Update: Warner Brothers has confirmed that the release date for Harry Potter and the Half Blod Prince Movie has been moved to July 15th. via Mugglenet

Erc box office and comingsoon.net are  both unofficially  reporting that  Warner brothers has moved up  the release date for the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Movie to July 15, 2009, bringing it to theaters two days earlier than scheduled.

No reasons for the move have been given yet and WB has not confirmed the move either.  However, it should be noted that Order of the Phoenix had a mid-week release as well, which allowed WB to make a significantly higher amount of money in opening week sales than it would have if it had opened on a Friday.

We don’t have any information on how this will affect the Azkatraz movie screening yet. We will keep you posted.

It was a shock to everyone when the newest international Teaser Trailer for Half Blood Prince leaked online this morning. Now that we have gotten over the initial shock of the unexpected gift, we have had sometime to look at and analyze the trailer. In this week’s episode Greg and I discussed our initial thoughts and impressions about this newest trailer. We don’t see eye to eye on everything- especially Michael Gambon as Dumbledore. However, there is a lot that we do agree on about this trailer. We look forward to hearing your impressions of both the trailer and our analysis of it.

As we discussed on the show, please check out our friend Amber’s Young Adult Literature Podcast at: http://yalitreview.libsyn.com/ also make sure to check out our favorite web show: Jake and Amir.

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 using the player below, or download it directly as an mp3.

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Alan Horn, President and Chief Operating Officer of Warner Brothers has issued a statement as a response to fans who expressed dismay about the postponement of the Half Blood Prince movie to July 2009. The press release reads as follows:

Many of you have written to me to express your disappointment in our moving Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to Summer 2009.

Please be assured that we share your love for Harry Potter and would certainly never do anything to hurt any of the films. Over the past 10 years, we have nurtured and protected each film, and the integrity of the books upon which they are based, to the best of our ability.

The decision to move Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was not taken lightly, and was never intended to upset our Harry Potter fans. We know you have built this series into what it is, and we thank you for your ongoing enthusiasm and support.

If I may offer a silver lining: there would have been a two-year gap between Half-Blood Prince and the much-anticipated first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which opens in November 2010.

So although we have to wait a little longer for Half-Blood Prince, the wait from that film until Deathly Hallows will be less than 18 months. I am sorry to have disappointed you now, but if you hold on a little longer, I believe it will be worth the wait.
Alan Horn
President, Chief Operating Officer
Warner Bros.

Fans continue to be dismayed by the actions of WB as well as the excuses given for the delay of the much anticipated movie. What are your thoughts?

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.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.