Helen McCrory: “Wicked and Witchy” for Half-Blood Prince
Sunday, April 13th, 2008
Actress Helen McCrory is profiled in a new article now online from the Daily Mail in which she talks about her career, life, and role as Narcissa Malfoy in the upcoming “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” film. In this lengthy article, Helen briefly discusses her role as Narcissa in the sixth film, saying: “Just wait for me to be wicked and witchy.” As readers will remember, due to her pregnancy during the “Order of the Phoenix” filming, she was unable to take on the role of Bellatrix Lestrange in that film, but, the article notes, was instead offered the role of Bellatrix’s sister, Narcissa, in the “Half-Blood Prince” and “Deathly Hallows” films.
Production is currently underway for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” which is set for a November 2008 release.
MTV published an article earlier today about research concluding that the Harry Potter series can in fact be addicting. The story notes:
In a just-finished study that’s being submitted to the Journal of General Psychology, psych professor Dr. Jeffrey Rudski and two of his undergrad students at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, report that they found characteristics of addiction in at least 10 percent of the 4,000 Potter fans they polled online.
While the doctor discusses that the end of the series did have serious withdrawal symptons for some, likening it to going off a drug “cold turkey,” he also said he chose to do the study on the end of the boy wizard’s saga over the conclusion of the hit series The Sopranos because of his 15-year old daughter and the things she’s taken from it:
“She’s picked up guitar because she wants to be in a wizard-rock band,” he said. “She’s studying Latin because she wants to better understand J.K. Rowling’s choices of names for her characters. She started reading Stephen King and John Irving because they spoke with Rowling at Radio City two summers ago.” If that’s being an addict, he’s down with it.
With filming currently ongoing for the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie, producer David Barron has confirmed that there will be a new scene added to the movie featuring the Burrow.
We don’t often have things that aren’t in the book.
But this was brought in because Jo (Rowling) was able throughout the quite lengthy book to keep dropping little snippets of what was happening in the outside world-there’d be people reading newspapers and talking about how somebody’s parents had been killed or somebody had been withdrawn from school because their parents didn’t think it was safe. And we’re made aware that the Muggle world is also experiencing these disasters, but thinks they are disasters rather than the work of Voldemort.
The book is peppered with those moments, but we couldn’t do that quite so easily in the film. So (the extra scene) comes in the middle of the film and it just reminds us the world is no longer a safe place. Even in what would normally be considered the safe haven of the Burrow, nobody’s safe. I think you’ll like it. It’s quite effective.
Thanks to the Snitch Seeker you can see a scan of the news article here.
Filming for Half-Blood Prince Set for Gloucester Cathedral
Saturday, January 26th, 2008
Location filming for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is set to take place again at Gloucester Cathedral in the UK. This is Gloucester is reports that crews from the sixth Harry Potter film are preparing for the filming which is due to take place shortly at the noted Cathedral which has served as a backdrop in previous Harry Potter films, such as Chamber of Secrets. The paper reports that Dan Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid), Dame Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall) and Julie Walters (Molly Weasley) are among those due to be taking part in the filming among others. While the paper does not specify when the stars are to arrive, it is possible that filming will take place within the next few days.
Students from King’s School had auditioned to be extras as students of Hogwarts for Half-Blood Prince last October. Today, the newspaper report cites a rep from the local school in Gloucester, England who says 174 pupils will be taking part and notes “It’s so exciting for the children to be involved.Drama is a big thing at Kings, we do a stage school on Saturdays and we’ve got lots of budding actors and actresses who are benefiting from it.”
Movie Magic Magazine Feature on Future of Harry Potter Films
Thursday, January 17th, 2008
Movie Magic Magazine, on newsstands and in bookstores now, talks of the last three Harry Potter films, “Order of the Phoenix, “Half-Blood Prince,” and “Deathly Hallows” in a multiple page spread in their January 2008 issue. Featuring scores of previously released photos from the “Order of the Phoenix” filming, the magazine contains interviews with Dan Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), and Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling. In the interview with Dan Radcliffe, he speaks briefly of returning to the set after a filming break while Rupert, in his interview, speaks of the romantic turn taking place between his character and Hermione Granger. He says:
“Filming a kiss scene or a love scene, that would be awkward, I think. I imagine the first time we do it, we might just burst into laughter, because of course we’re friends, and it’s just going to be strange at first. Of course, with movies, you have to film things over and over again, so eventually we’ll get it right, but the first time, if we have to kiss, it’s just going to be awkward as anything. Still, I think I’d like Ron’s kiss to be very enthusiastic. Harry’s first kiss was very nice, but I think Ron is going to be very enthusiastic about finally kissing Hermione.”
In addition to a look at the making of the fifth film, this magazine features Director David Yates and Producer David Heyman discussing beginning work on the sixth film, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”
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