It has HAPPENED! Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets is HERE! [Archive]

dh1989

10-17-2002, 02:15 PM

28 days left! Here are some new interviews from cast memebers of CoS! Enjoy!

***
DANIEL RADCLIFFE

Thirteen-year-old Daniel Radcliffe returns to his breakthrough role playing young Harry Potter. It's been quite a year for Daniel. He won the Variety Club of Great Britain's Best Newcomer Award and Italy's David Di Donatello award for his work in the first Harry Potter film. Now he's ready for bigger and better in The Chamber of Secrets. We caught up with Daniel and got the inside scoop on the second big-screen Potter adventure. Here's what he had to say:

Q: What was your favorite scene to film in The Chamber of Secrets?
Daniel: I think the dialogue between myself and Tom Felton was awesome. It's really very intense, but I also like the dueling scene because it's a very cool action scene.

Q: Did you have to study fencing to prepare for the dueling scene?
Daniel: We basically learned it from [watching] the other actors. Kenneth Brannagh and Alan Rickman were doing it first. Apparently, there's a certain salute before you start the duel, so that was quite fun to learn.

Q: What else did you learn while making the movie?
Daniel: Parse tongue. It's a snake's language that Harry speaks in the book. [It was] challenging because there's so much dialogue in The Chamber of Secrets that we have to keep it very intense in order to keep the audience's attention. Also, it was very hard to speak parse tongue because it's a completely different language. I had to study it and learn a bit, and it's quite hard to say.

Q: How has your life changed in the year between the release of The Sorcerer's Stone and now?
Daniel: It really hasn't changed that much. People come up to me on the street and they see my face on 50-foot-high billboards. I know they sound like big changes, but they're really not as big as what could have happened. When people come up to me on the street, I don't mind it because they're really enthusiastic about the film; they just want to know about the film. It's great!

Q: Is it fun being famous?
Daniel: I don't really consider myself famous. People like Anthony Hopkins and Robert DeNiro are famous because they're very experienced and amazing actors. This is only the fourth film I've been in, so I can't be compared in any way to them, but being on billboards, that's definitely fun.

Q: What's the best thing that's happened to you in the past year?
Daniel: I think probably [going to] the premiere and doing the publicity tour. I really like interviews; I'm not just saying that. I just like the premieres because there's such energy about it.

Q: How has your relationship with Emma and Rupert developed or changed?
Daniel: I think we've all matured as our characters have, and I think we're really good friends. We're really, really good friends.

Q: Are you looking forward to reading the fifth book, The Order of the Phoenix?
Daniel: I'm really looking forward to it. I think that's going to be a really cool book. The only thing is that I'm worrying about it being bigger than the fourth book, because if it is like a 1,000-page novel, I think I might have a heart attack.

Q: Has J.K. Rowling told you about any of the stuff that's going to be in the book?
Daniel: No, unfortunately not. I kind of want to know, but then I kind of want it to be a surprise.

RUPERT GRINT

Since Rupert Grint landed the role of Ron Weasley, the youngest Weasley brother and best friend to Harry Potter, his life has been on the fast track. Besides being recognized around the world, Rupert received a British Critic's Circle nomination for Best Newcomer. We asked Rupert about the new movie, his fear of spiders, and having his own action figure.

Q: During the time that you weren't filming, did you, Daniel, and Emma keep in touch?
Rupert: We get along really well on the set, but we live far away from each other, so [no, we didn't].

Q: What was your favorite scene to film in The Chamber of Secrets? Rupert: [The] Womping Willow scene, which is really fun because it's like a theme park ride and I got to drive a car.

Q: How old do you have to be to have a driver's license in England? Rupert: I'm 13 [and you have to be] 17 or 18. At 16 you can drive a motorbike.

Q: What was the most challenging scene to film in this movie?
Rupert: I think coughing up slugs was quite hard. Ron has a scene where he has to cough up these giant slugs. I had this giant slug in my mouth loaded with slime and I spat them out. I think it was plastic. I hope it was plastic.

Q: Did you have more fun making this film as opposed to the last one?
Rupert: Yes, I think so. On the first one, it was my first time on the set and it was quite scary. I know everyone now and we're really comfortable with it.

Q: You and Daniel had to film the scene with the giant spiders, right?
Rupert: We come into the spider's hollow, and then [we meet] Aragog—a spider that is the size of an elephant and really scary because he has these [long] hairs. I'm really scared of spiders. That didn't help my fear at all.

Q: Have people started to recognize you when you're on the street?
Rupert: People recognize me, call me Ron, and ask me questions. It's really cool and weird as well. They usually just ask for my autograph. I've got a signature and everything. It's hard to get used to.

Q: Does Ron have an easier time with his magic spells in this movie?
Rupert: He's worse actually. His wand breaks and he tapes it up. It's just really bad. Every spell he does backfires on him.

Q: Are you really looking forward to the fifth Harry Potter book, The Order of the Phoenix?
Rupert: I can't wait until that comes out. It's going to be cool.

Q: Do you like it that there's a Ron action figure that looks like you?
Rupert: The action figure kind of scares me. It's really scary [to think that] someone's playing with you. It's not real nice.

EMMA WATSON

As Hermione, Emma Watson has the tough job of playing the stuck-up, perfect student. In real life, however, Emma is much more laid back than her big-screen counterpart. We chatted with Emma about her role as Hermione, what it was like working with animals, and Hagrid's Macarena dancing.

Q: What has changed in your life since the first Harry Potter movie came out?
Emma: Most of the change happened during the first film. I occasionally get recognized. I think everyone's been a bit more enjoyable on the second film, because they know the people and they know what they're doing.

Q: What is different about Hermione in the second film?
Emma: I think all of the characters have matured. Hermione has become a bit more laid back and she's not so mothering to Harry and Ron. She finally has a different hairstyle, which is nice.

Q: What was it like working with the animals on set?
Emma: I really love animals and enjoy working with them. It can be quite hard. It's very hard to tell a dog, "Do it again, you weren't sitting in the right position." You have to be quite patient because Fang drools everywhere. It takes ages to get off your robes, and Hedwig flies in the wrong direction. Most of the time they get it right, which is absolutely amazing! Their trainers must have the hardest job ever.

Q: What was it like to work with Kenneth Brannagh, who plays Gilderoy Lockhart?
Emma: He is the nicest guy. He is absolutely fantastic. He's really down to earth, really friendly, and he has a great sense of humor. I really liked working with him. He's a fantastic actor as well. There's such a presence about him.

Q: Would you share any funny stories that happened on the set?
Emma: [There were] 300 extras in the same room for one whole week. Everyone is dying of boredom and they need to be laughing; Robbie Coltrane [Hagrid] had to stand up on the tables and dance. They did the Macarena and the cancan, and it worked! It was the highlight of the whole filming! I never laughed so much in my life!

Q: What was the most difficult scene to shoot?
Emma: Professor Sprout's class was pretty hard. There are so many scenes where I literally couldn't say my lines. Hermione gets such mouthfuls, it's like a tongue twister in each paragraph. She talks like a dictionary. She is a dictionary.

Q: Do you think the movies do a good job re-creating the books?
Emma: I think it's really, really important to stay truthful to the books because they're fantastic books. Chris [Columbus] is working really close with J.K. Rowling, and I think that's what makes the films so great—the fact that we work with the author who has all of the images and inspirations in her head.

Q: Why do you think it's important to read?
Emma: It's important to read because it's really good for your [vocabulary]. It's really good for your imagination. I enjoy reading because I find it relaxing.

BONNIE WRIGHT

Bonnie Wright is a newcomer to the Harry Potter films. Bonnie plays Ron Weasley's sister, Ginny. At 11 years old, she's just getting started in movies, but Bonnie has plenty of other interests. We talked to Bonnie about soccer, surfing, and traveling around the world.

Q: Have you read all of the Harry Potter books?
Bonnie: Yes. I finished the fourth one when I was 10. I think they get better and better with each one, but there's a really good storyline in book four.

Q: Why do you like the Harry Potter books?
Bonnie: Well, it's magic! It's different from stories set in normal life and, like I said, it has a really good storyline. Plus, I like all of the characters.

Q: Who's your favorite character?
Bonnie: Hagrid, because he's a giant. He looks really mean on the outside, but he's really soft on the inside.

Q: Did you, Daniel, Emma, or Rupert see each other off the set?
Bonnie: Yes. We just talked and kind of hung out.

Q: What do you like to do for fun?
Bonnie: Well, I like [soccer] as a sport. I have done surfing for about a year. [I surfed in] Australia.

Q: It sounds like you're quite the traveler. How many countries have you been to?
Bonnie: America, Australia, India, Spain, Italy, and France.

Q: If you could go back to one place, where would you go?
Bonnie: I like France quite a lot, and I like Italy.

Q: What's your favorite school subject?
Bonnie: I like art and science. I like doing clay work. It's different from drawing on a page because you have something to mold into different shapes. It's quite visual, it's a thing you can hold and feel, and that makes it different from drawing.

TOM FELTON

Fourteen-year-old Tom Felton returns in The Chamber of Secrets as Harry's archenemy, Draco Malfoy. Though he's been acting since he was 8, the role of Draco is taking Tom to major movie star status. We asked him what it was like to play a villain and what's different about Draco in the second film.

Q: You play a villain in the Harry Potter movies. Who are your favorite movie villains?
Tom: I thought that Alan Rickman was brilliant in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, the one with Kevin Costner.

Q: He plays Professor Snape in the Harry Potterfilms. What is he like to work with?
Tom: He's a very nice bloke. He's very clever in his own way—a very smart man.

Q: Is it difficult to play a bad guy?
Tom: No. I tried to think of something that made me angry, like my brothers pushing me around or something.

Q: How many brothers do you have?
Tom: I have three older brothers. They're 18, 21, and 22 years old.

Q: Do kids come up to you and say mean things about Draco?
Tom: Yes, a few of them do, but it's not too bad.

Q: What was your favorite scene to film in this movie?
Tom: I like the dueling club scene, where Daniel and I fight with our wands. I thought it was a brilliant scene to shoot. I think the end product looked really good.

Q: How does Draco change in the second film?
Tom: You see another side of Draco when he's with his dad. When Draco is with his dad, he doesn't say anything. He keeps his mouth shut. He's sort of bullied by his dad, so he acts very different.

Q: You've been acting since you were very young. How has the success from the Harry Potter films changed your life?
Tom: It's changed it in a very subtle way. It's just that you realize that people are going to recognize you more and more.

Q: Have you traveled a lot for the premiers and promotions? Where have you gone that you really liked?
Tom: My favorite country is America. I love going there! [My family] went to Orlando, Florida, for 10 days to the theme parks and the beaches. It was nice.

Q: What's your favorite sport?
Tom: Fishing. I go in the local lake near where I work on Sundays. It's called Berry Hill. [I catch] carp.

The Other

10-17-2002, 11:25 PM

On AOL they have a clip of the scene where they first meet Gilderoy Lockhart and he let's out all the Pixies and stuff!

It was good. Can't wait to see the movie.

dh1989

10-18-2002, 07:43 AM

This will be a smaller update, due to the fact that it is so early. I will post another if sites starting updating a bit later.

First, this is a story of Dan Radcliffe doing some charity work. I think he is a really cool kid.

Here is the article....

Revolutionary new tool for people with autism to be launched at International Conference

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Could you name 412 emotions? For people with autism facial expression conveys barely any information making it hard to recognise if someone is happy or sad, let alone slightly indifferent. For the first time, researchers at the Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge have tailor made educational software for people on autism spectrum who have difficulties in recognizing emotions. The new DVD entitled "Mind Reading: the Interactive Guide to Emotion" focuses on 412 distinct emotions that fall into 24 groups and each emotion is given a facial expression, vocalisation and is included in a story for comprehensive explanation.

The DVD includes an emotions library, learning centre and games zone. The games zone includes Famous Face with Daniel Radcliffe, where the user can control his face from angry to friendly along a slider - an emotional spectrum of intensities. The DVD will be launched by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Co-Director of the Autism Research Centre at the National Autistic Society International Conference on autism, entitled "A World of Difference" at the Novotel London West Hotel, Hammersmith, London, England on 6th and 7th September 2002

Simon Baron Cohen said:

"There are some obvious advantages to studying emotions on computer, for people with autism. First, emotions in the real world happen very fast, and are transient. You can't replay them. However the computer allows you to replay an emotion until you really understand it. Therefore people with autism can learn important emotional information without the added anxiety of real fast moving social interaction."

The 2 day conference, featuring speakers from Europe and America is part of the 40th anniversary initiative of the National Autistic Society (NAS) in partnership with the Autism Research Centre (ARC), University of Cambridge.

Second, there is a new game at the official site! The URL is
http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/livethemagic/

You can catch the Freshly Caught Cornish Pixies!

dh1989

10-19-2002, 10:38 AM

Okay, here is today's update.

First, Oprah Winfrey is looking for the biggest Potter fan to be on her show. Interested? Click on the URL below for more
https://www.oprah.com/plugger/templates/BeOnTheShow.jhtml?action=respond&plugId=D30500011

Second, this is a much bigger version of the Weasley living room...

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/BurrowLivingRoom.jpg

Third, these are some older posters, but the site's bandwith was exceeded so I'll repost some of them. Enjoy!
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2571724_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2571727_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2571733_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2571743_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2571848_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2571834_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2571765_main.jpg

FOLLOW THE BUTTERFLIES! :) LOL
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2571802_main.jpg

dh1989

10-19-2002, 10:51 AM

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2571811_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2571883_main.jpg

dh1989

10-20-2002, 07:33 AM

First, I have a set visit from The Sunday Tribune. It is pretty cool and I hope you enjoy it....

Forget the impressive sets, new characters, exciting plot and flying Ford Anglia car. As anticipation over the second Harry Potter film mounts, the few visitors allowed into the studios have their minds on one thing - stolen souvenirs

LOOKING back on it, the Weasley house would have been the best place to do it. Just a little name-tag, slipped discreetly into my pocket, a couple of buttons, or one of those scrunched up copies of the Daily Prophet . No one would notice - not in the middle of all that junk, the dried-out bread, the scraps of paper, the bowls of trinkets.

"They're from the Weasley house, you know, " I would say to my 10-year-old nephew when I got back. "There was a table in the corner with all these books on, and you should have seen the clock with the pointer for 'Teatime' and 'You're late'." But the sweat was crawling down the back of my neck, my heart was thumping faster than the Hogwarts Express train, and my fingers had seized into semi-paralysis. "Move on, hurry up now, " one of our set escorts muttered. I've never been the world's greatest thief.

