The Making of the Potterverse (9 page)

Stephen Fry’s 21-hour reading of
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
generated tremendous amounts of advance sales for the CD set. J.K. Rowling insisted on the length, noting, “I just said, ‘Let’s do the whole thing or not at all. I’ve yet to meet a kid who was sorry we did it that way.” Added Helen Nicoll of Cover to Cover, “Many children and adults like to have the books in audio format as well as in print, because you get a different type of enjoyment for each.”

Rowling, Warner Brothers and Electronic Arts announced that a deal had been struck to develop a new Harry Potter online game.
Intervisual Books, Inc. struck a deal with Scholastic to create a pair of “interactive” Harry Potter titles. Said Intervisual’s Norm Sheinman, “We are delighted to have this opportunity to produce these exciting Harry Potter books for Scholastic. . . . The first book will be in the classic pop-up format with 3D action scenes bringing to life the magical adventures of Harry Potter. The second is a book/playset version of the mysterious, three-dimensional castle known as Hogwarts School of Wizardry.”

A report stated that J.K. Rowling’s personal wealth had swelled to nearly $100 million.

The young Harry Potter cast was required to sign nondisclosure agreements by Warner Brothers This was explained by a spokeswoman, “As a matter of routine, we asked the parents or legal guardians of the children who are working on the set to sign these agreements. The purpose of them is to stop people discussing various aspects of the film before it’s released.”

It was announced that the Harry Potter novels had sold over 100 million copies.

Lego debuted their line of Harry Potter products.

Rumors that J.K. Rowling was to marry Dr. Neil Murray, whom she had quietly begun dating, were debunked by her camp.

Although summer was just about to begin, the box office competition was already beginning to heat up as both
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
and
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
were scheduled to compete during the same holiday season.

Composer John Williams met with director Chris Columbus to discuss the scoring of
Sorcerer’s Stone.
Said Wiliams, “I imagine there will be a lot of music in the film, and Chris Columbus has told me that the film is long and that he needs to whittle it down. That’s a very hard and heartbreaking process for a director, and it’s very difficult for a composer, too.”

When J.K. Rowling won the $1,418 prize from the Scottish Arts Council for
Goblet of Fire
, she immediately turned it over to the New Writer’s Bursary Scheme, a fund designed to benefit new authors.

Warner Brothers confirmed that the second
Sorcerer’s Stone
trailer would be attached to prints of Steven Spielberg’s
A.I.
for play in movie theaters.

Director Chris Columbus gave an interview to
USA Today
in which he expressed his desire to stay faithful to Rowling’s novel. “To make this film, you have to be a fan,” he said. “These books are incredibly imaginative, classic stories. Why would you need to toy with that? It was a passion for me to be as faithful as possible.”
Rumors that Hugh Grant would be cast in the second film,
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
, turned out to be false.

Sotheby’s announced that on the 10th they would be auctioning off original illustrations from the first Harry Potter novel.

Rumors arose that Warner Brothers wanted $70 million for the
TV
rights to
Sorcerer’s Stone
. The previous record holder had been the $30 million
NBC
paid for the rights to James Cameron’s
Titanic
.

Fans seemed concerned that Harry’s lightning-shaped scar on Daniel Radcliffe’s forehead was not in the right place as described in the novels. The filmmakers told
Entertainment Weekly
that their instructions from J.K. Rowling were to make the scar be “razor sharp and just off center.”

Game producers Wizards of the Coast struck a deal to create trading cards based on Harry Potter. The company’s Elaine Chase pointed out, “There’s a big appeal there. Every kid wants to turn out to be more than they think they are, and Harry gets to live that. Kids connect with him.”

At the annual San Diego Comic Con, Warner Brothers unveiled a promotional sneak peek at
Sorcerer’s Stone
that featured a number of sequences, all designed to whet the fans’ appetites for the film before its November release.

The British Tourist Authority announced plans to publish a Harry Potter map of Britain that would focus on key locations from the novels and new film.

Due to a longer-than-usual delay between books, rumors surfaced that J.K. Rowling was suffering from writer’s block, resulting in a delay in the publication of
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
. First started in the newspaper
The Scotsman
, these rumors elicited a response from Rowling via letter. “As I, my publishers and my agent have stated since the publication of
Goblet of Fire
in July 2000, there was never any intention of publishing the fifth Harry Potter book in 2001. Nor has any deadline ever been set for the delivery of the manuscript. I made it clear last summer that I wanted to take the time to make sure that book five was not dashed off to meet a deadline. There is no writer’s block — on the contrary, I am writing away very happily.”

Rowling, who has always protected the privacy of her family, offered a formal protest against
OK!
magazine for printing photos of her eight-year-old daughter in a bikini.

Harry’s creator took home the Walpole Medal of Excellence in her hometown of Edinburgh. Committee chairman Rupert Hambro noted, “We think she embodies everything to do with British excellence. She is the best-known author in the country, she is just about to launch a film, she is in the middle of writing her fifth book. She is an excellent product to advertise the country.”

Alnwick Castle in Northumberland was used for the exteriors of Hogwarts in the first two Harry Potter films. The castle has set up cardboard cut-outs of the characters throughout the grounds. (Fionna Boyle)

According to
The Daily Record
, production on the first Harry film was delayed and the train standing in for the Hogwarts Express remained unmoving while the train station needed for the scene was widened.

In an interview with the
New York Post
, Steven Spielberg admitted for the first time his real reasons for dropping out of the directorial running of
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
. “I purposely didn’t do the Harry Potter movie because, for me, that was shooting ducks in a barrel. It’s just a slam dunk. It’s just like withdrawing a billion dollars and putting it into your personal bank accounts. There’s no challenge.” In the pages of
The Telegraph
he added, “The first story didn’t touch me creatively. Now the third Harry Potter book. . . . it’s pure genius. Much darker, more esoteric and interesting to me personally. If they’d offered me that, I’d have said yes.”

In an interview with
Vanity Fair
magazine, J.K. Rowling was extremely enthusiastic regarding the upcoming first film based on her work. “I’ve been watching it in my head for nine years now,” she explained, “and finally I’ll get to see it along with everybody else. The vital thing for me was that it would be true to the book, and I have great faith in Warner’s commitment to that.”

It was announced that the world premiere for
Sorcerer’s Stone
would be on November 4 in London at the Odeon Cinema located in Leicester Square.

While speaking to
Nickelodeon Magazine
, Harry star Daniel Radcliffe admitted, “The first day on the set, I was very nervous. I was used to rehearsing with about eight other people, and then I got to the set and — including the extras — there were, like, 150 people there.” He also pointed out that he did many of his own stunts: “There was one shot where I was hanging one hundred feet
[away] from my broomstick, 22 feet in the air. I was wired up to the broom, with a huge airbag underneath me, and they moved me around up there. That was pretty cool.”