Hadwrick Hall: Will this be Malfoy Manner in Deathly Hallows?

It's the Elizabethan Hardwick Hall - here are two photos, one historic and one recent:





































Tip of the Tinfoil to Leaky!

Interviews with the cast on Half Blood Prince

Shell Cottage for Deathly Hallows film almost completed

"Shell Cottage" under construction!

Tip of the tinfoil to Leaky!

New Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince Trailer - and this one is a doozy!

Here's the link. We'll put up the video as soon as it's available.

Looks like Wizards Twitter!

Check it out here. Tip of the Tinfoil to Leaky. Well done. And Happy April Fools Day!

Only in New York!

The actor/writer Stephen Fry just posted on Twitter:

"Back in the groove now. Bracing 4 mile walk up Central Park catching up with old News Quiz podcasts. Bumped into Jim Dale, fine and dear man."

What do the two men have in common? Why Jim Dale is the reader of the audio editions for the Harry Potter series in the US, while Stephen Fry is the reader of the audio editions of the Harry Potter series for the UK. Only in New York!

An Incredible Acheivement: Deathly Hallows now a fan-made claymation film

This is part one of a 26-part fan-made claymation adaption of the final book of the Harry Potter series, The Deathly Hallows. It's simply amazing - this is by one fan with an extraordinary dream - and does he pull it off. This is not computer generated - it's hand made. The characters are all fashioned out of clay, and there are voices for the characters with dialogue and scenes and atmospheric music is included as well. The entire book is adapted. The Leaky Cauldron reports that major scenes are depicted, including, "the adventures in Gringotts, the heartbreaking moments at Shell Cottage, the epic battle for Hogwarts, the pivotal events with Nagini, Snape and the Prince's Tale, and the emotional Forest scene are all vividly brought to life."

Twenty-two year old "Ryan" is a recent graduate of Columbia College Chicago with a bachelors degree in filmmaking. "I do claymation as a hobby while trying to find work in the film business," he writes at his You Tube Channel.

We have five months to go before WB releases Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and filming for the two-part final film of Deathy Hallows has just begun. So this could keep anyone busy for quite a while. Enjoy!

The YouTube channel is here.

Steve Vander Ark's Lexicon is finally published!

The Harry Potter Lexicon is finally published! From here.

I've had very positive response to the book," said Vander Ark, who lives in the Grand Rapids area. "The reviews have been good, but also the fans are excited about it. Harry Potter fans are incredibly creative people; they love to have a reference to the books so they can be accurate when they write, create costumes and other things."

"The Lexicon" initially drew the ire of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who filed a lawsuit saying the book violated the copyright of Rowling and Warner Bros. Entertainment, which owns the movie rights to the series. A U.S. District judge ruled in Rowling's favor, which led Vander Ark to rewrite his lexicon. RDR Books printed 40,000 copies, with 35,000 already shipped.

"In many ways, it is a better book," Vander Ark said of the changes he made after the lawsuit. "The first book was intended to be exhaustive of every detail without much commentary and background. This book now includes lots more of both."

Well done, Steve! Read the rest of article here. Order the book here. The original landmark website that started it all is here.

New Half-Blood Prince Film Preview

And it's from Japan!

Pottercast Live

pottercast- Broadcast your self LIVE

The best of all worlds: The Harry Potter Lexicon will be published - finally - next month

All four hundred and something pages.

We're thrilled for Steve, who has been caught in the crossfire between his publisher and Warner Brothers lawyers. Warner Brothers and J.K. Rowling's lawyers sued the publisher, RDR Books, over the publishing of the Harry Potter Lexicon, an encyclopedia - published for years online by Steve Vander Ark and even used by J.K. Rowling, as she has said publicly, while writing her own books (and, in happier and less litigious days, awarded Steve Vander Ark her one of her first fan site awards after the launch of JKRowling.com, her official website).

When it went to book form, the lawsuits started flying and war broke amongst HP fans to rival any sort of war we might see - or not see - in the wizarding world. It's not been pretty. While Warner Brothers was not successful in its pursuit of a more rigid restriction of commentary using an argument for the protection intellectual property (i.e., increasing the scope of trademark law to include not only particular images, but also particular words "invented" by J.K. Rowling), as well as challenging the publication of works that have been long online when they went into print, it was successful in putting a red light on the publication of the original text of the Lexicon for the print version (but not the online version). However, the judge gave a green light to RDR books that if revisions were made, the Lexicon could be published.

Those changes are now completed (and it looks like from initial reports for the better) and a green light from J.K. Rowling's lawyers has been granted, we can expect to see the newly revised Harry Potter Lexicon in January. We raise our glasses of Butterbeer in honor of Steve's work, a celebration of J.K. Rowling's amazing achievement, and look forward to getting our own copy next month.

The best of all worlds.

The Harry Potter Lexicon will be released on January 12th 2009.

Here's more on the story:

We think it's a better book in many ways because it has a lot more analysis," said Roger D. Rapaport of Muskegon, whose RDR Books is publishing The Lexicon. "He's done an amazing amount of new work."