The Harry Potter set is a universe of its own. A huge "world of plaster" packed into Leavesden studios, a one-time Rolls Royce factory, with its own fire engines, medical centre, a school for the child actors, toilets for 'Children only' and, of course the specially constructed Hogwarts Great Hall, common room, infirmary, Chamber of Secrets, and Privet Drive. Inside its airy hangars are rows of marquees, vans housing dressing rooms, a fenced-off junkyard containing the giant chess pieces of Philosopher's, and here and there a piece of magic - an animatronic mandrake that looks like a cross between a foetus and a rubber plant. It's like Universal Studios without the rides, already well on its way to what, by rights, should be its final fate: the Harry Potter Theme Park.

Each day the set welcomes countless visitors: friends of the crew, classes of kids from cast members' schools, nosy, pilfering journalists and the occasional fevered fan. As Jason Isaacs, who plays Lucius Malfoy says, "I have brought, frankly, a disproportionate number of children to the set given the size of my part. Chris Columbus, the director always puts the headphones on them and lets them say 'cut' and 'action'. And no one loses their temper. There seems to be very little pressure for time.

I think that's probably because the whole film's budgeted around filming 13-year-olds." I can't believe we journalists are alone.

No one, I suspect, steps on set without some little voice niggling in their ear, "Bring us something back. Go on. Please.

Oh please." The day begins early. There are 10 of us, a motley crew of Muggles from all over Europe, setting off in a bus bound for Leavesden. I half expect us to be blindfolded, searched and then driven to a secret location. But this chamber of secrets doesn't seem so secret: there are no rottweilers, no searchlights, no armed checkpoints, just a security officer and a couple of slobbery 12-stone mastiffs who play Hagrid's dog Fang. As we drive through the entrance, there aren't even any crowds of fans, no paparazzi photographers, none of that Pottermania.

As Columbus says later, "Look where we are out here. You couldn't find us if you knew where we were. It's amazing we don't have anyone waiting outside the gates.

There aren't crazed fans. It's an odd situation where you have the second part of a blockbuster film and no one is here. No one comes around. When I first moved to England I thought, 'Oh great, the kids are going to be plastered all over the first page of The Sun '.

But it didn't happen. The reporters have given them their privacy. They seem happy with Jordan and all that other stuff." This is Columbus's second and last, for the moment, Harry Potter film. Chamber of Secrets , based on the second novel by JK Rowling, finds Harry and friends Ron and Hermione battling against a dark force which is terrorising Hogwarts school. During their quest to discover what is behind this evil presence, Ron and Harry end up flying in a Ford Anglia, almost colliding with Hogwarts Express. The film also features new characters like Gilderoy Lockhart, professor of defence against the black arts, played by Kenneth Branagh.

Our first stop is Diagon Alley, a Pottermaniac's treasure trove. There we find Flourish and Blotts piled high with 17,000 books, some swirling in gravitydefying curves up to the ceiling, copies of Wand Welfare, Celestial Studies and Elf and Safety, the Quidditch shop with its macelike bats and the odd Nimbus 2000, and out on the cobbled street, bat spleens made of grass and dragons livers from mud and old roots.

Next, past the 250ft screen painting of the Scottish hills to the Great Hall, empty now apart from a few long wood tables and an elaborately designed house scorer. Its gimmicks are all theatrical, not magical - secret doors in the walls of the set for crew to get in and out, cushioned pads on the steps to cushion the fall of the lead actors. Then, in a whirlwind, on to the infirmary.

The place is like a ghost town (only really alive, I suspect, when the director shouts 'action' or the computer animators weave their digital magic) so it's a relief when we finally meet the actors.

Daniel Radcliffe walks in, dressed as though he's just come out of the classroom. He has just finished a scene in which Harry and Ron use the Polyjuice potion to turn them into Crabbe and Goyle.

He is taller and thinner in the face than he was a year ago. His voice has broken, he says "cool" a lot and he is into, of all things, seventies punk. His life has changed, undoubtedly, since he became Harry Potter. For one thing, with his personal tutoring, he's getting the best ever school grades. "There are differences, " he says, "between before and after Harry Potter - basically, before, I didn't have my face printed on buses. Now I get recognised, but I like being recognised because I'm an attention-seeker.

But I see my friends all the time and they come round and play PlayStation games and stuff, so I have a pretty normal life." Harry Potter isn't like most sets. There's more of a sense of permanency, rather like being caught on a long-running soap or trapped in a timeless public school. No one really wants to talk too far into the future, but it looms - an unknown territory, guarded in the mind of JK Rowling.

And there's a durability to the set. Everything, of course, is made of plaster -- more plaster, they say, than was used on Gladiator - but built to last and with the kind of attention to detail not often found even in the real world. Theoretically, Chamber of Secrets, reusing as it does many of the sets from the first film, ought to be cheaper, but it isn't. The world has just expanded, 20 new sets have taken up a huge hunk of budget and the crew have become even more anorakish and finicky in their obsessiveness.

"With a film like this, " says the deputy production designer, "it's better for us to cover all bases, because, who knows what a kid's going to do in the shop.

You suddenly think, 'Shit, why didn't we paint that? Why didn't we at least stain it with some teabags?'" Look a bit closer, though, and the forgery starts to give way. The bread is hard, the vegetables are rotten, polystyrene cups of cold, whiskery coffee lurk in shadowy corners.

Still, even in its lumpen fakery, it's a little bit magical.

The whole place looks as though it's been made by a bunch of JK Rowling anoraks. What's amazing is, apart from the few location shoots - Alnwick castle as Hogwarts, Durham cathedral's cloisters as the seventhfloor corridor, Christchurch college Oxford as the entrance hall - it's all been created from scratch. The detail is so intricate: the back covers of books, the tiny designs delicately carved onto the Hogwarts house scoreboard which will almost certainly never be seen on film.

There is, it seems, another parallel universe that exists here, a working one, of children, actors, parents, visitors, crew - and it leaves its sign all over Hogwarts.

In the end, that's what overwhelms the visitor. Inside one leather-bound schoolbook, I come across the doodles and scribblings of extras, bored no doubt, as they sat through take after take of the Lockhart's test scene. "I've got a feeling we're going to be here for some time, " says one. "I feel like poo, " notes another.

It's not difficult to imagine that the set has both its more banal and comic moments. Radcliffe, it turns out, has a reputation as a terrible corpser and practical joker. Just the twinkle in someone's eye can set him off.

On the last film, he confesses that he reset the language on Robbie Coltrane's mobile to Turkish. "I haven't tried that again, " he says.

"I don't think I would still be here." Emma Watson, who plays Hermione, talks of note-passing and gossip. "Not much romance between the main leading parts, but there has been some romance around the set. I couldn't give away any names. As you can imagine after a week of working in a boiling-hot great hall, where the food stank, everyone was just bored to death. It can get fun, because Dan got everyone to laugh by standing on the table and dancing with Robbie Coltrane. That is a very vivid memory, the macarena, the cancan, everything." Isaacs tells a tale from the Quidditch shoot. "Chris came up to this group of extras, and he's saying, 'Get a bit more involved.

Just remember he's been hit by the bludger and he's going for the seeker.' One of the wizards turned to another and said, 'What the fuck is a seeker and what am I meant to think about it?' Then Alan Rickman said, 'It depends what house you're in.'" Ignorance like this, however, is rare. Rowling's books seem to bring about the trainspotter in everyone. No one seems just content to play a role. They all want to understand the world, know their characters inside out, become an essential cog in the fantasy. Isaacs, for instance, insisted upon a decadent look for his sneering Lucius Malfoy - cape, fur, silver-topped walking stick and flowing blond hair, rather than the pin-striped suits the designer originally suggested. "I said, well, he's an aristocrat, Lucius Malfoy, he comes from countless generations of would-be wizards and he's like those hideous members of the Tory party here who might be in government but really rule the country behind closed doors and their sofas are tatty and their jackets are tatty but their grandfather wore them. There's no point in being in a film about wizards and dressing like a businessman, frankly. Might as well dress like a wizard." It's this dedication to Rowling's creation that, for all its faults, made The Philosopher's Stone such a successful film. It's this also that makes me all the more determined to bring back some souvenir. A trophy from the studios is almost like a trophy from the magical Hogwarts itself, the closest, at least, you can get.

"Please, " begs a little voice in my ear and I imagine trying to explain that I've asked the PRs and they haven't got anything to give.

Stood in the 250ft long Chamber of Secrets, a lofty cavern with towering snakeshead carving, I scan its placid black waters. "Be a great place to have a wrap party, " somebody remarks. But all I can think about is that this is the last set we're visiting and there's not a loose piece of plaster I can pinch. Then I see it on the floor. A grubby Mandrake leaf. The full-sized plants, no doubt, will be coming to a store near you as merchandise this Christmas, but it's not the same.

This is magic. This is the real thing.

Second, this is an article about author J.K. Rowling's involvement with the CoS film from Sci-fi Wire......

Chris Columbus, director of the upcoming sequel film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, told SCI FI Wire that Potter author J.K. Rowling trusted the production team enough that she kept her participation in the project to a minimum. "Jo was involved with the script again," Columbus said in an interview. "As always, she has a lot of information that none of us have, in terms of where the characters are going and in terms of what's going to happen to them. She's also got the backgrounds of all these characters in this world in hundreds of notebooks."

Columbus added, "So we can basically call her or e-mail her and find out any little piece of information we need. That relationship still exists. I think she trusts us a lot, so her involvement this time was actually a little less [than on the first film based on her best-selling books]. On the first film [which Columbus directed as well] she only came to the set one time, and she didn't make it to the set of Chamber of Secrets. But we've kept in touch, and she just came in for a script meeting on The Prisoner of Azkaban." Chamber of Secrets opens Nov. 15; Prisoner of Azkaban, the third Potter film, is in preproduction.

'Till tommorow. Live the Magic!

AgentSmith

10-20-2002, 10:25 AM

This movie will be excellent.. I can just see it..

I can't wait!:D :D :D

dh1989

10-20-2002, 04:43 PM

Originally posted by AgentSmith
I can't wait!:D :D :D

Neither Can I. :)

sleekproductions

10-21-2002, 07:29 AM

'Harry Potter' to Battle `Lord of the Rings,' Again
By RICK LYMAN

OS ANGELES, Oct. 20 — What a difference a year makes.

At this time last year, movie audiences were looking ahead to a holiday season dominated by "Harry Potter" and "The Lord of the Rings." This year, they are looking forward to one dominated by "Harry Potter" and "The Lord of the Rings."

On the surface, it's déjà vu. But there are significant differences this time as the films square off. The "Harry Potter" series is moving into darker territory to attract a slightly older, teenage audience, and there is speculation in Hollywood that the "Lord of the Rings" series will supplant "Harry Potter" as the season's box-office champion.

Advertisement

While the two movie series feature wizards and elves and other fantasy elements, they are really quite different and have appealed to subtly different audiences. The first "Harry Potter" was a classic family film, drawing in children and their parents, as well as enough from other demographic groups to create a hit. "The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring," the first in the trilogy, was an action epic that played most strongly to males in their teens and 20's.

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," the first installment in what Warner Brothers hopes will be a multifilm franchise drawing cash into many AOL Time Warner divisions for years to come, made $318 million in United States theaters after opening last November.

"The Fellowship of the Ring" — an expensive gamble on which executives at New Line Cinema, also part of AOL Time Warner, practically staked the future of the studio — was more of a question mark before its opening. But the film was a box-office and a critical triumph, making $313 million in United States theaters and earning 14 Oscar nominations.

This year, the best guess from Wall Street analysts, professional box-office watchers and Hollywood executives — inside and outside the two studios — is that "Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets" (opening on Nov. 15) and "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (Dec. 18) will dominate the holiday season, taking in at least $600 million between them in the United States, and twice that much overseas. But many expect "Lord of the Rings" to beat "Harry Potter" this year.

"I think people liked the first `Harry Potter' movie, but they didn't love it," said one rival studio executive. "And I think it's going to show at the box office."

Another top studio executive, who also insisted on anonymity, put it this way: "Last year, I took my kids to see `Harry Potter.' The curiosity factor was so high. I wanted to see it, too. This year, I'm dropping them off at the theater."

Jessica Rief-Cohen, an entertainment analyst at Merrill Lynch, said that even if audiences were not as blown away by the first "Harry Potter" as they might have been, the series remained hot. "I thought the first movie was O.K., though the book was better," she said. "But it's going to be a monster hit, no matter how you look at it."

Warner Brothers executives say their research shows that anticipation for the second "Harry Potter" film is just as high as it was for the first and carries to all ages.

"You just have to look at all the buzz around when J. K. Rowling will release the upcoming fifth book in the series and you can see that interest in the series is as intense as ever," said Dawn Taubin, the president of domestic marketing at Warner Brothers. The next book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," is expected next year.

Ms. Taubin dismissed any idea that the lack of a new "Harry Potter" volume in bookstores this year might have dampened interest in the series. "Last year, when there was a new book out, it became almost a whole year of `Harry Potter' hype," she said. "This year, we're it."

Whether the second "Harry Potter" does as well as the first — which had a $90-million opening weekend — will depend on many factors, including competition from family-oriented films like "Santa Clause 2" (opening on Nov. 1), "Treasure Planet" (Nov. 27) and "The Wild Thornberrys" (Dec. 20).

"I think certainly the issues for `Harry Potter' and `Lord of the Rings' are different than they were a year ago," said Russell Schwartz, New Line's president for domestic marketing. "Last year, it was all about `Harry Potter' being the 800-pound gorilla, and it certainly delivered like that at the box office, if not with the critics. With `Lord of the Rings,' no one really knew what to expect, so we had the great element of surprise and a kind of wow factor. This year, we both have to live up to what we did last year."
The game of box-office expectations can drive movie studio executives crazy. "Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones" made $302 million in American theaters last summer, a substantial sum for any film. But expectations for the lucrative series were so high that when rival "Spider-Man" made even more ($404 million), some people in Hollywood considered "Star Wars" a box-office disappointment.

Advertisement

On Wall Street and among merchandisers, opinions differ about which film will end up on top, though there is unanimity that "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" will each rank among the two biggest hits. Either way, it is good news for AOL Time Warner, which could use some good news.

Other potential holiday hits include "Die Another Day," a James Bond movie; sequels like "Star Trek: Nemesis" and "Analyze That"; and unknowns like "Catch Me If You Can," a Steven Spielberg film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. They are expected to do well, though not as well as "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings."

Warner Brothers executives also point to differences between the first "Harry Potter" film and the second — differences that should be apparent to anyone studying the posters and billboard that have begun to appear. The young heroes in the posters look older, tougher and a little more determined. The one featuring Daniel Radcliffe as Harry shows him grimly wielding a gleaming sword covered in archaic runes, an image that seems borrowed from "The Lord of the Rings" and calculated to appeal to that trilogy's older demographic.

