The Making of the Potterverse (20 page)

Offering a first glimpse of
Prisoner, USA Today
reported, “Werewolves and dementors are one thing, but how about teen hormones for something really scary? . . . This movie, which arrives in theaters June 4, 2004, is spookier, darker and more emotional, with a more adolescent and angry Harry Potter, now 13, a new
Professor Dumbledore and a more contemporary look for Harry and his pals, Ron and Hermione. All of this from a new director, Alfonso Cuaron. ‘Alfonso really understands the nuances of being a teenager, and that’s vital to this film,’ producer David Heyman says. ‘It’s much more grounded in reality. This is a magical world, but not a fantasy world.’”

Welsh comic Paul Whitehouse was added to the cast of
Azkaban
as Sir Cadogan, a knight who becomes the temporary guardian of Gryffindor Tower.

MGM
announced a spoof of both Harry Potter and
Lord of the Rings
in the form of something called
Henry Bates and the Sorcerer’s Balls
. Thankfully this one hasn’t been made. Yet.

According to the
BBC
, sales of the first five Harry Potter novels reached an incredible 250 million copies. J.K. Rowling’s agent, Christopher Little, noted, “J.K. Rowling’s books have paved the way for a new generation of exciting children’s writers, causing a revolution in children’s enthusiasm for reading.”

J.K. Rowling’s father, Peter, desperate to raise cash and too proud to ask his daughter for help, put five first editions on the auction block, each of those books personally inscribed by his daughter. According to one report he was hoping to raise $200,000.

Toward the end of the month, filming wrapped on
Prisoner of Azkaban
, and Warner Brothers celebrated the event with a major party. Reported the Web site
HPANA
(Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator), “Warner Brothers had, without a doubt, put on a fantastic show. There was a huge bonfire leading up to the main area, the marquees were massive with two Knight Buses lit up brilliantly with different colored lights, a stage in the middle (mainly being used by an absolutely awesome Mexican band).”

Moscow fans clamor for a copy of the Russian edition of
Order of the Phoenix,
released in February 2004. (Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters/Corbis)

The Web site www.int.iol.co.za presented an article called “Harry Potter Game is Enchanting Youngsters,” which told of a gym teacher named Justin van Gelder who decided to incorporate the game Quidditch into his curriculum. “The kids don’t fly and we have control of the balls,” he explained. According to the article, in Van Gelder’s class a pair of hula hoops are propped upright between folded mats on either side of the gymnasium. Determined third graders with foam balls in hand try to avoid being tagged out by the “bludgers” — students holding yarn balls — before they can score. Every few minutes, the instructor, using a rubber ball as a stand-in for a “golden snitch,” throws one into the game. Two “seekers” try to grab the ball and earn their team 150 points. When the snitch is not in play, the “seekers” are responsible for freeing any teammates who have been tagged out by the
“bludgers.” Added Van Gelder, “The great thing about the whole Harry Potter aspect is that the kids are so into it. They pay attention and really want to learn the right way to play the game.”

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
was named most popular film in the British Academy Children’s Film and Television Awards. Among the celebrities in attendance at the awards was Hermione Granger herself, Emma Watson.

Both Gary Oldman and Jason Isaacs spoke to
Empire
magazine about their respective roles of Sirius Black and Lucius Malfoy. Said Oldman, “Alfonso has his own take on it. I think it’s going to be the best one yet, but I
would
say that.” Isaacs added, “Just as we were finishing
Chamber of Secrets
, Alfonso Cuaron came along and I got to shake hands with him and that was about it. I don’t know what’s happening with
Goblet of Fire
; I don’t know whether they’re going to put Lucius Malfoy in or not. If I thought begging would do any good, I’d be out there every day. But that would probably just irritate them.”

While speaking to Sci Fi Wire,
Goblet of Fire
director Mike Newell said that he intended to pick up where Alfonso Cuaron left off. “What Alfonso has done very remarkably is he’s developed the films from a sunny vision of childhood into something that is much darker and blacker,” he said. “And he’s done that without taking away any of the romance of the thing. But he has transformed it into adolescence, and I must go on from what he’s done. I can’t go back.”