Rapaport, Vander Ark and their team of lawyers -- including Craig Monette of Muskegon -- are confident this version of The Lexicon will pass legal muster. (The cover was negotiated by both sides to avoid a separate planned trademark lawsuit.) The book is set to be released on Jan. 12 in the United States and England.

For $24.95, readers can get a treasure trove of background information about the Harry Potter series that Vander Ark, who calls himself "just a librarian," culled through years of research. They'll get not only an index of characters, but background on them, the reasons behind their names, the folklore and mythology behind the creatures they encounter and much more.

"There's so much depth to her writing," Vander Ark said. "It makes a book like 'The Lexicon' enhance her work."

A fan of the Harry Potter series, which he has read dozens of times, Vander Ark said he doesn't give away any of the plots, but entices readers to re-read the books for more meaning and to make connections they may have missed.

He said it will be especially appealing to Harry Potter fans who have read the series and "who have a sense there's so much more there."

He culled information from interviews and articles Rowling has written as well as a great deal of "literary detective" work.

In suing RDR Books over "The Lexicon," Rowling claimed it took away from her own plans to write a reference guide to her series. But the judge, in the first-ever opinion on the legality of reference books based on other literary works, said there was nothing inherently wrong with writing "The Lexicon," Rapaport said.

But he ruled against RDR Books because Vander Ark had used descriptions and wording too close to Rowling's and inappropriately used material from two guide books she had written about the series.

Using the judge's very detailed, 68-page ruling, Vander Ark said he was able to rewrite his book to comply with the law. The ruling by the judge served not only as a "rule book" for Vander Ark, but any author looking to compile reference books on literary work, Rapaport said.

An October conference held by the University of San Francisco attended by about 100 attorneys featured a daylong presentation by Vander Ark and lawyers from both sides of the case.

"In legal circles ... it's being written about as one of the major intellectual property cases in the 21st century," Rapaport said.

On Thursday, RDR Books officially withdrew its appeal of U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson's decision, and Rowling's public relations agency issued a statement favorable to the release of the rewritten lexicon.

"We are delighted that this matter is finally and favorably resolved and that J.K. Rowling's rights -- and indeed the rights of all authors of creative works -- have been protected," the statement said. "We are also pleased to hear that rather than continue to litigate, RDR have themselves decided to publish a different book prepared with reference to Judge Patterson's decision."

Vander Ark said he never intended to offend Rowling, but rather wanted to give her books "deeper meaning."

"I don't want to do a book she's unhappy with," he said. "I'm a fan of hers."

Read the whole thing here.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard goes on sale today!

J.K. Rowling writes of her favorite scene in the final book of the Harry Potter series in honor of the Prince of Wales 60th birthday

BB NOTE: Author J.K. Rowling writes of her favorite scene in the final book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, commenting that it could be her favorite scene in the entire series. We know from earlier comments made by Jo Rowling that she wept as she wrote this particular chapter, called The Forest Again. From here.

I admit that, at first glance, the extract I've chosen for The Birthday Book might not seem particularly celebratory, given that it has for its subject my hero walking to what he believes will be certain death. But when Harry takes his last, long walk into the heart of the Dark Forest, he is choosing to accept a burden that fell on him when still a tiny child, in spite of the fact that he never sought the role for which he has been cast, never wanted the scar with which he has been marked. As his mentor, Albus Dumbledore, has tried to make clear to Harry, he could have refused to follow the path marked out for him. In spite of the weight of opinion and expectation that singles him out as the "Chosen One", it is Harry's own will that takes him into the Forest to meet Voldemort, prepared to suffer the fate that he escaped sixteen years before.

The destinies of wizards and princes might seem more certain than those carved out for the rest of us, yet we all have to choose the manner in which we meet life: whether to live up (or down) to the expectations placed upon us; whether to act selfishly, or for the common good; whether to steer the course of our lives ourselves, or to allow ourselves to be buffeted around by chance and circumstance. Birthdays are often moments for reflection, moments when we pause, look around, and take stock of where we are; children gleefully contemplate how far they have come, whereas adults look forwards into the trees, wondering how much further they have to go. This extract from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is my favourite part of the seventh book; it might even be my favourite part of the entire series, and in it, Harry demonstrates his truly heroic nature, because he overcomes his own terror to protect the people he loves from death, and the whole of his society from tyranny.

Read more about The Birthday Book published in honor of Prince Charles' 60th birthday here.

New Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Film Trailer Released

Well, we've got yet another trailer for the next Harry Potter film - and yes, we have eight months to go until the film is released since WB decided to postpone the release (which originally was next week!) to July 2009. But it looks spectacular! We can hardly wait.

The Story of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows told through Fanart

Brilliant.

The Story of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince told through fanart

This is quite extraordinary.

New Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince International Film Trailer

Interview with Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe

Very good interview with actors Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon) and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) on the eve of the week of their opening of Equus on Broadway. You can hear the entire NPR interview here.

Aslan