"The campaign is a bit edgier, a bit darker," Ms. Taubin said, in keeping with the more action-packed nature of the second installment.

And while Warner Brothers acknowledges that its family film will not deliver the violent thrills that might appeal to an older action audience, it says it hopes that more viewers between the ages 12 and 16 might be lured to theaters.

Last year, the mantra at Warner Brothers about how to handle the first "Harry Potter" film was "less is more." The idea was to avoid pushing so hard to wring cash out of the first film that it put a bad taste in the mouths of parents and threatened the series' long, lucrative life, so merchandising licensing was modest for such a major film.

This year, the game plan is to do more of the same, and to not get so transfixed on expectations or on out-performing either the first "Harry Potter" film or the latest "Lord of the Rings" installment that it harms the series' long-term potential.

And the mantra this year?

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," said Diane Henry, who manages the "Harry Potter" brand for Warner Brothers.

dh1989

10-21-2002, 09:40 AM

As you all know, Mike Sampson of our board has seen CoS. He is answering questions in a sticky thread at the top of our forum. For the poor mucks who have not yet seen it, I have some new photos for ya.

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608469_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608468_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608362_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608349_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608347_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608344_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608339_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608333_main.jpg

dh1989

10-21-2002, 09:44 AM

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608331_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608327_main.jpg

I will add some more later.....

dh1989

10-21-2002, 12:14 PM

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608324_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608321_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608320_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608301_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608249_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608300_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608296_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608284_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608282_main.jpg

dh1989

10-21-2002, 12:25 PM

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608248_main.jpg

Snape's wand....
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608121_main.jpg

Ron's wand...
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608119_main.jpg

Lucius Malfoy's wand...
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608118_main.jpg

Lockhart's wand...
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608116_main.jpg

Hermione's wand...
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608113_main.jpg

Harry's wand...
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2608112_main.jpg

dh1989

10-22-2002, 02:04 PM

23 Days Left!

Here is today's CoS update!

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/BabyFawkes2.jpg

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/car2.jpg

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/ChrisColumbus2.jpg

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/DobbyMagic2.jpg Dobby looks GREAT!

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/DumbleHarryLucius2.jpg

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/FourProfs2.jpg

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/GinnyHarry2.jpg

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/HagridKnockturn2.jpg I love the spider behind Hagrid. Knockturn Alley looks good.

dh1989

10-22-2002, 02:14 PM

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/HarryGlow2.jpg

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/HarryRonSnape2.jpg
They added Filch to this scene. Also, note McGonagall walking in.

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/HarrySword2.jpg

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/Herbology22.jpg
They must be playing a Geraldo news report. :) Just kidding.

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/HerbologyChris2.jpg

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/Howler2.jpg

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/LuciusDraco2.jpg

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/NHeadless2.jpg

dh1989

10-22-2002, 02:22 PM

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/OutofCar2.jpg
Harry's take on car surfing!

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/Quidditch2.jpg

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/QuiddTeams2.jpg

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/RupertChrisHarry2.jpg

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/slugs2.jpg
YUCK! Ron looks gross. A+

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/TrioinBathroom2.jpg

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/TrioOutside2.jpg

A big thanks to The Leaky Cauldron(http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org) for these press kit photos!

dh1989

10-22-2002, 09:45 PM

This is a humorus story from The Leaky Cauldron about the Dumbledore actor's own lighting bolt scar. Read below.....

Regarding the supposed "Dumbledore scar" we get mail on eight times a day - someone asked Christopher Columbus this today, and he said that he has no idea about why Richard Harris has a scar that looks like lightning bolt over his right eye. "Must have been a rugby match," he said. I, myself, have looked up very old photos of Richard Harris and found that there is one (though I am hard-pressed to find it now) that shows that it is, indeed, an old scar. A very strange coincidence, we suspect.

Rugby? That or he was touced by an evil curse. What do you think? :)

dh1989

10-23-2002, 04:16 PM

Sorry for today's update being so late. I had a lot of work and wanted to read the new interviews over at The Leaky Cauldron

I have a few new photos for you....

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2616650_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2616644_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2616635_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2616424_main.jpg

I also have uncovered a link for the audio of Dan's TRL interivew.....
http://www.angelfire.com/sys/dlparent.shtml

dh1989

10-24-2002, 03:10 PM

21 DAYS LEFT! Here is an interview with Daniel Radcliffe......

I'M WILD ABOUT HARRY Oct 24 2002

.. and I will stay on for third movie says Potter star Daniel Radcliffe

Rick Fulton

HARRY POTTER EXCLUSIVE

DANIEL RADCLIFFE has confirmed he WILL play Harry Potter in the third film, Prisoner Of Azkaban. There had been doubt the 13 year old would be in the third instalment of the books by JK Rowling because of his age.

When Prisoner Of Azkaban starts filming early next year, he will be 14 - a year older than Harry in the books.

Critics were worried that Daniel would be too old to pull off the character, but he has revealed he will be back with new director Alfonso Cuaron, who takes over from Chris Columbus.

But he refuses to be drawn on whether he will be Harry for all seven films.

He said: "No-one can predict what is going to happen to these films in the future, so I don't even think about that.

"The most important thing for me is to live in the moment doing the best job I can playing Harry and enjoying myself."

Daniel admits he is feeling the pressure of being Harry Potter as Chamber Of Secrets gets ready to open next month.

The youngster is shielded from the adverse affects of fame by his mum and dad, Marcia and Alan.

But this year, the hype will be more about whether Harry Potter, released on November 15, can measure up to Lord Of The Rings.

While The Philosopher's Stone became the second-highest grossing film of all time, it was Fellowship Of The Ring which won the Oscars and the BAFTAs.

Daniel realises the success of Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets depends on him.

He said: "The more you hear about the build-up of the film, the more you start to realise the pressure that is on you. It's a huge responsibility.

"But Chris Columbus has really helped because he's taken the pressure off my shoulders. However, I have never read any articles or reviews in any newspapers or magazines about Harry Potter.

"I don't know what people are saying about me, which means I have nothing to deal with."

Because of his parents' efforts, he claims he isn't aware of the fans who obsess about him, although he has a naked stalker.

He said: "I did an interview and we looked outside and there was a girl in a Harry Potter towel and nothing else. It was November in New York.

"She was out there for 90 minutes holding a sign that said, `Nothing comes between me and Harry Potter'. Later I went to do the David Letterman show and she was standing there, but she had clothes this time. I got to say "Hi" to her again, which was cool."

Despite the adulation he receives as Harry Potter, Daniel admits he's never had a girlfriend.

"One day," he said, laughing. For the time being, he has been busy juggling schoolwork during filming of Chamber Of Secrets.

He is also glad of the support from his family. Initially his parents, who are in the acting business as agents, were reluctant to let their only child become an actor.

But Daniel said: "They're really excited. Some people think I never see them, which is completely untrue, because my dad chaperones me every day."

Despite the worldwide fame, Daniel talks about his career in a manner way above his years.

He said: "As a person, I don't feel I've changed that much. I feel I've kind of matured, but I think everybody does when they're about my age.

"As an actor, I think I've developed a lot thanks to Chris and now he can do much more complicated shots with us. I think we've all developed a lot as actors."

It's good to see that being centre of attention hasn't turned the star into a Liam Gallagher- type brat.

BUT now he and the rest of the cast are gearing up for the hype which is starting for Chamber Of Secrets, based on the book by Scots- based author JK Rowling.

In the second instalment, the young wizard at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry confronts a sinister force which is terrorising the school.

As well as Harry, the main cast from the first film are back, including Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, Richard Harris as Albus Dumbledore, Maggie Smith as Professor Minerva McGonagall, Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid and Alan Rickman as Professor Severus Snape.

New recruits include Kenneth Branagh as Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, Shirley Henderson as Moaning Myrtle and Jason Isaacs as Draco's dad, Lucius Malfoy.

In the new film, Daniel has his arm chopped off in a killer chess game. He has to have a prosthetic arm before his arm grows back.

He said: "My two favourite scenes are probably the chamber of secrets and in the duelling club. It was a real challenge for me to actually act in that scene because there's a bit of Parcel Tongue in it, which is a completely different language.

"I love the scenes in the Great Hall where there are loads of people - those are always fun."

Working on the film has given him a depth of character which he also feels is reflected in Harry. Proof of Daniel's budding maturity is the lack of pranks he pulled on his fellow cast. In the first film, he admitted most of the main actors had fallen foul of his japes including Robbie Coltrane, whose mobile phone language he changed to Turkish.

Daniel said: "I haven't had the chance to do any on the second film. I think I'm going to get paid back for anything I have done now."

With the PR-machine about to whirl into life, Daniel will be once again thrust into the spotlight.

He remembers that big premiere in Los Angeles when stars such as Ben Stiller were awe- stuck to meet him.

He said: "I was completely overwhelmed. I was really surprised I actually made it with out fainting because the flashing lights stick in your head until about half an hour after.

"Mostly I thought `Why are they taking pictures of me?' I guess I had a kind of memory lapse."

That'll be the magic.

dh1989

10-25-2002, 02:47 PM

Basilisk fang.....
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2618649_main.jpg

Everybody Looks Great.....
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2619152_main.jpg

Hedwig and Erroll at the press conference.....
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2619139_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2619132_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2619130_main.jpg Er....Dan you have made tons of cash, go buy a comb. What is up with the hair?

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2619127_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2619126_main.jpg

http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2619123_main.jpg

dh1989

10-25-2002, 02:58 PM

A Norwegian fan site has some new photos...

Harry and Ron must turn a bird into a glass.....
http://www.start.no/underholdning/2002/10/24-6087-2.jpeg

Boneless arm Harry has some visitors....
http://www.start.no/underholdning/2002/10/24-6087-5.jpeg

Harry begins a Floo Powder adventure......
http://www.start.no/underholdning/2002/10/24-6087-8.jpeg

Harry once again visits Diagon Alley...
http://www.start.no/underholdning/2002/10/24-6087-9.jpeg

Harry and Ron bring Hermione homework in the Hospital Wing[If I am correct in thinking this Hermione recovering from her furry Polyjuice Potion experience]
http://www.start.no/underholdning/2002/10/24-6087-12.jpeg

Harry takes a stand for the Hogwarts...
http://www.start.no/underholdning/2002/10/24-6087-11.jpeg

dh1989

10-25-2002, 05:32 PM

To take your mind off Richard Harris' death, I figured I should post some new photos.

An award for Gilderoy Lockhart...
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2619427_main.jpg

Magical Me.....
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2619430_main.jpg

The Very Secret Diary....
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2619433_main.jpg

Lucius Malfoy's cane......
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2619443_main.jpg

Moste Potente Potions...
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2619446_main.jpg

A notice drafted by Dumbledore over anti-attack precautions....
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2619456_main.jpg

A bottle of Skele-gro from Madam Pomfrey....:)
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2619457_main.jpg

Hagrid's Flesh Eating Slug Repellent....
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2619461_main.jpg

dh1989

10-26-2002, 10:58 AM

Today will be small update due to the fact that most Potter things are talking about the horrible loss of Richard Harris. I do have a few photos though! :)

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/TRL3.jpg

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/TRL2.jpg

http://www.mantissa.org/~lcauldron/images/2002/10/TRL1.jpg

I hope I can do a stronger update tommorow. Hey! At least CoS is less than 20 days away. Wow! So close, it is hard to believe.

dh1989

10-27-2002, 12:22 AM

For Shakespearean actor Kenneth Branagh, it was a delightful change of direction -- playing a conceited dandy in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets."

Branagh, who garnered Oscar nominations for his acclaimed "Hamlet" and "Henry V" movies, clearly reveled in the comic challenge of playing the foppish Gilderoy Lockhart, Professor of the Dark Arts to the wizards of tomorrow.

But he was acutely aware after the success of J.K. Rowling's wizard sagas that millions of children around the world already had a firm idea of how they imagined the foppish professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"It was nerve-wracking because I was aware that 'Chamber of Secrets' is a major film with huge audience expectations and that fans already had a very established idea of who Lockhart is," Branagh said.

But he had a ball playing the bouffon-haired buffoon.

"He's very flamboyant, rather vain and terribly narcissistic. So he is a delicious character to play, ferociously irritating and charming, but we had to convince audiences that he could have done all the things he claims."

Splendidly attired in a string of green, blue, red and gold outfits, Branagh said: "We wanted to create a hybrid between a period dandy and someone who looked as if they could fit into Hogwarts. Lockhart struts like a peacock and wears a different costume in every scene --- and of course there's his hair."

The child stars confessed to being overawed by the reputation of one of Britain's foremost classical actors, who first won acclaim in 1989 when directing and starring in "Henry V." He has since directed three more Shakespeare adaptations.

Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry Potter, said: "It is quite intimidating when you are about to meet him as he is this unbelievable Shakespearean actor. But he is one of the nicest guys I have ever met."

Emma Watson, who plays Harry's bossy little friend Hermione, dubbed the arrogant professor "the Brad Pitt of his day" and reveled in the Branagh scenes.

The Daily Telegraph's John Hiscock, one of the first critics to see the film, said: "Branagh, wavy hair beautifully coiffed and eyes twinkling, clearly enjoys himself as the preening Lockhart whose shortcomings are humiliatingly exposed by Harry."

And director Christopher Columbus felt he fitted in perfectly with the all-British ensemble of actors. "I couldn't conceive of anyone else playing Gilderoy Lockhart," he said.

dh1989

10-27-2002, 09:49 PM

Okay! Okay! I know it won't officially be 17 days until one hour has passed, but I could not sit on these exciting articles!!

The First one...

The Dark Side of Potter

In his second movie adventure, the world's favorite wizard grows up a little and gets into plenty of terrifying trouble. Are your kids ready for scary harry?
BY JESS CAGLE

At last it can be told: despite the $900 million his movie made at the global box office, despite its ranking as the highest-grossing film of 2001, director Chris Columbus was not entirely happy with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. "I always thought we could have gotten the visual effects better," he says. "But we only had a few months to work on them." The pacing of the film, he now admits, was also a bit sluggish at times. "The first 40 minutes of the first Harry Potter film were introductions."

Now that his Harry has made a good first impression, Columbus doesn't have to be so careful and polite. And on Nov. 15, when the titular wizard returns in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, based on the second novel in J.K. Rowling's blockbuster series, fans will see a bolder, faster-paced movie — and, to put it bluntly, a much better one. "The most important thing to tell everyone is that it's more of everything," says Daniel Radcliffe, 13, who once again plays Harry with brainy subtlety (but whose voice has now dropped a good octave). "The first film was funny; this is even funnier. The first film had action. This has even more."

