part of their letter, Warner Bros. says: "We would therefore ask that you refrain from holding and/or offering for sale any tickets to the Harry Potter Nights and confirm to me by return email that the Harry Potter Nights will not go ahead as planned. Warner does not, of course, object to you holding a generic wizard/Halloween night at the Underground Restaurant."
She's since changed the name of the event, which is going on as planned, although I imagine Warner Bros. was probably expecting a little less Pottermania through the whole event (the Alley, hat, etc.). But how far should studios stretch their rights in cases like this?
There's an Eric Snider who writes about music and movies for a paper in Florida, and an Eric Snider who developed the Solitaire game that was ubiquitous on computers in the 1990s, and I've occasionally been mistaken for both of them. My lot in life is easy compared to someone named, for example, Harry Potter. London's Daily Mail has an amusing story about one such fellow, an unlucky lad who also happens to have a scar on his forehead (not lightning-shaped, though) and is the same age, 20, as Daniel Radcliffe, who plays the boy wizard in the movies.
Harry Potter was 9 years old when the first Harry Potter book came out, and what began as a silly coincidence became a major annoyance as the series' popularity grew. (As big a deal as Pottermania is in the United States, I understand it's even bigger in the U.K.) He says he has trouble whenever he fills out a job application, and he had to show his girlfriend his passport when he first met her because she didn't believe that was really his name. On the other hand, his girlfriend's name is Philippa, so I'm not sure who's really worse off here.
Oh, and he says: "I've heard all the puns about my wand." (Unrelated fun Harry Potter game: When you read the books, mentally replace every use of the word "wand" with "wang." It never gets old!)
The newspaper says that while fictional Harry Potter got his scar in a battle with Voldemort, the real "Mr Potter ran into a lamppost aged 15." Why it matters that the lamppost was 15 years old, I don't know. How would they even know that??
Unless you've mercifully been living under a rock, you know the story of Balloon Boy. The world was captivated (and hey, most of us were working while this unfolded, so why not watch a UFO float lazily across the Colorado* sky?) by the idea of a terrified six year old caught in a deadly version of Pixar's UP. But in the end, little Falcon Heene was hiding in a box with some sandwiches, every bit a victim of his family's overwhelming greed for fame and fortune as his homebound audience was.
Analysts and watchdogs are blaming that audience as much as they're blaming the news outlets and the Heenes. While I think it's important to keep the story in the public eye precisely to damn the reality show mindset, I think it's also neccessary to mock the story whenever possible. If there's one way to discourage other famewhores, it's reminding them that the public eye is a fickle and nasty mistress. Since Richard Heene obviously intended this stunt to mirror a movie, we thought we'd honor him by listing five of the dumbest families found on the big screen. If there's one thing that's more embarrassing than being outed and charged with a media hoax, it's realizing John Hughes did it before you. And better.
Go below the jump for the list ...
* Oh and Colorado? As one of your native daughters, I beg you to make the news for something that isn't tragic or embarrassing.
If you thought dirt-flavored jellybeans were a fun way to indulge your Harry Potterfandom, you're in for a treat. Mark your calendars for spring 2010, when muggles and aspiring wizards alike will have the chance to visit a veritable Harry Potter mecca: the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! The fully-immersive theme park, part of Universal Studios Orlando in Florida, will recreate many of the most familiar scenes and settings of the Harry Potter franchise, from the Hogwarts Express train rollercoaster to the actual castle that is home to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Upon arriving in Hogsmeade Village, fans will get the chance to be "chosen" by a wizarding wand at Ollivander's wand shop, visit the Owlery, drink butterbeer at The Three Broomsticks, and buy candies like chocolate frogs and Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans at Honeydukes Sweetshop. (You know what this means: bring plenty of Wizard Money when you go.)
(Preview concept art for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter after the jump!)
So in the midst of all the Avatar hullabaloo, we haven't yet addressed the major move on Friday of Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island from this October 2nd to next February. Considering the negative connotations that tend to come with most films pushed back, many were quick to defend the move as a savvy business strategy for a pulpy-looking film that wasn't a primary contender all along.
Fair enough. Plenty of studios made major shuffles to deal with post-strike gaps (Harry Potter, anyone?), and now they're concerned about being more fiscally responsible with what's to come. As THR's Steven Zeitchik pointed out, Paramount/Dreamworks already has two front-runners to work with between Up in the Air and The Lovely Bones, and somewhere between the reportedly sharp comedy and the prestige-heavy drama, a distinctly genre work like a Leonardo DiCaprio thriller does seem a bit like the odd man out.