Shefali Chowdhury and Ashan Azad won the coveted roles of Parvati and Padma Patil in
Goblet of Fire.
(INFGoff.com/CP Photo)

The
BBC
noted that the producers of the Harry Potter films were looking for twin girls to play Parvati and Padma. The auditions were to be held at the Pineapple Studios in London. Said casting director Shaheen Baig, “In this book [
Goblet of Fire
] they are actually written as twins, but it has been incredibly difficult to find Asian twin girls, so we decided to open it up and just find two girls. We’re looking for two girls — if they happen to be sisters, that would be amazing, but it doesn’t really matter. We just want two good girls who have fantastic chemistry.”

IMAX
struck a deal to release a giant-screen version of
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
to IMAX theaters in June 2004.

Warner Brothers lost its legal bid to shut down a “Harry Potter” clothing line developed and sold by the Australian chain Wombat — mainly because the line came into existence several years prior to J.K. Rowling creating Harry Potter. Wombat co-owner Clair Jennifer commented, “This is a definite story of a huge multinational trying to squash what they thought was a small business in Australia. What they didn’t understand was our actual size — we are national and very well-known in our industry.” Justice Murray Wilcox said in his ruling, “Although it may be accepted that a person who first hears the name Harry Potter today would most likely think of the J.K. Rowling character, it seems to me unlikely that a person seeing the ‘Harry Potter’ label on clothing in a Wombat boutique would assume a connection.”

A signed first edition of
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
fetched about $40,000 at an auction held at Sotheby’s.

The
BBC
reported, “About 2,000 Asian teenagers have queued around London’s West End for a chance to star in the next Harry Potter film. Girls braved the cold on Sunday to take part in an open audition for the parts of twins Parvati and Padma in
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
. They came from as far as Liverpool and Cardiff to the Pineapple Studios in Langley Street, near Covent Garden. But they did not get a chance to show off their acting talents, as producers just wanted to photograph each girl. They said acting experience was not as important as getting the right look for the twins, who accompany Harry and Ron to the school ball in the book.”

Strange rumors were afoot that British funny man Rowan Atkinson was going to be cast as Voldemort in
Goblet of Fire
, but these turned out to be false. As Atkinson’s agent, Janette Linden, explained to the BBC, “There’s no truth whatsoever that Rowan will be in the next Harry Potter movie.”

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
was nominated in the category of Best Fiction at the WH Smith Book Awards.

Emma Watson confirmed that she would be returning as Hermione in
Goblet of Fire
. “I will be doing film four,” she said. “As for the future, just going with the flow, see what happens.”

While talking to the
San Bernardino County Sun
, producer David Heyman said of Harry in
Prisoner of Azkaban
, “Harry has a bit more of the attitude of a 13-year-old. He’s growing up and, I think, the films are growing up. This third one is a little edgier, a little darker. It’s funny, it’s charming, it still has a lot of the qualities of the first two films, but it is also dealing with different external fears.” Added Alfonso Cuaron, who tried to draw comparisons between this and his previous film,
Y Tu Mamá También
, “The themes are very similar.
Y Tu Mamá También
is about teenagers seeking their adult identities, and
Azkaban
is about children looking for their identities as teenagers. I think that Harry Potter films can be very, very fun rides, but there are a lot of other readings to the materials, so this theme could come through.”

Amusingly, Queen Elizabeth of England proved to a group of children that she had a better working knowledge of the Harry Potter universe than even they did, answering trivia questions that they couldn’t. Now
that’s
impressive.

Amazing what will sell at an auction: An uncorrected proof copy of the first Harry Potter novel, with J.K. Rowling’s name spelled wrong, was sold for nearly $2,000.

When the budget to
Goblet of Fire
was rumored to be north of $130 million, director Mike Newell noted, “These things are not like ordinary films. They are world events. I have millions of 10-year-olds who must not be disappointed. Making
Harry Potter
is like being president of Brazil. It is a colossal undertaking.”

According to
Hello!
magazine, J.K. Rowling was voted the most powerful woman in Hollywood.

In casting the role of Cho Chang in
Goblet of Fire
, the producers were reportedly very specific about what they were looking for. “Would-be Chos must be of Southeast Asian appearance,” stated the BBC, “look around 16 years old and must live in the UK. Girls who don’t match up won’t be able to apply. . . . The girl who plays Cho will have a brilliant role. She’s the Hogwarts pupil on whom Harry gets a crush.”