It is also much scarier. Like Rowling's books, the movies are becoming darker and more intense as they progress. (After several delays, Rowling, who says there will be seven Potter books in all, will deliver the fifth novel next year.) Running against the Hollywood tradition of sugar-coating every pill, Columbus is eager to let you know that your children may be very afraid. A presumably dead cat is hung in a Hogwarts hallway; Hogwarts students are frozen stiff ("petrified") by a monster; Harry and his sidekick Ron Weasley are attacked with surprising violence by a giant Whomping Willow after they crash-land a flying car in its gnarled branches. Later, they are chased through the Forbidden Forest by an army of giant spiders. The Mandrake plants — whose deadly screams require Herbology students to wear earmuffs — have roots resembling ugly, sharp-toothed fetuses. It's a disturbing image, but one that creature designer Nick Dudman calls necessary: "They mustn't have any element of sympathy about them," he says, "because they get chopped up."

The U.K. ratings board has slapped Chamber of Secrets with this warning: "Contains mild language and horror, and fantasy spiders." And Warner Bros. even worried that the new film would receive a PG-13 rating in the U.S. — a dangerous proposition since the core consumers for Potter toys, which generated about half a billion dollars in sales last time around, range in age from seven to 11. The studio was relieved when Chamber of Secrets got a PG rating (like Philosopher's Stone) but Columbus is in danger of becoming his own parental advisory label: "I would strongly caution parents, anyone who has a seven-year-old or younger, to make sure they know what they're getting into," he says.

He's telling the truth, but shrewdly — his warning is a not entirely unintentional come-on to older teens and young adults who thought the last Potter film skewed too young. In the posters for Chamber of Secrets, Harry looks intense, and he's holding a sword. It's an image designed to appeal to older audiences — the same moviegoers who embraced that other fantasy franchise launched a year ago, Lord of the Rings.

The competition between Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter — the sibling rivals of the AOL Time Warner corporate family — is intense. Last year's Fellowship of the Ring, the first of three J.R.R. Tolkien-based movies released by the company's New Line division, came in second at the box office behind Harry Potter. Unlike Potter, however, it ended up on numerous critics' best-of-the-year lists and received 13 Oscar nominations. This time it's widely assumed in Hollywood that Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, set for release on Dec. 18, will outgross Chamber of Secrets. Potter-mania seems to have quieted, partially because there hasn't been a Potter novel in two years. While Philosopher's Stone pulled in $318 million in the U.S., the sequel is expected to make closer to $250 million — still an impressive number, and Potter will undoubtedly win the merchandising race. According to Jim Silver, co-publisher of Toy Wishes magazine, Potter toys are already selling briskly, and stores have even reported shortages of Lego's Chamber of Secrets tie-ins.

While filming Philosopher's Stone, Columbus often had to step into the scene, just off camera, and coach his inexperienced young actors line by line, movement by movement. He would then painstakingly remove his own voice from the soundtrack. "I do a little of that now," says Columbus, "but they can literally get through entire sequences without me interrupting them." The child actors who appeared somewhat dazed in the first film seem more alive and relaxed now — especially 12-year-old Emma Watson as the know-it-all little witch Hermione Granger.

In Chamber of Secrets, the romance between Hermione and Ron begins to blossom — but just slightly. The set itself was more randy, and hormones sometimes raged among the large cast of pubescent actors and extras. Columbus says, "The problem I had in the Great Hall on one of the days was, a lot of notes were being passed back and forth — he likes her, she likes him. Finally, I said, 'Guys, this is not a romance school.'"

The kids may be getting older, but plenty of other things in Harry's world haven't changed. The original cast is intact, including grownups Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall, Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid and Richard Harris — who died last week — as Dumbledore. Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) and his nasty pals are still hatching nefarious plots. Production designer Stuart Craig's Diagon Alley — a teetering jumble of Tudor and Georgian magic shops — is still standing. Hogwarts Castle's mile-high central staircase continues to twist and turn according to its own whims. Columbus has included all of the book's greatest moments: Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint, 14, in whose voice you can hear the raspy effects of puberty) receives a "howler" telegram from his mother, which screams almost as loudly as the Mandrakes. He also coughs up a nifty series of giant slugs. Moaning Myrtle haunts the girls' restroom and dives through toilets, making a mess.

It all adds up to a two-hour-and-42-minute movie, which is nine minutes longer than Philosopher's Stone. Although Chamber of Secrets' pacing is more lively than the first film's, it still drags at times. Columbus is intent on getting as much of the book on screen as possible, and the movie inevitably creaks under the weight of Rowling's imagination. Columbus, in fact, was accused of being too slavishly faithful to Rowling's first book. This time, he also lets his own imagination run riot from time to time. In the new film, Quidditch — the ballgame played by witches and wizards on broomsticks — seems more like a thrilling car chase than an intramural sport. And Harry's showdown with a monstrous serpent in the bowels of Hogwarts should equal the most excitable readers' expectations.

Making their Potter debut in Chamber of Secrets are Dobby, a funny, forlorn, computer-animated elf, Miriam Margolyes as Professor Sprout and Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart, the vain Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher — a role that was much sought after by British actors last year. "It's rather winning," says Branagh of the character, "his combination of total confidence with an absolute absence of talent." Designing his wardrobe, costume designer Lindy Hemming departed from the book, which described Lockhart as wearing pastel colors. "None of us thought that would work," she says. "The film is quite dark, rich and glowing, and to put in modern sharp colors would be horrible."

During production of Chamber of Secrets, Rowling mostly left the filmmakers to their own devices. Screenwriter Steve Kloves sought her guidance when writing the script, but she did not visit the set. "I think she was busy writing the fifth novel," says Columbus. "She's there if we need her, but she trusts us now. One of the misperceptions of the movies is, she's coming in and ripping down the wallpaper." Now she'll have to trust someone else, since Columbus will not direct the third film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. "I really thought halfway through the second one, it's been almost two years since I've had dinner with my family during the week," says Columbus, who'll serve as executive producer on the next movie. His replacement: Alfonso Cuarón, a surprising choice since his last film was Y tu mamátambién, the racy, critically hailed Mexican road movie about two teenage boys and an older woman in a love triangle. But Cuarón has also had experience adapting the works of some other esteemed British authors — Frances Hodgson Burnett (1995's A Little Princess) and Charles Dickens (1998's Great Expectations).

The change in directors means that there probably won't be a new Potter film next year. Azkaban won't begin shooting until March. This will give Cuarón more pre-production time, and will allow Radcliffe to spend some time in a normal school, rather than with tutors on the set. Though Harry Potter has made him famous, and the world is watching him grow up, he insists that "not much has changed. I do get recognized sometimes. But I don't mind, because everybody is so enthusiastic about the film — apart from one person who thought I was Haley Joel Osment." The confusion is understandable. Both young fellows see dead people.

The Second....

"I think my favourite aspects of playing Hermione are her obsession with books, the way she talks, the clothes she wears, what she does, and that she's so over-tohe-top when it comes to work and books, she's fun to play becuase you can really overdo her.

She has great lines - utter tongue twisters. I can't tell you any just now, but they're cracking.

Since the Harry Potter films I can still do all that I did before but now I get recognised. I'ts hard to get used to, but it's really cool.

In the second film everyone is maturing and the storylines are becoming more complicated.

The story becomes more interesting and Hermione has a bigger part to play. She comes into her own in this book. In the first book she is an academic completely focused on her schoolwork. In the second one she has a crush on Professor Lockhart and essentially becomes an adolescent.

Various characters are left paralysed by the monster, the Basilisk, including Hermione, but she's also the first to unlock and retain vital information about the Chamber of Secrets.

Ron and Harry come to see her and are able to get the information from her. She actively contributes to Voldemort's downfall.

I don't know whether playing Hermione, or people telling me "You're so much like Hermione," is much of a compliment because she is not very fashionable. But lots of people do call me Hermione and forget my real name, which is annoying. Most people think I played Hermione well, though.

In real life, I particularly like comedies, I hate sad or violent stories. I want something that will make me laugh.

This sounds babyish, but I really like Shrek - so does Ron, my co-star [ Rupert Grint, who plays Harry's loyal sidekick.] I also like Ocean's 11 because Brad Pitt was in it. I love Brad Pitt. I liked A Knight's Tale because Heath Ledger was in it.

It's funny seeing the Hermione action figure. I hate the idea of three-year-olds around the country throwing me off cliffs or having me live in their bedrooms. Making the first movie, I was in awe of it all. But now, I'm used to it and I'm a little more laid-back.

Filming is sometimes boring, but it can also be fun. With 400 kids in the Great Hall, it got very hot, and after working for a week, the food stank, it was absolutely boiling, and everyone was bored.

So, to get all of the extras to laugh, Dan had to redeem himself by dancing on a table with Robbie Coltrane. That was hilarious - you had to be there to find it so funny. He did the Can Can and Macarena.

Without a shadow of doubt, my favourite scene in the second movie is in Lockahrt's classroom, with Gilderoy Lockhard and the Cornish Pixies. Kenneth Branagh made it really funny. It's been said that I said there was no chance of me kissing one of my co-stars but, in the fourth book, it looks like Hermione is getting flirty with Ron Weasley. I think that could happen, but I don't know if they'll be making a fourth one at all. Even if they do, I don't know if I'll be in it. If I am in it, I don't know whether I'll be looking forward to a romance with Ron - or, as we call him, Ginger or Carrot Top.

Ron's always being asked for autographs. He's signed someone's arm before, which was weird, and he's signed someone's chequebook as well as someone's leg. He rides a unicycle, but he can't really do it and doesn't get very far before falling off. He also platys pool and the guitar. He likes funny men like Mike Myerrs and Jim Carrey, and as well as Shrek he likes Dumb and Dumber,so he's a bit like me.

However, he says he would like to be a bird, and when people ask him what he'd like to see happen to Ron in future stories, he says he'd like not to have to fall in love with Hermione. He says he'd prefer to have Nicole Kidman if he had to have a love interest in a film.

As the main girl among a largely male cast, I've definitely got to keep them on heir toes. I have to order them around a lot nd show them who's boss.

I get on really, really well with Dan and Rupert and also with everyone elese who works on the Harry Potter set. So I don't have that much trouble.

I love playing Hermione, and I love all my co-stars, but sometimes I do miss my female friends."

MORE IN THE NEXT POST!!!

dh1989

10-27-2002, 09:53 PM

The third.....

As Harry Potter's brainy buddy Hermione, Emma watson porves that every boys' club need a girl in charge.

It's not easy being the only female in a roomful of teenage wizards, but 12-year-old Emma Watson seems to handle it just fine. "I stay on my toes," says Emma, who plays Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second movie based on the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. "Dan [aka Harry] and Rupert [aka Ron] make funny faces at me when I'm shooting. But I keep them in line. I'm very bossy!"

That's the only thing Emma has in common with her Harry Potter alter ego. For starters, she doesn't suck up to her teachers. "I'm not obsessed with my schoolwork," says the Oxford, England, native, who enjoys English class but despises Latin. "And I hang out with girls more than Hermione does."

While shooting throughout the U.K., Emma-- who had only acted in school plays before beating out thousands of girls for the role-- keeps in touch with her pals by e-mail and phone. "I love talking, as you can probably tell," she says.

One subject that's come up among Emma's friends is who Hermione might hook up with down the road. "Their prediction is Ron," says Emma. "I was like, 'Of all the people!'" Who should it be? "That," says Emma, sounding flustered for the first time, "is a big question mark."

Side Projects

Daniel: "Reading, going to the movies and competing with Rupert Grint in Medal of Honor on PlayStation 2. "Rupert's beating me horribly" Daniel admits.

Rupert: "For his birthday, Rupert asked for a unicycle. So far, he can pedal up to six times without falling off. 'I've always wanted to learn because it looks really good on TV.'"

Christian: "When Christian was 17, he performed in a musical about King Arthur here in the U.S. 'Kids were screaming as if they were at a Micheal Jackson concert,' he says."

Tom: "On Sundays, he works at a lake as a cook and tries to catch cod during his breaks." (He says on Draco: "He's a stuffy rich little [kid] ... I think he'd be fun to be around-- if you were that lonely.")

The Fourth....

The bond between the world's three most famous child actors is unbreakable -- they are still having a wizard time in the Harry Potter movies.

"I wouldn't have swapped this experience for anything," said Daniel Radcliffe, whose role as the bespectacled wizard propelled him to stardom in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone."

With next month's launch of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" he and co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint are back in the full glare of the media spotlight. None of them is blinking.

Radcliffe, a self-possessed and confident 13-year-old, said: "I think everyone who has worked on these films has grown, even the adults. And the bond I've formed, particularly with Emma and Rupert, will never be broken."

The first film grossed $965 million at the box office, a total topped only by "Titanic." With millions of devoted Potter fans hooked, Warner Bros. is confident of another bonanza.

But what of the children on whose young shoulders so much rests? They have spent some 300 days in front of the cameras in the past two years -- and their appetite for starting the third Potter movie appears undiminished.

Radcliffe insists: "I think my life has changed surprisingly little. I do normal kids' stuff. I have pizza parties and get my friends together and just be lazy boys."

Watson, 12, who plays prim and bossy Hermione, said: "Obviously, I am recognized in the street. I am away from home a lot more, and I even have an action figure of myself. But apart from that, I am trying to keep my life as normal as possible."

Grint, the 14-year-old who plays the cheeky Ron, comes across as the most laid back of all. "I get recognized sometimes and that is really cool," he told a press conference in London to launch the new movie.

But director Christopher Columbus was quick to issue an avuncular word of warning. Columbus, also known for directing Macaulay Culkin in the comedy hit "Home Alone," said: "For these kids, I suggest that they look at the lives of all the child actors who preceded them in terms of where it didn't work out.

"Why did these kids go wrong? Look at that and then look at people like Jodie Foster and Ron Howard, who were successful."

And he told the Potter stars not to hesitate if filming turned into a tedious treadmill: "Then walk away. Quit."

Columbus, now handing over the directorial reins to Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron for the next Potter movie, said: "I have put blood, sweat and tears into these movies. Having a relationship with these kids is one of the great things that have happened to me in my life."