In the wake of the move, two comedies -- Zombieland and Whip It -- have moved up their own October release dates to fill the void, and if there's any justice, we'll see Woody Harrelson accept a blood-splattered Oscar in DiCaprio's stead. And if Coming Soon and Box Office Mojo are to be believed, Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox will now get a limited release on November 13th before going wide on the 25th, where I suspect it will still get crushed by the likes of Old Dogs across the Thanksgiving stretch. Pity.
With Halloween practically right around the corner, there are probably many of you who are looking to put together that perfect Harry Potter costume. Perhaps you just want a magical gift for yourself or for a diehard Potter fan in your life. Either way, you can't go wrong with an authentic Harry Potter wand from Whirlwood.
There are a lot of replica wands floating around (Noble Collection being the foremost among them) but this is as close as you'll get to shopping at Ollivander's. Not only are they actually handmade of wood as opposed to resin, but they're also filled with unicorn hair, phoenix feathers, tarantula legs, crystals, and all the other totems that power up a wizard or witch's wand. If you're lucky enough to meet the Whirlwood gang in person, you can give the entire line a swish and flick. Otherwise, you'll have to visit the website where you can find wands replicating those found in the movies (Hermione's is absolutely lovely) or copying the description found in the books. You diehard fans will know the difference. Oh, and speaking of diehard fans -- you lovers of Robert Pattinson will find a Cedric Diggory design made just for you. Read the rest on SciFi Squad
With only two Harry Potter films left, Warner Bros is desperately looking for a new fantasy series to replace its boy wizard. (Meanwhile, every studio from Sony to Disney are still looking for their version!) Two years ago, they snapped up the rights to Angie Sage's Septimus Heap series, and now Varietyreports they're putting it into motion. They've attached David Frankel to direct, and Rob Lieber to adapt the first volume, Magyk.
Sage's seven-volume series shares a lot of similarities with young Potter. Septimus Heap is the seventh son of a seventh son, who possesses magical powers, and is apprenticed to ExtraOrdinary wizard, Marcia Overstrand. Naturally he must overcome many trials and tribulations in his magical training, and his life is a sharp contrast to that of his adoptive sister, Jenna, who gets to live in the comfort and security of the Heap household after a Skywalker sort of switcharoo. While she lacks magic powers, Jenna makes up for it by being a princess, and heir to the throne of Castle. The overarching villain of the story is necromancer DomDaniel, who is power hungry and up to no good, as all necromancers are.
Unlike the Potter movies, Magick will be animated. Not only is that bound to be disappointing to fans, it's a pretty big departure for Frankel, who is best known for live-action flicks like Marley and Me and The Devil Wears Prada. As animated flicks don't usually turn into ongoing franchises, the plans suggest that even the studio knows this isn't going to hold a candle to Potter.
We're nearing the end of the Harry Potter series, and I imagine every fan is dreading that day a little bit. It was hard enough when the last book came out, but at least we had the comfort of anticipating a few more cinematic adaptations. But soon we'll be graduating from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and left to muddle through the Muggle world without new encounters with Harry, Hermione, and Ron.
Since we started Potter week with seven good Potter jokes, I thought it would be fun to end Potter week with a gushing, lovelorn look at seven of my favorite moments of the series. Like any Potter fan, I tend to walk out of the theater overjoyed, and then immediately start picking on all the things that were changed. But look at all the things from the books that they've gotten right – and sometimes even improved on! Here's seven such moments from all five films so far. I hope you share your own in the comments.
I remember being a little skeptical as Chris Columbus' first installment breathlessly raced through its first scenes. I loved the opening with baby Harry, but then the film seemed to dash over the ugliness of the Dursleys in order to get to The Really Cool Stuff(!). Luckily, the film took a moment to pause, and show us that they cared with its first breathtaking look at the Great Hall. There it was – the changing sky, the floating candles, the Gothic arches, and a serene Professor Dumbledore (Richard Harris, who I still prefer over Michael Gambon) surveying it all. I remember thinking "Oh! So that's what Hogwarts looks like!"
The release of a new Harry Potter film always means a deluge of complaints about how it failed to exactly duplicate every single word of J.K. Rowling's sacred text, and Half-Blood Prince is no different. (Adam Quigley from Always Watching tweeted this amusing screenshot of the IMDb message boards Wednesday morning that sums it up pretty well.) Not having read the book since it came out four years ago, I didn't remember it in great enough detail to notice any major changes in the movie -- until the climactic scene in the tower, when something did stand out. And it stands out as an improvement over the book.
