The Making of the Potterverse (27 page)

Bootleg copies of
Half-Blood Prince
went on sale in China three months prior to the official publication of the translated version.

J.K. Rowling joined Stephen King, Nick Hornby and Bob Dylan as writers nominated for Quills awards in the U.S.

British director Terry Gilliam told Celebrity Spider that he was still annoyed at not having the chance to direct the first Harry Potter film, which he said he had been led to believe would be his. He also dismissed the Chris Columbus efforts: “[His] versions are terrible. Just dull. Pedestrian.”

One rumor making the rounds was that Daniel Radcliffe was one of two actors being considered for a series of films based on the
Young Bond
novels. There was no basis to these rumors.

C
BBC
Newsround
covered the fact that a three-dimensional portrait of J.K. Rowling was being unveiled at London’s National Portrait Gallery. “It shows J.K. sitting at a desk in a bare room,” the report goes on, “with a writing pad in front of her, along with three boiled eggs, to represent her three children.” At the unveiling, Rowling herself said, “This genuinely is the first time that I have seen this and I love it. . . . This shows more of me than any photo has ever shown.”

J.K. Rowling made audio versions of her novels available on iTunes. As the author wrote on her Web site, “Many Harry Potter fans have been keen for digital access for a while, but the deciding factor for me in authorizing the new version is that it will help combat the growing [number of] incidents of piracy in this area.”

Rowling also warned fans of fake signed Harry Potter items being offered on eBay.

J.K. Rowling loved Stuart Pearson Wright’s portrait of her that was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in September 2005. (Fiona Hanson/PA/CP Photo)

Emma Watson expressed her concern that other roles could be difficult to get. “My biggest fear is getting stereotyped,” she said. “I want to do other things. But I would hate to have another actress in the role. There is so much of me in her. Of course J.K. Rowling wrote the character, but in film terms I had a part in creating her.”

In an interview with the Los Angeles
Daily News
, director Mike Newell expressed his belief that there would be a different feel to
Goblet of Fire
because he was the first Englishman to direct an entry in the series. “Whether anyone will notice, I don’t know, but I hope it has a kind of authenticity. And it’s a little darker than the others, because these kids are growing up, and they have to face stuff that they haven’t had to before. But the real thing about it is that it’s a terrific adventure story and a really good thriller.”

Celebrity Spider featured an interview with Ralph Fiennes in which he said that his work on
Harry Potter
was changing his life. “No matter what I’ve done in the past,” he said, “now that I’ve played Voldemort, nothing else will ever match it again. I don’t know if I’m going to play Voldemort in all four remaining films, but even now, every time I go to the supermarket, people come up to me and ask if I’m really ‘he who must not be named.’ I can see
Harry Potter
taking over my life.”

Sales for all of the Harry Potter novels had exceeded 300 million copies.

More than 1,000 Harry fans attended the Witching Hour symposium on J.K. Rowling’s world held in Salem, Massachusetts. This was only the latest in a series of symposiums held in different states between 2003 and the present. In describing the symposium, www.witchinghour.org offered, “A chief aim of ‘The Witching Hour’ is to foster dialogue between academics and fans of the series. Harry Potter online fan culture — which includes original stories and art inspired by Rowling’s world — is rich and varied. It is already enormous and is still growing. For instance, one of the major fan fiction archive sites boasts nearly 200,000 new stories, contributed by writers from around the globe. And the fans themselves will be sharing their creative endeavors, reading from their fiction and displaying their artwork that features Harry and his friends — and enemies. Throughout the course of the conference, both fans and scholars will be able to interact [with] and learn from each other’s perspectives, to gain a deeper understanding of the series.”

J.K. Rowling took home a Quill Book Award for Best Children’s Book for
Half-Blood Prince
.

Actress Imelda Staunton confirmed she would be playing
Professor Dolores Umbridge in the film version of
Order of the Phoenix
.

Producer David Heyman announced that Steve Kloves would be returning to Hogwarts to write the adaptation of
Half-Blood Prince
after having to miss out on
Order of the Phoenix
.

The
BBC
reported that the Weasley’s flying car as seen in
Chamber of Secrets
had been stolen from the studio it was kept in.

A UK Sci-Fi Channel poll voted Harry Potter the Greatest Screen Fantasy Hero of All Time.

In an interview with London’s
Daily Record
, Daniel Radcliffe pointed out that there was more to him than just Harry Potter, a point he would be proving at the end of the year by taking on the role of an orphan named Maps in the film
December Boys
. “He’s very different from Harry,” said Radcliffe. “He doesn’t have Harry’s zest for life. But I don’t feel pressure. I just want to do the best job I can.”

Smitten fans await the arrival of Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint at the New York premiere of
Goblet of Fire.
(Andrew Gombert/epa/Corbis)

Just before
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
hit theaters, the
New York Post
noted: “As expected, many scenes in the massive book are deleted, combined or shortened to make the film flow smoother and faster.” The article went on to detail some “surprising” changes, the most surprising of which “is in the film’s first scene, when the character out to kill Harry is revealed immediately. In the book, that character is kept a secret until the very end, when he is unveiled in a page-turning plot twist.”

Speaking to
USA Today
about
Goblet of Fire
, director Mike Newell pointed out, “What Harry is up against now is an utterly malignant human creature. This is not a three-headed dog. This is the ultimate evil itself. Voldemort is a lot more savage and cruel than any invented creature could be.”

In a separate article,
USA Today
credited the works of J.K. Rowling as the reason sales of science fiction and fantasy books had climbed 8.5 percent in a period of five years, which was nearly twice as much as the rate for all consumer books.

NASA
actually transmitted
Goblet of Fire
to the International Space Station at the request of astronaut Bill McArthur.

Twelve-year-old Breeze Gardner, whose mom is confined to a wheelchair due to MS, wrote to J.K. Rowling to request an autographed copy of
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
that she could auction off for charity. Amazingly, that’s exactly what she received and, according to the
Daily Record
, the rare volume was expected to go for about $10,000 in auction.

Director Mike Newell gave an interview in which he explained that it had been his hope to deal with a darker adolescent tone in
Goblet of Fire
, but, “I found, to my horror, that Alfonso had gotten there before me and with great style and determination.” In the same interview he added, “The children are growing up, and that’s what the basic story is. You have to be true to growing up in an abstract way and to these kids in a particular way.”

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
was released on November 18, 2005, scoring $102,685,961 in its opening weekend. Domestically it would gross $290,013,036, with a foreign take of $602,200,000, for a global total of $892,213,036.

Cast and crew of
Goblet of Fire
met with the press shortly before the film’s release, and what follows are edited transcripts of those sessions.

(Director and Producer)

QUESTION:
How does this film differ from the previous Harry Potter films?

MIKE NEWELL:
For me, it is that I think in the previous films, because of the age of the people, the scale of the challenge to the leading character has been limited. He’s had a basilisk to deal with, he’s had this problem, that problem, but he’s never actually been challenged in his self. He’s never had to put up or shut up. He’s always had the group to rely on, and now in this one, he’s older, he’s more conscious, so he knows much more what’s happening to him, and he knows when Voldemort says in the graveyard, “Do you want to take it in the back or do you want to take it in the front? But you’re gonna get it, whichever way,” and what Harry says is “Alright, I’ll show you.” And he comes out, and he’s ready for a fight, and he knows that it’s a fight to the death. And he has the moral courage to do it. Of course there are lots and lots of wonderful new things about this, like the jokes on growing up and girls and, oh God, how do we dance, and all of those things. But the big difference is that the challenge is kind of a moral one, and he may not survive it.