Dumb-Fokker-**

10-28-2002, 02:12 PM

Wow, only 17 days left!!! You know, this past year has gone by EXTREMELY fast - for me anyways. Its weird, because I havent really seen much on television, regarding the film. It was the biggest film of last year, you figure they could, at least, have a few movie specials, and show some more commercials. I have only seen two commercials for this movie; last year, I must have seen a thousand of them. One thing I did notice from the trailers, however, is the Whomping Willow looks,....well, not too good. Everything else (that we have seen, obviously) is looking pretty damn good to me. Also, I am rather interested in the type of B.O. this film is going to do this year. As a film fan, its almost impossibly to be, at least, a little curious. And,...yeah, thats all I have to say.

dh1989

10-28-2002, 03:23 PM

Originally posted by Dumb-Fokker-**
Wow, only 17 days left!!! You know, this past year has gone by EXTREMELY fast - for me anyways. Its weird, because I havent really seen much on television, regarding the film. It was the biggest film of last year, you figure they could, at least, have a few movie specials, and show some more commercials. I have only seen two commercials for this movie; last year, I must have seen a thousand of them. One thing I did notice from the trailers, however, is the Whomping Willow looks,....well, not too good. Everything else (that we have seen, obviously) is looking pretty damn good to me. Also, I am rather interested in the type of B.O. this film is going to do this year. As a film fan, its almost impossibly to be, at least, a little curious. And,...yeah, thats all I have to say.

You have really only seen only two commercials. I must have seen about 25 now and as for the movie special thing, do not worry. I bet my bottom dollar that during the final week for this film there will be tons of specials and pieces on CoS. It has already stared. TIME magazine, among others, have already written articles about COS, Dan was on TRL, the whole trio is on Oprah tommorow, there was a big press event, the premiere is on 11/3, and Dan, Rupert, and Emma will host a COS show for HBO. It is going good for now, but I expect this already big campaign to double.

Congerking

10-28-2002, 10:18 PM

dh1989, i must give you mass props for making CRAZY posts for this movie. i wonder if opening day, when you give the ticket guy your ticket, you are going to wet yourself?? maybe faint from the excitement?? LOL !!!!!!!!!! im pretty hyped myself. i pose a question to you, how many times you gonig to see it the first weekend???

BTW: keep up the good work man.

TheMovieMinor

10-28-2002, 10:30 PM

I dont know what to say but i think this movie is going to blow just as the first one.

Congerking

10-28-2002, 10:35 PM

movieminor, do you not like the idea of harry potter or just the whole fantasy genre in general??

dh1989

10-29-2002, 04:53 PM

The big HP site today is Coutingdown.com!

First, they have over 20 minutes worth of new CoS clips.....
http://www.countingdown.com/movies/harrypotter2/multimedia/video?item_id=2624103

Second, they have an interview with Emma Watson....
http://www.countingdown.com/movies/harrypotter2/multimedia/video?item_id=2624171

Third, there is an interview with Daniel Radcliffe.....
http://www.countingdown.com/movies/harrypotter2/multimedia/video?item_id=2624164

Kucha

10-29-2002, 06:09 PM

Emma
oooooooh:)

dh1989

10-30-2002, 02:37 PM

Here are some new interviews....

Rupert Grint....
How has life changed for you since working on "Harry Potter"?
I get recognised sometimes, and that's really cool. I've tried certain disguises, but that doesn't work. Apart from that, not much has changed.
How did you like the action scenes in the movie?
For me the stunts are so cool, they're one of my favourite things when we're doing the film. Doing the car scene was great, it was like being in a theme park ride.

Which scenes did you like filming most?
My favourite scene was the slug scene [in which Ron regurgitates giant slugs]. I loved doing that scene because I had all this different flavoured slug slime... there was chocolate, peppermint, orange, lemon, and it made them taste really nice.

What were the most challenging scenes for you?
The most challenging scene for me was the spider scene, because I don't like spiders in real life. Even rubber ones I get really scared of.

Would you say you and your character are alike?
We're both scared of spiders, that was probably the main thing I could relate to in this film. We've both got big families, too.

What was it like working with Kenneth Branagh?
I was a bit nervous at first working with him, but once I got talking to him, he was just so easy to talk to, really funny.

Has working on the films affected your schoolwork?
I've just started school again, and it was a bit strange to start off with; it took me three or four days to get used to it. My friends have been great, they've been treating me normally. It's just the teachers... they tend to suck up a bit! Other than that it's been great.

What are the best and worst things about being so famous?
I've not experienced a worst bit, it's all good really. It's all cool.

Daniel Radcliffe.....
How did you like the action scenes in "Chamber of Secrets"?
The action scenes for me were so much fun. In the scene when I'm hanging out of the car window, that was actually me, I was hanging 25-30ft up in the air, and it was just really cool. I do as many of the stunts as possible, although obviously there are some I can't do.
Which scenes did you like filming most?
I loved filming the duelling scene, I thought that was really brilliant, because you've got the confrontation between Snape and Gilderoy Lockhart - who are totally different characters. I also loved the scenes were there were loads of people around, I love the crowd scenes.

What were the most challenging scenes for you?
Probably one of the most challenging scenes was the Parseltongue scene, because it was a completely different language [Harry speaks to snakes in their own language] and it was hard to get a hold on at first. I got used to it in the end.

What was it like working with Kenneth Branagh?
It's intimidating when you're first about to meet him, because he's this unbelievable Shakespearean actor. But then you actually meet him and he's one of the nicest guys I've ever met. It's an honour to work with him.

Is it true you've been working out because the owls are so heavy?
Kind of. I have been exercising a lot more, but not just for the owls. I've had to do more physical training for the film to do the climbing and the sword-fighting sequences.

What was it like working with Dobby?
It was kind of hard knowing what kind of facial expression an orange ball is making. There were digital effects on the first film, but none were as animated as Dobby is, so it was quite hard work. But I think most of the credit goes to Chris [Columbus] and everybody who worked on the film, for making it so easy for me.

Did you have nightmares after watching the film?
I was fine with it, I liked it, I liked the fact it was a darker, more edgy film. If you take away the darkness that's in the book, then you haven't done it justice when you've adapted it.

Emma Watson.....
How has life changed for you since you started the "Harry Potter" movies?
My family and friends' life hasn't really changed that much. Obviously I'm recognised in the street and I'm away from home a lot more. And I have an action figure of myself! Apart from that, I'm just trying to keep my life as normal as possible.
What was it like working with Kenneth Branagh?
When I first met him I thought he'd be really intimidating, but he's such an amazing person. He's really, really down to earth and is a really nice guy. I think he portrayed the character of Gilderoy Lockhart perfectly - really cheesy and really funny.

If you had a house elf, what things would you like him to do?
I wasn't in any scenes with Dobby, but I thought he was really sweet and I'd like to take him home and sit him on the bed with the rest of my cuddly toys.

Has working on the films affected your schoolwork?
When we were on set, we had a tutor to keep up with our school work - three hours minimum, five hours maximum, so we kept up and everything. I really enjoy school, so it was really nice to go back and be normal again. I've got quite big exams this year, so it's important that I go back to school in the gaps between filming.

Did you have nightmares after watching the film?
No, not at all. I think that's what makes it really good. Even though there a darker bits and the plot's a bit more complicated, there are still some light scenes - I was laughing all the way through.

What's the best and worst things about being so famous?
I think when you take away all the premieres and the press and all the frilly stuff off, you come down to the fact that it's just acting, and I think that's been the best thing for me.

Would you say you and your character are alike?
I think Hermione is very bossy, so in the film I get to boss Daniel and Rupert around, but I hope that doesn't happen too much in real life. She's very determined and very loyal. I'm not as academic as she is - I spend a lot more time doing sport and art. I'm not quite as obsesssed on the book front.

Chris Columbus....
Was it easier to do the film second-time round?
It was a lot easier. On the second film we really just had more fun. It was intense, because I wanted to make a film that was better than the first time. I felt slightly more confident, I know the young actors felt more confident - you can see it in their performances. We were able to improvise, which we were never able to do on the first film.
Did you take in any reaction to "Philosopher's Stone" in the course of doing "Chamber of Secrets"?
Not really. We really didn't have time to even think about the reaction, which was probably good for the kids [the actors] as well as those of us making the film. "Philosopher's Stone" opened on the Friday and we were back filming "Chamber of Secrets" on the Monday.

We always knew "Chamber of Secrets" would be stylistically a little different from "Philosopher's Stone" - it was a darker picture, edgier, with a bit more of an action-adventure/suspense slant. The first movie had 45 minutes of introduction. We immediately get into the story this time, which I think makes a huge difference.

How did you squeeze the novel down into the script?
I think the biggest omission was not to keep the Death Day party in the movie, which was one of our favourite scenes from the book. I think the film would have lost some of its intense pacing by putting that sequence in.

We knew with "Chamber of Secrets" that we had two opportunities for action sequences, and that's really what attracted me to the story. I always ask the kids on set, "What's your favourite "Harry Potter" book?" The "Chamber of Secrets" is rarely mentioned. And it's a great book because it's got one of the strongest and simplest stories to translate to screen. It also enables you to take sequences - the basilisk sequence, the spider sequence - and turn them into full-fledged action sequences, which to me as a filmmaker was just so exciting. I was like an eight-year-old kid again, I couldn't wait to get to the set the days we were shooting those scenes.

Can the child actors play their characters in all seven movies?
Logically it's going to take us longer to do the third than it has the first two films, which we've basically shot back-to-back. In the books, as you well know, the kids get progressively older, so they could presumably play the roles for all seven films. It's really up to them, and how much excitement and stamina and energy they have.

Did the sheer scale of working with so many special effects ever compromise your ability to work with the actors?
Not really. The one thing I learned on the first film, and the one thing I wanted to improve upon on the second film, were the visual effects, I felt we could have done better. We had three months on the first film; we shot all of the visual effects scenes first for "Chamber of Secrets", giving us eight to nine months. I think the effects are much better on this film.

I realised after doing the first film that with technology these days, you can do basically whatever you want, so it opens you up as a filmmaker. You can add a character wherever you like, so your imagination is freer and more open. It's been an incredible experience, and it hasn't hurt the actors at all, they love it.

dk789

10-31-2002, 12:33 PM

My dad's company will be holding a private screening of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets next Wednesday (11/6). It's pretty overwhelming because they rent out an entire movie complex and will show the movie on 5 different screens to that all employees and their family can enjoy the show. I'll let everyone know how it goes. :)

dh1989

10-31-2002, 03:18 PM

Originally posted by dk789
My dad's company will be holding a private screening of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets next Wednesday (11/6). It's pretty overwhelming because they rent out an entire movie complex and will show the movie on 5 different screens to that all employees and their family can enjoy the show. I'll let everyone know how it goes. :)

We can all look forward to that, if you are allowed. I am aware that the WB has very strict rules about screening a film and posting early reviews. :(

dh1989

10-31-2002, 03:26 PM

There are some cool new photos today from CoS......

Filch finds Harry who found a petrified Justin......
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/HarryJustin.jpg

Columbus talks to Biggerstaff and Radcliffe before a take.....
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/QuiddGearChrisCol.jpg

Ron and Harry in Snape's office. That does not look like Martha Stewart's Spring line.....
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/HarryRonSnapesOffice.jpg

I Know.....I Know.....I Know.......
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/HermioneHandUp.jpg

RIP Richard Harris.....
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/RichardHarris.jpg

Harry and a sword. Harry either stabbed something or was painting a barn.....
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/HarrySword.jpg

Felton....
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/TomFelton.jpg

Emma Watson....
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/Emma.jpg

dh1989

10-31-2002, 03:31 PM

Arthur Weasley....
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/Arthur.jpg

Argus Filch....
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/Filch.jpg

Miserable, Moaning Myrtle....
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/Myrtle.jpg

Ginny....
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/Ginny.jpg

Radcliffe...
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/Daniel.jpg

Hermione, Harry, and Ron. The Hogwarts Hero Trio come to the screen again on November 15th, 2002....
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/TrioFun.jpg

dh1989

10-31-2002, 03:40 PM

Originally posted by Congerking
dh1989, i must give you mass props for making CRAZY posts for this movie. i wonder if opening day, when you give the ticket guy your ticket, you are going to wet yourself?? maybe faint from the excitement?? LOL !!!!!!!!!! im pretty hyped myself. i pose a question to you, how many times you gonig to see it the first weekend???

BTW: keep up the good work man.

I already have tickets.

Friday- 12:01 AM
9:00 AM
3:30 PM
10:00 PM

Saturday- 3:30 PM
6:10 PM
10:00 PM

Sunday- 9:00 AM
7:30 PM

So nine times. :) By the way, thanks for your kind words. I am happy you enjoy it here! :)

dh1989

10-31-2002, 06:51 PM

Cornelius Fudge....
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2625381_main.jpg

He looks quite good. Pretty much like my imagination.

Horror whore

10-31-2002, 07:14 PM

You already have 9 tickets?! I'll be lucky to see it twice opening weekend, but I am buying my tickets this week.

idealdiscountdude

10-31-2002, 11:32 PM

I can't believe that it is almost time for Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets. I'm really friggin' excited for it!

I'm going to see the first showing, opening day at 12 noon (Fri 15th of Nov).

Only 14 days guys! :)

Congerking

11-01-2002, 01:28 AM

Originally posted by dh1989
I already have tickets.

Friday- 12:01 AM
9:00 AM
3:30 PM
10:00 PM

Saturday- 3:30 PM
6:10 PM
10:00 PM

Sunday- 9:00 AM
7:30 PM

So nine times. :) By the way, thanks for your kind words. I am happy you enjoy it here! :)

DAMN, the movie theater is going to wonder about you, LOL. Im hyped as well, as I'm sure everyone else is too.

dh1989

11-01-2002, 07:47 AM

First, I have these new French posters for CoS......

Harry one.....
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/HarryPoster.jpg

Hermione one.....
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/HermionePoster.jpg

Ron one.....
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/RonPoster.jpg

Draco one....
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/DracoPoster.jpg

My favorite is Draco. I really love the green tint and the withered hand(on sale in Borgin & Burkes in Knockturn Alley). Very creepy.

Second, here are some interview pages from Total Film....

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/TotalFilmFlourishLucius.jpg

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/TotalFilmLuciusGilderoy.jpg

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/TotalFilmFlourishArthur.jpg

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/10/TotalFilmMyrtleFudge.jpg

Third, here is a link to some cool stuff from USA Today....

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2002-10-30-harry-potter_x.htm

Enjoy! And I'd like to wish you all a happy late Halloween! I cannot believe November is finally here!

Jedi

11-01-2002, 03:36 PM

Originally posted by dh1989
I already have tickets.

Friday- 12:01 AM
9:00 AM
3:30 PM
10:00 PM

Saturday- 3:30 PM
6:10 PM
10:00 PM

Sunday- 9:00 AM
7:30 PM

So nine times. :) By the way, thanks for your kind words. I am happy you enjoy it here! :)

You go for it pal! Good for you :) Too bad I will only be able to see it once or twice opening weekend coz, and I mentioned that before, I have to go 5 hours away from home to see it. Then I have to wait for Christmas!
That isn't fait :(
Anyways, less than two weeks left! I can't believe it! I never thought I'll love a franchise like I did with HP.