Spoilers for the book and the movie follow!
As readers well remember, that scene has Draco Malfoy confronting Dumbledore with the intention of killing him, as ordered by Voldemort. In the book, Harry is under the invisibility cloak at this point, so no one knows he's there, and Dumbledore has stupefied him so he can't act. Then the Death Eaters and Snape come along, and Snape finishes the job that Draco can't muster the courage to perform. Harry is powerless to do anything until Dumbledore is dead, which cancels the stupefying spell.
The movie plays out essentially the same way but with one key difference. Instead of being stupefied and invisible, Harry is hiding silently below the floor where the action is happening. Why? Because Dumbledore told him to, having already extracted from Harry a promise that he would obey whatever directions Dumbledore gave him.
It's definitely Harry Potter week, and every studio is taking advantage of it by offering up their own versions of gifted boy wizards. One such fellow is Percy Jackson, who is coming to the screen in all his half-godly glory thanks to Chris Columbus and Fox, who hopes Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief will be their answer to the boy who lived.
They've gone beyond hoping and just jumped into "blatantly ripping off" as evidenced by the teaser trailer. The first look at Percy Jackson has premiered over at Moviefone, and there's nary a glimpse of ancient Greece in it. Instead, Olympus has happily borrowed its exterior design from that ancient English institution known as Hogwarts. In fact, I think they may have just copied and pasted our beloved School of Witchcraft and Wizardry right into the film. Even kids will snicker at the blatant Potter name-dropping that merges straight into that shot, and then into a title card that might as well have lightning bolts in it.
The comments we've gotten on all the Percy Jackson stories prove Rick Riordan's series have quite a few fans, and I mean no disrespect to them or the series they enjoy. I know they like the books for what they are, and must have a distinct impression of its mythological Greek world. Does that world really look like the wizarding one? The fans and the film's cast (which is very good) deserved an adaptation that was original ... which it still might be. I guess we'll see when the film hits theaters in February of 2010.
Ah, we do so enjoy tearing down that which we love. With the Harry Potterseries of books and movies being perhaps the most successful franchises of their kind in this or any other lifetime, it's only natural that it would be the most spoofed bunch of stories as well. From The Simpsons and MadTV to stage musicals and RiffTrax commentaries, there have been hundreds of parodies since the Pottermania first swept the world. Here's just a tiny handful:
1) The jokes began in earnest with the huge popularity of 2001's film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. That year, David Letterman offered up the Top Ten Signs That Your Kid is a Wizard. Among them: "You say, 'Do you think that lawn is gonna mow itself?' But then it does," "His homework ate the dog," and "You catch him in the bathroom polishing his wand."
2) Also from 2001, the Mad magazine parody, "Harry Plodder and the Sorry-Ass Story" . Mad continued to parody each succeeding film with titles like "Harry Plodder and the Lamest of Sequels", and "Harry Plodder and the Pre-Teen Nerds Are Actin' Bad" (it would seem that the words "Prisoner of Azkaban" are devilshly hard to spoof.) The jokes are pretty weak -- "Every first-year has to put on the Snorting Hat! That way, all students start their education with something in common!" "Yeah! Head lice!" -- but long-time Mad artist Mort Drucker's wicked caricatures make them worth a read. (via MuggleNet.com)
3) For Britain's Comic Relief in 2003, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders offered "Harry Potter and the Chamber Pot of Azerbaijan." Keep an eye out for Jeremy Irons as Snape:
So you're heading out to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (buy tix here) at midnight tonight (or shortly thereafter), and you need something to get you in the mood ... am I right? Check out this roundup of all things Potter from across the fine AOL networks:
Does Harry Potter draw children to the dark side of life, to "something that will ultimately destroy society"? Or does it inspire them to start "Wizard Rock" bands at the age of seven? Maybe it does both -- and more! With Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince rolling into theaters at midnight, it's a good time to check out Josh Koury's doc We Are Wizards which examines the Potter phenomenon (in part). It's available for free online viewing, courtesy of our friends at SnagFilms, and you can watch it right here at Cinematical.
