News
March 28th 2007
Bloomsbury and Scholastic have released their cover arts for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! Check out the photo gallery for the arts.
February 24th 2007 - Warner Bros. site revamped
The Warner Bros. Harry Potter website has been revamped into the old Sorcerer's Stone version. No one is quite sure what's going on but it may be the sign of a major update coming soon.
February 23rd 2007 - EA preparing for the Order of the Phoenix game
Electronic Arts, the makers of all the Harry Potter video games, have updated their site with a teaser graphic of Order of the Phoenix. EA has also released a few screenshots of the upcoming game (which can be seen in the Photo Gallery).
The game is mainly through Harry's perspective but some parts are played with other characters such as Fred and George, Sirius and Dumbledore (you can't play as Ron or Hermione in this one!) The Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix game will be released around the 13th of July along with the film.
February 19th 2007 - Dan wants Harry to die
Daniel Radcliffe (who plays Harry Potter in the films) has said that he can't wait to get his hands on book 7 on the 21st of July and he also added the following: "I sort of hope I'll die in it. I think that's the only way Jo can end it and I've a melodramatic yearning for a death scene."
February 17th 2007 - Equus previews
Previews of the production "Equus" starring Dan Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Richard Griffiths (Vernon Dursley) began last night. Some reviews have already appeared saying that there was a standing ovation at the end.
February 16th 2007 - Vernon's appearance in OOTP to be brief
Richard Griffiths, who plays Vernon Dursley in the Potter movies, says his presence in the Order of the Phoenix film will be short. He also talked about Vernon's relationship with Harry:
"With this fifth movie, Vernon is much more frightened of Harry than vice versa, and as it goes on, you see that it ends up with Harry as the master and Vernon as the shivering idiot, the shivering coward."
February 6th 2007 - J.K.Rowling update
J.K.Rowling updated her official website today saying that Deathly Hallows is her favorite book of the series. Here is her full statement
"Charles Dickens put it better than I ever could:
"'It would concern the reader little, perhaps, to know how sorrowfully the pen is laid down at the close of a two-years' imaginative task; or how an Author feels as if he were dismissing some portion of himself into the shadowy world, when a crowd of the creatures of his brain are going from him for ever.'
"To which I can only sigh, try seventeen years, Charles...
"I always knew that Harry's story would end with the seventh book, but saying goodbye has been just as hard as I always knew it would be. Even while I'm mourning, though, I feel an incredible sense of achievement. I can hardly believe that I've finally written the ending I've been planning for so many years. I've never felt such a mixture of extreme emotions in my life, never dreamed I could feel simultaneously heartbroken and euphoric.
"Some of you have expressed a (much more muted!) mixture of happiness and sadness at the prospect of the last book being published, and that has meant more than I can tell you. If it comes as any consolation, I think that there will be plenty to continue arguing and speculating about, even after 'Deathly Hallows' comes out. So if you're not yet ready to quit the message boards, do not despair...
"I'm almost scared to admit this, but one thing has stopped me collapsing in a puddle of misery on the floor. While each of the previous Potter books has strong claims on my affections, 'Deathly Hallows' is my favourite, and that is the most wonderful way to finish the series."
She has also wished a Happy Birthday to Arthur Weasley.
February 5th 2007 - Harry Potter nominated for Kids' Choice Award
Harry Potter has been nominated for 'Favorite Book' in the 2007 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards hosted by Justin Timberlake on March 31st.
February 4th 2007 - No E-book
An attorney for J.K.Rowling has said that there will be no E-book version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
"Rowling has cited two reasons over the years: concern about online piracy (which has never been a major problem for the Potter books), and the desire for readers to experience the books on paper.
"E-books, hyped as the future of publishing during the dot-com craze of the late 1990s, remains a tiny portion of the multibillion industry."
February 3rd 2007 - Deathly Hallows continues to set records
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in the series, is already setting records; Amazon.com has announced that pre-orders for the book have been "547% higher than for its predecessor" which had 1.5 million pre-orders; in the UK it only took 8 hours for Deathly Hallows to become the no.1 bestseller after pre-orders on Amazon became available. And it wasn't long before the book had more orders than the rest of the top 10 bestselling books put together. It seems that Harry Potter is quite popular.
February 2nd 2007 - Equus
Many parents were angered when 17 year old Dan Radcliffe, who plays Harry Potter in the films, posed nude for a London West End production called Equus. Photos promoting the production have been recently released and Dan has commented that "Equus is an iconic play. The nude scene is part of it. I can't do it with my pants on. That would be rubbish. We've done the scene a couple of times in rehearsal. I had no particular qualms. There's nothing that would stop me getting my kit off if that's what the work demands. The key to serious acting is to lose your inhibitions, to become free and fearless."
The producer of the play, David Pugh, said "We had never seen him with clothes off before. We all went 'wow'". Mr Pugh continued to say "There was no hesitancy about taking off his clothes. He has a confidence in his own apperance. With the performance that I've witnessed, when that boy takes his clothes off, Harry Potter has flown out of Hogwarts for good."
February 2nd 2007 - Jo finished the series on the 11th of January 2007
BBC has confirmed that J.K.Rowling finished the final Harry Potter book on the 11th of January. This follows the rumours in The Sun that Jo had wrote a message on a marble bust at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh saying "JK Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on 11th Jan 2007. "Intrestingly, the marble bust is believed to be of the Greek god Hermes and, as most Harry Potter fans will now, Hermes is Percy Weasley's owl. A photo of the bust can be seen in the gallery.
February 1st 2007 - Release date revealed!
J.K.Rowling has announced on her website that the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be available to buy on the 21st of July 2007 - one week after the film.
Here is her full announcement:
Publication Date for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be published on Saturday 21st July 2007 at 00:01 BST in the UK and at 00:01 in the USA. It will also be released at 00:01 BST on Saturday 21st July in other English speaking countries around the world.