PS: dh1989, your posts are wonderful.

dh1989

11-01-2002, 10:00 PM

Originally posted by Jedi
You go for it pal! Good for you :) Too bad I will only be able to see it once or twice opening weekend coz, and I mentioned that before, I have to go 5 hours away from home to see it. Then I have to wait for Christmas!
That isn't fait :(
Anyways, less than two weeks left! I can't believe it! I never thought I'll love a franchise like I did with HP.

PS: dh1989, your posts are wonderful.

First, for your "PS" remark I must steal a line from Dumbledore in Sorcerer's Stone novel......

"Its good it is dark. I have not blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs." :)

I have a question for you, where do you live? I cannot think of any European or North American country who does not get CoS 'till after Christman. There are many in Asia, do u live there? Anwho, once again thanks for your kind words. Please continue to vist and enjoy yourself. :) :) :)

Jedi

11-02-2002, 03:33 AM

Originally posted by dh1989
First, for your "PS" remark I must steal a line from Dumbledore in Sorcerer's Stone novel......

"Its good it is dark. I have not blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs." :)

I have a question for you, where do you live? I cannot think of any European or North American country who does not get CoS 'till after Christman. There are many in Asia, do u live there? Anwho, once again thanks for your kind words. Please continue to vist and enjoy yourself. :) :) :)

Well, I don't know if I will be getting it in Christmas. I live in a small town and movies come to us after they are released elsewhere :(

dh1989

11-02-2002, 03:12 PM

I cannot believe this! Only 12 days left! I remember when it was 300 days and now it is only 12. This is so exciting. Less than two weeks away. It is going to be wonderful.

First, here are some new pages from National Geographic Kids and People.....

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/11/NationalGeographicKids1.jpg

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/11/NationalGeographicKids2.jpg

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/11/NationalGeographicKids3.jpg

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/11/NationalGeographicKids4.jpg

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/11/PeopleRHTribute1.jpg

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/11/PeopleRHTRibute2.jpg

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/11/PeoplePopQuiz.jpg

Second, CountingDown.com had to take away the CoS clips due to bandwith troubles, but Yahoo! has them and you can now check out the coolness at: http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1807858489&cf=trailer%20 There are also some interviews with the actors there.

Third, the official site has updated with a few new screensavers. I just downloaded Gryffindor Vs. Slytherin.

http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/diagonalley/fb_screens.html?fromtout=hpnl_0220021031

Fourth, there are some new posters and I will post them in my next post. Just scroll down a tiny bit.

dh1989

11-02-2002, 03:25 PM

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/11/NPDan.jpg

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/11/NParticle.jpg

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/11/NPpeople1.jpg

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/2002/11/NPpeople2.jpg

Enjoy!

Congerking

11-02-2002, 05:46 PM

sweet, once again thanx dh1989. do you change avatar's everyday. LOL, just kidding, thanx man.

idealdiscountdude

11-02-2002, 09:09 PM

Woo Hoo!!!

I can't wait till November 15th. I have been waiting a whole year to see Harry, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, Madame Hooch (my personal fave), etc. on the big screen again!

The Chamber Of Secrets thus far, has ben my second favorite novel in the series right behind The Prisoner Of Azkaban.

I'm hoping that like the first Harry Potter movie, that the film looks exactly like what I imagined while reading the book (which was really cool).

On a side note, I must say that dh1989 does one helluva job in this forum. It's obvious that he has a passion for the Harry Potter series and puts a great deal of time and effort into maintaining this forum and keeping it interesting. (And he doesn't get paid for it! Now that shows DEDICATION!)

Congrats dh1989, keep up the good work dude! :)

dh1989

11-02-2002, 09:20 PM

Originally posted by idealdiscountdude
Woo Hoo!!!

I can't wait till November 15th. I have been waiting a whole year to see Harry, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, Madame Hooch (my personal fave), etc. on the big screen again!

The Chamber Of Secrets thus far, has ben my second favorite novel in the series right behind The Prisoner Of Azkaban.

I'm hoping that like the first Harry Potter movie, that the film looks exactly like what I imagined while reading the book (which was really cool).

On a side note, I must say that dh1989 does one helluva job in this forum. It's obvious that he has a passion for the Harry Potter series and puts a great deal of time and effort into maintaining this forum and keeping it interesting. (And he doesn't get paid for it! Now that shows DEDICATION!)

Congrats dh1989, keep up the good work dude! :)

I wish Madame Hooch would return. Zoe wanted more cash and the WB did not want to give it. Instead of going through negotiations, they just said your out of CoS. I wonder who will be the Quidditch ref now. :(

On a side note, with all these compliments coming in, I look as if I sprayed fire engine paint on my cheeks! You all are so nice and all I want out of this job is pleased Potter fans. Although a few million and a Jaguar would be okay too.

idealdiscountdude

11-02-2002, 09:22 PM

Originally posted by dh1989
I wish Madame Hooch would return. Zoe wanted more cash and the WB did not want to give it. Instead of going through negotiations, they just said your out of CoS. I wonder who will be the Quidditch ref now. :(

On a side note, with all these compliments coming in, I look as if I sprayed fire engine paint on my cheeks! You all are so nice and all I want out of this job is pleased Potter fans. Although a few million and a Jaguar would be okay too.

Holy crap! I had no clue that the woman who played Madame Hooch was not returning :( Darn it!

Oh well.........what can ya do?

dh1989

11-02-2002, 11:24 PM

First, here is an article talking to Stuart Craig, the production designer on CoS....

Magic tricks of Harry Potter effects wizard
By GRANT ROLLINGS

THE magic of the Harry Potter movies is down to a triple Oscar winner who most of the film’s fans will never have heard of.

Production designer Stuart Craig is the technical wizard who brings the character’s world to life for the blockbusters — marshalling his team of artists, construction workers and
computer boffins.

Here he gives us an exclusive preview of some of the studio trickery he has conjured up for the new £65million film Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets.

Stuart, who was nominated for an Academy Award for the first movie, Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, says: “I’ve been in this business 35 years and I haven’t done a film like Chamber Of Secrets before, with all its technical complexity and visual effects.”

One of the most impressive special effects in the sequel is the Chamber itself, described by Potter author JK Rowling in her book as “impossibly tall, absolutely cavernous”.

Leavesden studios, near Watford, where both Potter movies were shot, had two problems.

First the crew could not build a high set because the roof of Leavesden — an old factory where Rolls Royce made helicopter engines until the Sixties — is quite low.

Second they could not dig a hole to represent the Chamber because the studio is above a Tube line.

Stuart, 60, says: “The Chamber really was the biggest challenge because of the restricted height at Leavesden. It’s not really a proper film studio, it’s a disused factory.

To get round it we built the Chamber as big as we could then flooded the set so this enormous underground cavern appears to go on beneath the water.

“We had to get the water to be completely still so it reflected everything above it. The reflections worked beautifully.”

But Stuart laughed: “We only used a foot of water because we had to be careful we didn’t flood the Tube!”

Stuart’s team includes 23 architectural draftsmen, 300 construction workers, four set-dressers, four sculptors, two scenic artists, five portrait artists, 20 propmakers and many other specialists.

Telling how his ideas were made real by his talented crew he says: “I’d prepare rough sketches of the sets and draftsmen would do the architectural drawings.

They then became the blueprints we would give to the carpenters, plasterers and propmakers who would bring the ideas to life.

“There was also a set-decorating department, which made the small props such as wands, and a graphics department of three people producing stuff such as labels and the signs in the bookshops.

“Even with these small things in the films you are looking at more than two-and-a-half-years work.

“We even had a broomstick factory — a girl called Tracey spent months and months making wall-to-wall broomsticks!”

Creating the stunning sets, such as the Hogwarts’ hospital wing, Professor Dumbledore’s office and Professor Lockhart’s classroom, took six months of preparation and six months of shooting.

The Chamber set itself took four months to make, while giant Hagrid’s hut was finished in about eight weeks.

But not every visual effect is created in the traditional way. Animatronics — electrically-operated puppets — and computer-generated images are also used.

In Chambers, new character Dobby the house elf is brought to life with computers.

Stuart says that in a typical scene with Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Dobby, Harry would be filmed separately then married up with the computer image of the elf, so it looked as if they were “acting” together.

He also reveals how computers were used to create Quidditch — the flying ball game wizards and witches play on broomsticks.

He says: “We make our technical, scaled drawings and issue the blueprints.

“But instead of taking them to the carpenters you take it to the visual effects department who then build the bits to be shown in the film — like the goalposts or part of the tower — in the computer.

“In the three-headed dog scene in the first movie we made his paw with animatronics so the actors could interact with it.

“There was an animatronic version for use on the set with the live actors and, for the more sophisticated stuff, we used a computer-generated version.

“We also did that with the phoenix that is in the second movie and also the huge snake.

“But sometimes we would have to use a stick with a light on the end, which represented the eyes of whatever exotic creature it was.

That way the actors had some idea of the physical space occupied by whatever creature we were creating and where their eyes should be focusing.”

Stuart, who was born in Norwich, started his career in theatre design after art school.

His first assignment in film was as a junior in the art department for Casino Royale, a spoof of the James Bond movies.

He won his first Oscar in 1981 for Gandhi, a second in 1988 for Dangerous Liaisons and his third in 1996 for The English Patient.

After so many years in the movie industry Stuart still worries about not finishing ambitious projects on time.

He says: “You start with an air of panic and want everything to be ready on the first day but the truth is it doesn’t have to be.

We were still building sets for Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets right up to the end of shooting. But I’ve learned to pace myself.”

Because of the huge popularity of the Harry Potter films, the props are worth a fortune.

But Stuart has never been tempted to take any home as keepsakes. Instead they are all stored to be taken to a movie museum.

Stuart says: “I think in the past a lot of stuff from older films was junked so it’s nice that these things are being saved.

“Plus it would be very difficult to take home something like the Chamber Of Secrets set which is 250ft by 120ft.”

Only a real wizard could manage that.

Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets is out on November 15

Here are the photos than ran with the story.

A snake head on the Chamber of Secrets set....
http://www.thesun.co.uk/picture/0,,2002501349,00.jpg

A picture of the genius Mr. Craig....
http://www.thesun.co.uk/picture/0,,2002501355,00.gif

A statue of Salazar Slytherin....
http://www.thesun.co.uk/picture/0,,2002501350,00.gif

The Hogwarts hospital wing ran by Madam Pomfrey......
http://www.thesun.co.uk/picture/0,,2002501351,00.gif

Dumbledore's office.....
http://www.thesun.co.uk/picture/0,,2002501352,00.gif

Lockhart's classroom....
http://www.thesun.co.uk/picture/0,,2002501353,00.gif

The heading of the article....
http://www.thesun.co.uk/picture/0,,2002501348,00.gif

Second, here is a transcript from the trio's appearance on Oprah...
http://www.danradcliffe.com/oprahtran102902.html

Third, here is some info about the international soundtrack....
The international edition of the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets soundtrack, which will be available from Monday, November 11, will feature a bonus CD containing 2 film trailers, a screensaver, a wallpaper and downloadable sheet music (we'll keep you posted o_n this as we get more details).

Fourth, CountingDown.com's interview with Rupert Grint has finally appeared at: http://www.countingdown.com/movies/harrypotter2/multimedia/video?item_id=2626007

Remember only 11 days left until Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts. It is sooooo exciting.

dh1989

11-04-2002, 11:01 AM

The wait is almost over! It is like a NASA countdown.....

10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
WE HAVE LIFT OFF! :)

Okay to business.....

First, here are some shots from the world premiere yesterday in London...

Daniel Radcliffe(Harry Potter).....
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2628781_main.jpg

J.K. Rowling(Potter author) and her new husband, Dr. Neil Murray.....
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2628779_main.jpg

Robbie Coltrane(Hagrid).....
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2628770_main.jpg

Alan Rickman(Snape).....
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2628769_main.jpg

Emma Watson(Hermione)......
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2628752_main.jpg

Bonnie Wright(Ginny)......
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2628741_main.jpg

James and Oliver Phelps(Fred and George Weasley)......
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2628719_main.jpg

Rupert Grint(Ron Weasley).....
http://images.countingdown.com/images/countdowns/movies/28937/1011/2628670_main.jpg

if you were wondering what the poppy on the shirts meant here is an answer found over at The Leaky Cauldron.....
Regarding Daniel's lapel decoration. It's is neither an apple nor a tomato but a poppy. Every year the Royal British Legion sells these paper poppies for remembrance day 11th November (the date when the armistice was signed to end WW1). Most British citizens give a small donation (£1 or similar) as a mark of respect for any British soldier who has lost their life. People in the public eye (particularly news readers) start wearing them from mid-October. The poppy was chosen as a symbol for remembrance because after the conflict was over poppies grew on the battlefields (they seem to thrive in churned up land) and the red was reminiscent of the blood that was shed.

For more info, please visit: http://www.poppy.org.uk/

Now on to the second and final update for today.....

http://www.itv.com/news/VideoReports391603.html

That URL has a short interview with Chris Rankin(Percy Weasley). He has two jobs an actor in Harry Potter and........a movie usher. :)

Thats all folks!

Congerking

11-04-2002, 01:29 PM

so, thats what jk rowling looks like. thats the first time i have seen her. not quite what i expected, but it never is.

Congerking

11-04-2002, 10:59 PM

a pointless reply, but ahhhhhhhhh, this movie is gunna rock.

dh1989

11-05-2002, 08:18 AM

It is so cool that it is less than 10 days until CoS hits the screen! Woo-Hoo!

First, here is an article from L.A. Times......

"Chamber of Secrets" also forgoes any kind of recap, but over at Warner Bros., folks have a slightly different definition of a non-sequel sequel. They stress that, like the books, each film can stand on its own. "You don't have to have seen the first film to enjoy the second," Heyman said, "although it makes it a richer experience if you have."

"Chamber of Secrets" too is different in tone and focus from its predecessor. It is a bit more sinister and more psychologically complex, which reflects the filmmaker's intentions as much as it follows similar shifts in Rowling's book.

"The film is darker," Heyman said, "but fairy tales traditionally are a way of preparing children for what lies ahead. The world is not a safe place."

The script focuses on the three (or four, if you count Draco Malfoy) main characters, although the faculty of Hogwarts remains a Who's Who in British theater. Alan Rickman's delicious Professor Snape gets less screen time, but the addition of Kenneth Branagh as the new defense against the dark arts instructor, Gilderoy Lockhart, and Jason Isaacs as Draco's reptilian father, Lucius, may placate adult audiences.

