Digg This Story

The Los Angeles Times is reporting about the fan reaction to the news that the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Movie will be delayed by eight months. They interviewed WB President and Chief Operating Officer, David Horn about the situation and he elaborated on the press release from yesterday. He quashed rumors that the delay is due to production difficulties:

“There is no production delay or production consideration. . . . It feels like we have an opportunity in the summer,” Horn said.

He added that he had seen the film, which is in the final production stages, and that it would “absolutely have been ready” by November. He characterized the shift as a proactive business move, not a retreat. “The question we asked is, what is best for this movie.”

He then continued to explain the following:

Warner currently is riding high with “The Dark Knight,” the Batman film that also stars Bale. The grim super-hero movie has taken in $452 million in the U.S. since its July 18 release, making it the second-highest grossing film ever.

To some degree, that success motivated Warner to shift “Half-Blood Prince,” Horn said. The film will now hit theaters the same midsummer weekend that “Dark Knight” was released this year. Horn said the young, core Potter audience would be out of school and give the film a longer theatrical life.

Horn finished the interview by letting everyone know that “We would never do anything to hurt one of the movies or the series. We love our fans.” And money.

According to marketwatch.com website, Warner Brothers has announced this afternoon that they are moving the release of “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” to July 17, 2009.

Alan Horn, President and Chief Operating Officer of Warner Brothers said this about the move:

“Our reasons for shifting ‘Half-Blood Prince’ to summer are twofold: we know the summer season is an ideal window for a family tent pole 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. Additionally, 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. We agreed the best strategy was to move ‘Half-Blood Prince’ to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tent pole release for mid-summer.”

We will get you more info as it comes in. This is big news that will sure to disappoint many Potter fans.

UPDATE: One good thing to come out of this: I received this email from the HPEF, the minds behind Harry Potter conventions such as Prophecy, Portus and the upcoming, Azkatraz 2009:

We are in touch with movie theaters within walking distance of the Parc55, the official Azkatraz hotel, and we will definitely be having HBP viewing parties from Friday on.

The IMAX near the hotel - it’s about 3 or 4 blocks away - will not know if they will have the film in IMAX or on regular-sized screens until February or March, but we have reserved an entire theater for the showing at 00:00:01 on July 17, 2009! We are also working to schedule at least one additional showing over the weekend, and perhaps one on Tuesday as well, depending on attendee interest.

Tickets will be available when our registration system goes live in the beginning of next month, and we will have more info about cosplaying, music, and other movie-showing events at Azkatraz shortly.

Be sure to keep checking our website (http://www.hp2009.org) for all the latest updates!!

NICE!

(Hat Tip: AG, friend of DL)

We always get comments about how when they listen to our podcast, people feel like they’re getting a glimpse into our lives. They usually follow up with a statement about how they love the rapport the two of us have. Well, for those of you who like HPProgs for the intimate way we welcome you into our lives then this is the episode for you. After we discussed the new Twilight Book, “Breaking Dawn,” Greg and I proceeded to have a general potpourri episode with some content and a lot of personality (pseudonym for annoyance at each other). We also discussed an exciting new contest that is in the works!

NOTE: There are “Breaking Dawn” Spoilers on this episode so if you haven’t finished the book yet, you might want to listen to the first few minutes and then skip to minute 20 or so not to hear them.

As always we can’t wait to hear your thoughts: on the Breaking Dawn review, the Beedle the Bard News and contest, our short fandom discussion and everything else we talked about. You can leave comments here on the blog or call our voicemail at 206-337-0357 in the US or 07092899490 in the UK. Please make sure to keep the message as close to one minute as possible and try to speak loudly and clearly.

Make sure to check out our channel on the new Odeo. Subscribe, rate, review, it’s all good, check it out.

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at http://audiblepodcast.com/hp.

You can listen to the episode with the player below, or download directly as an mp3.

This is nuts:

Wanted posters have gone up in New Zealand with a picture of Harry Potter star Robbie Coltrane.

Police have used his face because he looks very similar to a teenager who is suspected of committing a string of burglaries.

Under local laws, they’re not allowed to display a picture of the 16-year-old because he is underage.

Copies of the poster have been distributed to homes in the area, where police said residents have been targeted by the bike-riding teenager.

Below the heading ‘Wanted’ is the picture of Coltrane, underneath which are the words ‘Active burglar in this neighbourhood’.

The text below explains that the photo is of Coltrane and continues: “Robbie Coltrane is not the burglar but imagine him aged 16 with lank greasy hair and you have the picture.

Full Story

Wow. Just when you think the world can’t get any stupider.

(Hat Tip: AF)

I received this note from Andrew Slack of the Harry Potter Alliance:

During the Olympics the HP Alliance is asking Harry Potter fans throughout the world to celebrate this year’s Olympic motto of “One World, One Dream.” In order to celebrate this ideal authentically, we’re asking Harry Potter fans across the world to write houseparties@thehpalliance.org

The Olympics we feel are similar to the TriWizard Tournament. Both are ancient athletic competitions designed to bring about international cooperation. But this “One World, One Dream” ideal of the TriWizard Tournament was high jacked by Lord Voldemort. And we don’t want that happening in our world.

The Olympics this year are being hosted by the government of China who is actively funding the genocide in Darfur, the military regime in Burma, and many other nightmares across the world. In saying this, the HPA has the highest respect for the Chinese people, realizes that no government is free from fault, and is not asking any one to boycott the Olympics. On the contrary, we are asking everyone to come together and work for this ideal – not allow it to become an empty phrase of propaganda like Grindewald’s “For The Greater Good.”

So we’re asking you to get together with your friends and hold a house party. It could be big. It could be small. And we’ll give you tools at each house party (including a podcast to listen to) to take action on behalf of the people of Darfur, Burma, and more! If you’re interested in hosting a house party or finding one near you, email Dinah at houseparties@thehpalliance.org

We think this is going to be a really fun way to take action on behalf of our world. We’ve even divided what you can do into Three Tasks! Together we can apply the message that we’ve learned from Harry Potter, in these dark and difficult times, do what’s right over what’s easy, and have fun as we celebrate Harry Potter and the authentic ideal of One World, One Dream!

For more info, check out: http://thehpalliance.org/triwizard.html the side bar has some awesome PDFs with more info as well!

And please email houseparties@thehpalliance.org today!

Now is a great time to get involved in the HP Alliance. Please do your part to fight evil!