As Kim Voynar pointed out in her review from SXSW in 2008, it's "not so much a documentary about Harry Potter fandom in general, as it is about the 'Wizard Rock' bands that have grown up around the franchise, and a couple of the bigger Harry Potter fan sites." Though she enjoyed the segments that focus on the bands, she felt that the film was weakened because there's "not much of an arc ... with not much in the way of linearity or conclusion." And she thought We Are Wizards could have been more involving if it considered Harry Potter fans in general, perhaps reducing the time devoted to an unauthorized Harry Potter "retelling" by cartoonist Brad Neely. "Nonetheless, fans of the wizard rock bands in particular will find much to like here ... I'd recommend the film also for parents who are into unschooling."
Having those quite valid reservations in mind, We Are Wizards should still appeal to many Potter fans. Please note: NSFW due to some language. More information is available at the film's official site and at SnagFilms.
Many fans of a certain boy wizard have already bought tickets to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, opening Wednesday at 12:01 a.m. in theaters across the land. But have you considered this: This is the sixth film in the series. The last one came out two years ago. The first came out eight years ago. Have you faithfully watched and re-watched the movies enough to be up-to-speed for Half-Blood Prince? Or will you be as lost as a muggle in a wand store?
Sure, you could refresh your memory by watching the DVDs, but where's the fun in that? Carmike Cinemas is hosting an event this Tuesday at about 65 of its theaters where all five films will be screened back-to-back, starting at 9 a.m., leading up to a midnight screening of Half-Blood Prince. The cost is only $15 for all five (you have to buy your Half-Blood Prince ticket separately), and you get to enjoy the films on the big screen, surrounded by the other Potterphiles in your community who don't have jobs.
Not all the Carmikes are doing this, so check out the list on the company's website to see if there's one close to you. Don't just show up at 9 a.m. at your nearest Carmike wearing a quidditch uniform. Most of the participating locales are in the Southeast quadrant of the U.S., though a few are scattered elsewhere, too. If you go, be sure to tell us about it in the comments, especially if anything crazy happens like Dementors showing up and sucking everyone's souls.
Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game that every boy wizard is instructed to play on Fridays while attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Last week we asked you to churn out some laughs for a photo from a very unfunny (but still awesome) film called The Hurt Locker. Congrats go out to our solo winner, who provided us with a caption too good (and hot and fuzzy) to pass up.
1. "You have no idea how badly I want to shoot this gun in the air and shout aaargh" -- Anthony T.
This week is a doozy ladies and gents, as it's finally time to celebrate the return of a dude named Harry Potter. Yes, on July 15th we'll all finally get to cram our sweaty summer selves into theaters and watch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince TM. In honor of this momentous occasion, we're giving one lucky person a whole bunch of Potter awesomeness. The grand prize winner behind our favorite caption this week will fly away with one Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince TM laptop sleeve with embroidered patch, one Quidditch bag, one Mask paperweight, one Slughorn hat with screen-print & patch, one Avada Kedavra T-shirt, one Kids' custom dyed Slub Worm Potter Quidditch T-shirt, one Kids' custom dyed Girls' Ginny Weasley Ultra Worm T-shirt, one women's Avada Kedavra T-shirt with velvet print, one Sublimated Luna Lovegood women's T-shirt, one Next Level Quidditch T-shirt, one Nose biting tea cup, one 4x6 sheet of tattoos and one set of buttons. Phew. Now sound off below!
The long arm of Warner Bros. law strikes again. For many years now, the studio has been known for being quite strict with their projects. I'm not sure if any property felt that quite so much as the television world of Buffy; numerous fan sites were shut down during the run of the show, and post-finale, the uber popular Musical events were nixed. Now it's happening to fans of our favorite young, big-screen wizards. 
There's an Eric Snider who writes about music and movies for a paper in Florida, and an Eric Snider who developed the Solitaire game that was ubiquitous on computers in the 1990s, and I've occasionally been mistaken for both of them. My lot in life is easy compared to someone named, for example, Harry Potter. London's Daily Mail has an amusing 
So in the midst of all the Avatar hullabaloo, we haven't yet addressed the major move on Friday of Martin Scorsese's 
With only two Harry Potter films left, Warner Bros is desperately looking for a new fantasy series to replace its boy wizard. (Meanwhile, every studio from Sony to Disney are still looking for their version!) Two years ago, they snapped up the rights to Angie Sage's Septimus Heap series, and now 
The release of a new Harry Potter film always means a deluge of complaints about how it failed to exactly duplicate every single word of J.K. Rowling's sacred text, and 
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Does Harry Potter draw children to the dark side of life, to "something that will ultimately destroy society"? Or does it inspire them to start "Wizard Rock" bands at the age of seven? Maybe it does both -- and more! With 
Many fans of a certain boy wizard have already bought tickets to 
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