"The first movie, I wanted more Alan Rickman," Columbus said. "The second movie, I wanted more Alan Rickman. But we focused on the story, which follows the kids."

Having a core cast of young actors creates logistical problems for any movie -- minors can only film four hours a day. Using the same core cast of young actors for a series of films adds another twist -- biology. When plans for the first movie were announced, the idea was that there would be a film a year and the cast would age along with the characters. So it isn't all that surprising to find that Ron and Harry have deeper voices than in "The Sorcerer's Stone" or that Hermione's face is not quite as round.

"We expect growth spurts," Heyman said. "The trouble is when they occur in the middle of shooting, because we don't shoot in sequence. I don't think the audience will notice," he said of several early scenes in which the actors seem a bit older than in later scenes, "but of course I do."

Heyman and Columbus quickly scotched rumors that the third movie, "The Prisoner of Azakban," was to be re-cast. But many plans have changed in recent months -- the nifty idea of a film a year is out (the third movie won't begin shooting until early next year and will be released in 2004), the recent death of Richard Harris will necessitate recasting of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, and Columbus is turning over his director's chair to Alfonso Cuarón ("Little Princess," "Y Tu Mamá También") for the third film. To ensure a gentle transition for the young actors, he will remain on the set as a producer until at least June. Columbus bowed out, he said, because he felt he had given his all to "Chamber of Secrets." Cuarón will bring a new eye and sensibility to the series. "You'll see new magic at Hogwarts," Heyman said.

That is really it for today. As CoS is close there are not tons of updates coming out now.

dh1989

11-06-2002, 03:14 PM

CoS is only eight days away! Here is today's update......

First, Germain Lussier spoke with David Heyman(producer of CoS), Chris Columbus(director of CoS), and cast. The interview is below......

BY GERMAIN LUSSIER | Recently, Germain Lussier talked with the producer, director and cast of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets". Read on for the full interviews.

As a big time producer or director, ones work is never done and that goes doubly for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets team David Heyman and Chris Columbus. There’s press to promote the latest film, pre-production for the third film, and lastly, the passing of friend and colleague, Richard Harris, know affectionately to this generation as Professor Albus Dumbledore. Talking to these men, one gets the feeling that their ability to balance each task is what makes them successful. Prospective filmmakers should take notes…like I did at the press junket for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in New York last week.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets chronicles Harry’s second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The book, widely regarded as the public’s least favorite, centers on a mysterious force petrifying wizards who are not pure blooded, and Harry, as usual, finds himself smack in the middle of the action. Columbus explained why, despite the second book’s lack of popularity, he was more excited about making this film than the last. “It’s always Azkaban first, then Sorcerer’s Stone, then Goblet of Fire, then Chamber of Secrets. And I never really could figure out why but then when I was reading it I thought, well, it’s almost more of a cinematic experience.” He’s referring specifically to the climatic scene with an 80-foot snake and a scene with hundreds of spiders chasing Harry and Ron, his best friend. “In the book [these scenes] work on a literary level, but I really wanted to open them up into full blown action sequences.”

To do that, however, Columbus and Heyman both knew they would have to improve on the visual effects of the first film, which were decidedly lacking. “We only had three months to do [the effects] on the first film. So we did all the visual effects shots first. We had eight to nine months to complete them all, which gave us almost three times as much time to fix the effects and make them really, really good for Chamber of Secrets,” Columbus said. Producer Heyman concurred, “We scheduled a lot of the visual effects sequences up front: The pixies, the flying car, Quidditch. Last time, we did not finish filming Quidditch until June, so that gave us four months to really hone the visual effects, which is tough.” Heyman added, “The robes in the first [Quidditch game] were tighter and heavier, so we put lighter material on them to give you a great sense of movement. Also, having the players play closer to a surface to give a greater sense of speed. So we put in the trench sequence.” And no, sorry, Star Wars fans. The trench sequence in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is not an homage to A New Hope;“that’s actually a coincidence,” Columbus said.

Also much improved in this film are the CGI characters, in particular, Dobby the house elf. “We had a mantra on the film,” Columbus said, “that we didn’t want to be like a certain other CG character, an extremely annoying character. [This ‘Phantom’ Character Columbus refused to disclose] really affected us in a bad way.” Columbus said that while shooting the Dobby scenes, Daniel Radcliffe (who plays Harry) was working with only an orange ball on a stick, but the ILM guys were truly amazed at what he was doing. “They’ve seen actors twice his age not being able to focus,” he said. The result is seamless interaction between Harry and the small character, which plays a big part in not only this film, but the fourth as well.

So, with all their problems seemingly solved and the film ready to release on November 15th, what’s next? Harry’s third year and third film: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Heyman will return as producer with Columbus by his side, handing off the directorial reigns to Alfonso Cuaron (Y Tu Mama Tambien, A Little Princess). Heyman confirms that the third film is already in active pre-production and that shooting will begin in either March or February of 2003, with a scheduled release date sometime in either the summer of winter of 2004. The principal cast of the first two has signed on and will all be returning for the third year straight. J.K Rowling, the author of the novels, along with Heyman, Cuaron and Steve Kloves, the screenwriter, have already met to discuss the script and all parties are excited about the project. Columbus, equally excited about his new producer position, told us why he had decided to step down as director for the third Harry Potter installment. “It’s been two and a half years and I haven’t had dinner during the week with my own children. Ironically they’re the people who got me into the whole Harry Potter world and now they’re the people who are getting me out of it,” he said. Columbus also spoke about “his other family,” the three kids who play Harry, Ron and Hermione and what his last day on set was like. “We had just done the library scene where Hermione finds the Polyjuice Potion. And I just realized that that was the last time the four of us would be working together in that capacity. So we just sort of walked off and talked a little bit…and I kept undercutting it by saying, ‘We’re going to see each other again, we’re going to be on the set together next year,’ it was extremely emotional.”

Heyman also discussed the fourth film, the final in the current canon of Harry Potter novels as fans anxiously await book five, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. “At the moment I don’t know if we’re making a fourth. I hope we will, it looks like we will. What we’ve done, we’re negotiating with a screenwriter [Steve Kloves] to write the fourth but that’s it,” Heyman said. So right now the focus is primarily on the third film.

Unfortunately though, the cast and crew of the third film, and the entire film community presumably, have their thoughts on their beloved Professor Dumbledore, Richard Harris, who passed away last week. When these interviews were conducted, Harris was still alive, but extremely sick. Director Columbus did manage to give the press a quote that truly embodies the passion of Richard Harris, a truly wonderful and talented man. Harris told Columbus, “If you ever blank think about blank recasting me, I’ll blank kill you.” When questioned about the then possibility, now reality, of Harris not returning Columbus said, “I can’t even think about that. To me it’s like a whole family. I have to believe, in these kind of situations, when you have someone you’re close to who’s not doing well, you have to believe they’re going to get through it. He’s 72 but he’s one of the toughest people I’ve ever met.”

THE CAST

Imagine being plucked out of obscurity and cast to play some of the most beloved roles in recent literary history. Then imagine your film grossing nearly a billion dollars across the world and instantly becoming a recognizable celebrity, all over the course of a few months. Well, a year later and with a second film in the can, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint don’t look like they feel any of the pressure that might come with that particular situation. Each was poised, funny, and very succinct with their answers as they moseyed up to the podium in front of hundreds of journalists in New York last week for the press junket for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

“I could be 100 years old and in my rocker and I’ll always be very, very proud that I was in a Harry Potter film.” This sentiment, expressed by Emma Watson, seemed to be the overall feeling of the films stars. Even though they are child celebrities and in two Chris Columbus movies, none of them seem worried about taking the wrong path. When asked what was the best thing about being a celebrity, each gave very simple and humble answer, such as meeting other celebrities, getting recognized and wearing cool clothes. Answers like that hammer home the point that these kids don’t consider themselves celebrities; they’re just like any other kids, they just happen to star in two blockbuster films.

This innocent tone was like a blanket over the entire proceeding. When Dan, Rupert and Emma were questioned about their characters possibly “getting together” with each other, their innocence was as apparent as the clothes on their backs. Dan said, “I think these two [Ron and Hermione] are going to get together, that’s my prediction.” Rupert concurred, much to his dismay, because that would mean acting like he was in love with Emma. Emma also spoke about being nervous having to hug Dan for the end of the film. Before she could answer, Dan chimed in, “Be careful…” which was followed by laughter. Emma retorted, “I’ll be very careful. For starters it was cringe, but then it was ok. Where better to hug somebody than in front of 300 kids and everyone else in the world?”

Each spoke about how they have signed on to do the third film and are excited about the story and new director Alfonso Cuaron. “Alfonso’s a really, really nice guy and I really think it’s exciting working with someone new,” Emma said. Dan is looking forward to his scenes with Sirius Black and Lupin, whomever plays the roles, while Emma can’t wait for the hippogriff and Rupert is excited for the dementors. As for this film, Emma most enjoyed her scenes with Kenneth Branagh, Dan found it fantastic to watch Branagh and Rickman go at it on the dueling club set, while Rupert enjoyed the flying car, but especially coughing up slugs. “I had to try all these different flavors of slime. There was orange, lemon, peppermint, chocolate, and it made it taste really nice,” he said.

In between this film and the next, the three stars are all going back to school, and Dan in particular just started a new one. “All the people I’ve met [at school] have been absolutely fantastic. There’s no jealously, I haven’t been bullied or anything, because everybody’s been really nice,” Dan said. When not filming or in school, Dan has become a punk rock fan and film buff. “I absolutely love Wes Anderson and The Royal Tenenbaums. My favorite film of all time is Twelve Angry Men. I think it’s just one of the most amazing films ever,” he said.

And while Harry might not watch Wes Anderson films and listen to the Sex Pistols like Dan does, the two have many similarities. “I think I’m going to go and have to have therapy one day. When I keep reading the books, I just find out more about myself that Harry has in his personality too, like curiosity, not being afraid to stand up for yourself, and getting in trouble,” Dan said. That being said, there didn’t seem to be too much trouble on the set of the film. “I threw Rupert of the window,” Dan said in as stern a voice as possible, following it up quickly buy saying, “No [the three of us] have never had a fight.”

But one fight that did happen, on screen that is, is the climatic battle between Harry and the 80-foot basilisk. “[The crew] built 25 foot of it and gave him a head, which was actually quite hard to fight because I kept knocking the teeth out of his mouth. So they had to spend hours and hours repairing it,” Dan said.

Each of the stars of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets obviously love being in these films, but Rupert Grint put it best. His favorite part of being in this film was, “Coughing up slugs and coming to New York.” For these kids the term child celebrity is exactly right. They are children first, and celebrities second. Who else but a child would say that slugs and New York were the best part of being in a multi million dollar movie?

The original URL is: http://www.countingdown.com/features?feature_id=2631969

Second, CountingDown.com(which seems to be the site to look at for Potter news) has posted a video interview with Chamber of Secrets director, Chris Columbus and here is the synopsis for the interview....

Potter director Chris Columbus in an interesting interview talks about how Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a better film than the first since his team was given double the amount of time to create stunning special effects than the first film. The director also adds that the next installment due in theaters on November 15 is darker and contains much more action than the first.

The URL of the interview is: http://www.countingdown.com/theater/interviews/detail/2624446

That is it for today. Only 8 days until the Heir of Slytherin returns to Hogwarts!

dh1989

11-07-2002, 07:22 AM

Only 7 days until CoS opens nation wide in theatres! Here is today's Potter update......

First, is an article on Emma Watson and her now infamous hugging scene with Daniel Radcliffe......

Romance for Harry Potter Stars?

Wednesday, November 6, 2002

During the filming of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Emma Watson — who plays know-it-all Hermione Granger — faced many a challenge, including being turned into a cat and petrified. But the scene that caused her the greatest hardship was the one which required her to — yikes — hug a boy! And not just any boy: The 12-year-old actress had to wrap her arms around Harry Potter himself — fellow Brit Daniel Radcliffe.

"It [made me] cringe," Watson squeamishly admits. "It's weird to hug somebody in front of 300 kids and everybody else in the whole entire world."

Luckily, her 13-year-old co-star was a perfect gentleman. "He was really nice about it," she notes of Radcliffe. "You'd think he might be like, 'Eww, get off of me!' But he wasn't. It was very nice."

"I was thinking, 'Get off me!' actually," adds Radcliffe with a laugh. "No, I wasn't. I was cool with it. I didn't mind at all."

Well, now that Watson has revealed her least favorite sequence in Chamber of Secrets — opening Nov. 15 — which one did she like best? "My favorite bits in this movie [were] probably the Gilderoy Lockhart scenes," she smirks. "I thought [they were] pretty good." Sounds like someone would have rather hugged Kenneth Branagh!

Original URL: http://www.tvguide.com/newsgossip/insider/021106b.asp

Second, here are two new photos of Tom Felton and Dan Radcliffe from NICK Magazine.....

http://www.nick.com/all_nick/nick_mag/images/nov02_01.gif

Thats it for today although there will be some updates to the CoS review thread and the T.V. Watch! Remember, ONLY 7 DAYS LEFT!

Jedi

11-07-2002, 01:55 PM

Wow dh1989!! This is really amazing! How can u catch\find this stuff!
THUMBS UP :)

dh1989

11-08-2002, 08:46 AM

Only 6 days until the Chamber is opened......

First, CountingDown.Com has released a new photo of Hermione in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.....
http://images.countingdown.com/images/features/2633276/hermione.jpg

Second, Todd McCarthy has written his review of CoS. I will post the whole thing in our review thread, but there is one line you all should read. When you see Chamber of Secrets stay in the theatre until the credits are over for a short, amusing filmed sequence. Here is the exact sentence from Mr. McCarthy's review....

At the end of them is a very short filmed coda revealing the humorous fate of one of the principals.

Finally, I'd like to remind you all to turn into the the WB network tonight at 8:00 PM. During the comedies they are going to show a complete sequence from Chamber of Secrets where Harry first goes to Dumbledore's office and Fawkes bursts into flame/reborn from the ashes.

dh1989

11-09-2002, 08:31 AM

Only five days until the Chamber of Secrets is opened!

Today's update is an article about Jason Isaacs, who plays Lucius Malfoy.....

