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 switched servers and this information was lost in the process so I am reposting it).

We are hosting a Post-Portus Call-In show THIS evening, July 20 at 10pm EST.

Here is a link to the call in page: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hpprogs/2008/07/21/Harry-Potter-Prognostications-Post-Portus-Call-In-Show

You will be able to listen to the show as well as take part in a chat on this page.
The number to call in is: (646) 595-4635

The service we use claims that there is a “click to talk” feature for VoIP- but I haven’t seen it work yet, so unfortunately for most of you (and us) it will be a long distance call.

Greg and I recorded a post -Portus podcast last week but we realized that there was no way we could capture all that went on at the conference.

Even if you aren’t a regular HPProgs listener, we’d love to have you call in so that you can give your own perspective on Portus. I think it would be a great way to showcase what these conferences and the HPEF are all about.
We can’t wait to talk to everyone about your Portus experiences!!

-Penny

As you may have read, we just got back from Portus 2008, a Harry Potter convention that took place July 10-13 in Dallas, Texas.  And, guess what?  We had a blast!  From Jim Dale giving a live performance, to meeting lots of fun and interesting people, it was a great time.  We sat right down as soon as we could after we got home to record some of our thoughts on what the Harry Potter fan-world is like one year after the release of Deathly Hallows, along with details on the all the great sessions we went to, movies watched, conversations had, etc.  It really was a great time, and special thanks to the HPEF for going all out and putting together an amazing weekend.

If you were there, leave a comment or send us an email.  And make sure to check out www.hp2009.org for Azkatraz, in San Francisco!  Hope to see you there!

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

Don’t forget to check out Harry Potter Prognostications on the new Odeo.  Subscribe, why dontcha?

You can listen to the podcast using the player below, or download directly as an mp3.

It is possible that this has been up for weeks but I just noticed that the Formal Programming for Portus has been announced on the website.

My two roundtable discussions are included.

If you haven’t decided whether to come to Portus or not yet, maybe this programming list will help you make your decision.

It is going to be amazing. Nuff said.

Update: I just read through the presenters biographies and I realized that I am one of the only presenters who didn’t offer my credentials. I feel stupid now because I certainly worked hard enough for my M.S. and there is no better place in the world for me to brag about it than at a Harry Potter convention.  Did I mention I graduated Summa Cum Laude (that is for Greg who didn’t)?