The darkness of Malfoy

Jason Isaacs relishes his role as the perfect Hogwarts bad guy, complete with flowing cloak and a particularly sinister stick. But underneath the mantle of the archetypal villain, Vicky Allan finds a thoroughly decent chap

Jason Isaacs walks in the door carrying a big fat stick with a snake's head on the end, and already it's clear he's going to bring a whole new brand of creepiness to the magical world of Hogwarts.
I don't need to see him in his costume, swathed in ermine and paisley, clouds of blond hair falling over his shoulders, looking for all the world like the actor Julian Sands. He doesn't need to mention that he has based his voice for Lucius Malfoy on 'one particularly noxious English art critic'. It's there in the way he twirls the thick wooden handle between his fingers, raps it on the table, swings it menacingly. It's there, also, in the knowledge that Isaacs excels at baddies: his Colonel Tavington in The Patriot had the UK press booing and hissing at the audacity of Hollywood in making its British characters so evil.

The stick, he explains, is a star in its own right. 'I said to Chris Columbus: 'I thought I'd have a stick.' Chris said: 'What? He's got a walking disorder?' I said: 'No, it's a kind of cropped thing with a snake's head.' He not only let me go with it; he let it steal every scene I'm in. I'm poking people. I'm hooking them. I'm rapping Draco about the head and the knuckles. In fact, the very first scene I was in I had to flounce out the door. Chris said: 'Don't forget to close the door behind you.' I went: 'Er, yeah, or I could just wave my stick and the door slams.' He said: 'Okay.' I thought: 'This film is going to be fun.''

It's often the actors who play the foulest villains who are the nicest. Isaacs is like that, decent, funny and self-deprecating, the kind of guy who lets people in front of him in queues, who has 'brought a disproportionate number of kids to visit the set', and who ended up in acting just because he was offered a place at drama school and didn't know how to say no. 'In real life,' he has said, 'I am a cringing, neurotic Jewish mess.'

Yet still there's something that allows him to morph into the most cringingly unspeakable characters, something that prompted Daniel Radcliffe to suggest that he's even slimier than Alan Rickman's Snape -- 'really scary; really creepy'. And it's something that leads him, however much he might resist (after The Patriot he turned down a string of lucrative bad guys) constantly back to the dark side.

His next role, for instance, is as Captain Hook in PJ Hogan's new version of Peter Pan, about to start shooting in Australia. 'It wasn't part of my plan to play two of the greatest villains in children's literature back to back,' he says. 'That would be rather suicidal.'

For all he takes Harry Potter for what it is -- a riotous bit of fun -- he is meticulous about his role, seeking out the motivation behind the pantomime. When the costume designer suggested pin-striped suits, Isaacs came back with fur and flowing locks. 'There's no point being in a film about wizards and dressing like a businessman,' he remarks.

Meanwhile, he found inspiration for Malfoy's character in the 'people getting elected all over Europe, talking about immigration'.

Is that what Rowling intended? 'I read Jo's book,' says Isaacs, 'and I thought: 'Blond people who are being unpleasant about another race. I know where that one's going.''

That is it for today.

Tom Samborski

11-09-2002, 07:36 PM

I think my opinion is starting to change on Harry Potter movies. I'm not much of a fan of fantasy-adventure movies, but Chamber of Secrets looks well done. It's interesting how they use humour and darkness for this film. I might check it out in theatres now.

dh1989

11-10-2002, 07:39 PM

Sorry guys and girls, but there is literally nothing to post today. Everything to be released, was already. Just marvel at the low amount of days left................

dh1989

11-11-2002, 01:30 PM

Here is today's update....

First, is an article from the L.A. Times about Rupert Grint and Emma Watson......

Spiders, flavored slime and acting secrets

Emma Watson, 12, and Rupert Grint, 14, are enjoying their roles as friends of Harry Potter.

By Susan Stewart

NEW YORK -- Some preteen stars, the kind you want to avoid, are divas in training. Some are picture-perfect.

Make that almost perfect. Emma Watson, 12, and Rupert Grint, 14, who play the title character's friends in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," made no missteps as they chatted up the second Potter movie, which opens Friday. During a recent visit to Manhattan, they were pleasant in the extreme.

As he talked, Rupert, who plays Ron Weasley, filled pages of hotel paper with black spiders. Then he began sketching a jowly, whiskered man with a bloated stomach. Who's that, Rupert? Mr. Potato Head?

Emma shrieked with laughter. "It's Rupert's father!"

And so it was -- the father who was sitting quietly at the other end of the table, not chaperoning so much as posing for his son's unflattering caricature.

Rupert offered no clue as to why he was turning his father into Mr. Potato Head. The spiders, however, were easy.

In "Chamber of Secrets," the wimpish but loyal Ron gets the fright of his life from a horde of spiders, one of them a monster with an 18-foot leg span.

That wasn't acting. "I was actually scared," Rupert says.

On the other hand, vomiting slugs was great fun.

"That was my favorite scene. I had to try out all these different flavored slime. Chocolate, pep- permint, orange. They tasted really good."

Emma chuckled. Her character, the brilliant Hermione, suffered no such indignities. But she does spend much of the movie petrified -- as in motionless. "That was a wax model of me. In the gap where I was petrified, I went back to school."

If Rupert's drawings indicated a hidden aspect of his personality, Emma's were all sweetness and light -- names of her classmates in balloon-like letters punctuated with hearts. Then she started a second page -- girls with hair. How does she get her own shoulder-length auburn waves to look so good?

"OK. It's basically just wet it, curl it and bouff it up. My hair's big, but it's not big-big-big."

Her clothes were fab -- a fuzzy, gray cowlneck, a DKNY denim skirt with a ruffle, brown suede boots. Is that how she dresses at home?

"I wear a uniform at school, but I have these massive bell-bottom flares, and my mom really disapproves of them."

Rupert, his voice deeper than in last year's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," kept it simple: black T-shirt, jeans, Converse sneakers. Have Rupert's parents been good about his fame?

"Yeah, they've helped me keep my feet on the ground."

Is he rich?

Second, is an interview with Emma Watson from the NY Post....

HERMIONE TELLS ALL

By BARBARA HOFFMAN

November 9, 2002 -- There's a lot of exciting stuff you'll see in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" - and then there's the stuff you won't see.
Like Harry dancing the macarena. On a table. In the Great Hall.

Just ask Emma Watson, who plays Hermione to Daniel Radcliffe's Harry.

"As you can imagine, after working in the Great Hall for a week, with 300 children and the fires going, it was absolutely boiling," she tells The Post.

"The food was bad and it was so boring. Finally, Dan got up and danced on the table. He did the cancan, the macarena - he got everybody to laugh!"

Then, she added, with a touch of Hermione's primness:

"I still don't think he's ready to give up his day job, though."

Ready or not, Harry Potter and friends are back - this time in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," which opens Friday.

This time, Harry, Hermione and Ron (Rupert Grint) find themselves up against a fearsome beast hidden away in the bowels of the school, where it surfaces periodically to petrify students and the occasional cat.

And then there's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, the golden-haired Gilderoy Lockhart, played by Kenneth Branagh.

"Probably my favorite scene was the Lockhart scene, because there's lots of crawling around and getting all dreamy, because I love Lockhart, apparently," she says.

But as Branagh told The Post, there was a lot of unscripted flirting going on, too - especially in the classroom scenes. Emma agrees.

"We had enough romance on the set to make a soap - not with me," the 13-year-old adds, quickly.

"Me and Dan and Rupert are really good friends."

The biggest challenge, Emma says - besides sitting still all those days in the Great Hall and, in another scene, making herself cry - was learning the lines she speaks as Hermione.

"To be honest with you, she speaks like a dictionary," Emma sighs. "She uses three-syllable words in every sentence. I can't even understand what she says sometimes."

Does that mean Emma isn't an A student?

"No way," she enunciates. "Definitely not! I'm not obsessed with books and exams. I much prefer sports and being with my friends."

That said, she's already gearing up for the third film, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," which starts shooting in January.

Reports say it may well be the last Potter film she and Daniel and Rupert do together - they seem to be growing faster than J.K. Rowling's characters - but Emma is non-commital.

"I'm just going to go with the flow," she says. "It's been really good fun."

Third is an interview with Daniel Radcliffe from NorthJersey.Com.....

Young actor is in Hogwarts heaven with Harry Potter role

By AMY LONGSDORF

If Daniel Radcliffe ever decides to give up acting, he could have a promising career as a politician.

During a press conference in Manhattan to promote "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," the 13-year-old goes out of his way to praise his co-stars, dodge controversy, and, generally speaking, give a positive spin to all aspects of his involvement with the hugely successful franchise.

Here's Radcliffe on the best and worst aspects of personifying everyone's favorite whiz kid: "I think the best thing, without a doubt, is playing a character that has inspired children and adults all over the world," he says.

"And, honestly, I don't think there is a worst thing."

Maybe it's the questions that are being thrown his way. When Radcliffe finally gets one he likes, his eyes light up like sparklers. The query that excites him the most has to do with his vast collection of CDs.

"I've developed an interest in - and I love - original punk rock," he says excitedly. "I'm not so much into the new stuff, although the Hives are quite good. But I really like the Sex Pistols, the Undertones, the New York Dolls, the Stranglers - all those kinds of bands. I can't get enough of them."

Harry Potter, a headbanger? Not quite, but he is growing up - both offscreen and on.

"Chamber of Secrets," which opens Friday, is much different in tone from its predecessor, last year's $970 million-grossing "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." Like the J.K. Rowling book on which it is closely based, the sequel is darker, faster-paced, and more action-oriented.

Whereas the first installment - which is the second-highest-grossing film of all time, after "Titanic" - was about young Harry discovering he's a wizard, the follow-up revolves around an evil force that is terrorizing the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Together, Harry and his fearless pals Hermione Granger (Emma Watson, 12) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint, 14) take on giant spiders and snakes. They befriend Dobby, a computer-generated elf who warns of bad things to come. And they risk being frozen stiff (or "petrified") by a monster. Some of Britain's best actors make up the Hogwarts family, including Maggie Smith, John Cleese, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, the late Richard Harris, and new addition Kenneth Branagh. But the adults have less to do this time around.

"The first movie was about Harry finding a family in Ron and Hermione and a home at Hogwarts," says producer David Heyman. "The second film is about that family and home being endangered and Harry having to save the day.

"Harry was an observer in the first film. This time, he is very much in control."

Radcliffe doesn't think the new film, which is rated PG, will be too intense for youngsters. All the scary parts are in the book, he points out. "If you take away the spiders or the snakes, then you don't do the book justice. I really think this movie will make the fans happy, which is what counts."

Director Chris Columbus urges parents to be cautious. "I took my 5-year-old daughter to see it, and not only did she love it, but she slept through the night, without a single nightmare. But I recommend any parent who has a 7-year-old or younger child to make sure they know what they're getting into. Anyone with a fear of spiders should be doubly cautious."

For his part, Radcliffe had a blast doing battle with all of the creepy crawlers. "The big snake in the book is 80 feet long, so they built a 25-foot one for the movie, which included this huge head," he says. "It was so great! Sometimes, it was hard to fight it. I kept knocking the big teeth out of the snake's mouth, and they had to spend endless hours repairing him."

Another highlight for Radcliffe was the quick hug he received from Watson. "At first, I was thinking, 'Ewwwww. Get off me,'" he teases. "Actually, I didn't mind it at all. Would you mind?"

Since the release of the first film, Radcliffe's voice has deepened an octave, and he's gained confidence as an actor. Columbus, who directed both "Potter" films, says Radcliffe could have an acting career long after Harry Potter hangs up his Quidditch broomstick.

"Daniel's become a real leading man in the truest sense of the word," says Columbus. "He's becoming a bit of a heartthrob!"

Asked if he's encountered any screaming girls on his travels, Radcliffe laughs.

"Personally, I can't actually see this heartthrob stuff," he says. "If other people can, then, believe me, that's great. I do get recognized, which is really cool, but mostly it's people going, 'Wow, it's that Harry kid' or 'Has anyone ever told you that you look a lot like Harry Potter?' I don't wear glasses in real life, so I get that a lot."

Between filming the first and second "Harry Potter" films, Radcliffe had only a few days off. Columbus says the youngster hasn't had time to be affected by his newfound celebrity.

"Dan hasn't changed a bit," says Columbus. "He still thanks me after every take. You're not going to get Julia Roberts thanking you after a take."

Beginning in March, Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint will begin filming "The Prisoner of Azkaban," the third film in the proposed seven-part series. Set for release in 2004, the movie will have a new director in Mexican Alfonso Cuaron, who is best known for piloting the racy "Y Tu Mama Tambien."

"All the British papers have been speculating about a sexually charged Harry Potter," says Heyman. "It's not going to happen. But 'Y Tu Mama Tambien' is, in a way, relevant to 'Harry Potter.' That film is about the final stages of being a teenager. It's about those incredible friendships which you think are going to last forever.

"The third 'Potter' book is about the beginnings of being a teenager. It's about rebelling and speaking back to adults. It's set at the moment in time when the demons come from within, not from without. Alfonso has a keen understanding of that."

But don't expect to encounter a pimple-faced Potter. "We actually talked about giving Harry some acne," says Columbus. "At first, I thought we should do something like that, but then it occurred to me, 'If Harry can repair his glasses, he can certainly clear up a pimple.'"

The recent death of Harris, who played the pivotal role of Dumbledore, will necessitate the casting of another actor. Heyman, who is Harris' godson, says the late performer was unaware that he was suffering from Hodgkin's disease while making the movie.

"Now, when I watch the film, I can hear it in his voice and in his breathing," says Heyman. "At the time, I just thought he was getting raspier from all that good living. ... We will find a new Dumbledore. But there will only be one Richard Harris."

Rowling has written four Potter books with the fifth of her planned seven-volume series expected to be published next year. The first four Potter books have sold 175 million copies worldwide.

Radcliffe, who is signed only for the first three films, hasn't decided how long he plans on playing Potter. "I'm definitely doing the third film," he says. "We're all doing the third film. After that, who knows? It takes more or less a year to film each movie, so we've got quite a long way before we have to encounter that decision."

Even if Radcliffe parts ways with Harry Potter, he'll keep on reading Rowling's books. "I think I'm going to have to go and have therapy one day because when I read the books, I find out more about myself," he says.

"Harry and I have so much in common like curiosity, loyalty, not being afraid to stand up for yourself, getting in trouble."

Radcliffe knows that, even if he's still acting when he's 95, he's unlikely to play a character who connects with as many people as Harry Potter. "I certainly don't mind," he says. "If I minded, then I shouldn't have gone into acting.

"Of course, I'm going to separate myself from the character by doing other roles. But being known as Harry Potter is not something I'll ever be ashamed of. It's a huge achievement."

Fourth, here is an artilce from the New York Times comparing CoS marketing to Die Another Day marketing.... http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/11/business/media/11SYNE.html
You have to join the New York Times Online site, but it is free and the article is worth it.

That is it for today! Only three days left!