Harry Potter exhibition blends wizardry with history

LONDON | A new exhibition celebrating the 20th anniversary of the first Harry Potter book’s publication is offering ‘muggles’ with an interest in magic the chance to view rare memorabilia, combined with historic artifacts referenced in the popular series.

“Harry Potter: A History of Magic,” held in the British Library in London, features Potter memorabilia including author J.K. Rowling’s first annotated sketch of Hogwarts school, as well as her handwritten list of its teachers and subjects.

As well as the items associated with Rowling and the book series, the exhibition also features historic artifacts from the library’s collection, including alchemists’ scrolls from the 1500s and Chinese oracle bones from the 12th century.

“Our exhibition explores the history, mythology and folklore behind the Harry Potter stories,” Julian Harrison, the exhibition’s lead curator, told Reuters.

“We investigate broomsticks and cauldrons and unicorns and dragons. We’ve organized the exhibition around some of the subjects that students would study at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, from potions to charms to astronomy and divination.”

The seven Harry Potter books have been translated into 68 languages and have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide, Rowling’s publishers say.

The final book in the series was published in 2007, but the series spawned a series of hit films, a U.S. theme park and a hit stage play that have kept the franchise in the public eye.

Rowling herself appears to have enjoyed the blend of her fictional world with the library’s collection.

“Encountering objects for real that have in some shape or form figured in my books has been quite wonderful,” she said in a statement.

The exhibition runs from October 20 until February 28, 2018.

source: interaksyon.com

Harry Potter script makes record UK and U.S. sales

LONDON | The script of a new Harry Potter play is achieving record sales in Britain and the U.S., though it is failing to match the popularity of the novels about the young wizard.

“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” has sold more than 680,000 copies in Britain since being published on Sunday, Britain’s highest single week sales of a script this decade.

The popularity of the print version of the play in its first two days made it the biggest-selling hardback at bookseller Waterstones since the 2009 release of Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol”.

“By the end of this first week, we expect to exceed ‘The Lost Symbol’ sales and to match the lifetime sales of our bestselling script book ever, ‘An Inspector Calls’ by J. B. Priestley,” said Kate Skipper, buying director at Waterstones.

“There’s no doubt about it; this will be our biggest book of the year.”

The script of the two-part play, which opened in London’s West End on July 30, recounts the adult life of Harry Potter and his family.

“The Cursed Child” was written by Jack Thorne and directed by John Tiffany, in collaboration with Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling.

In the U.S. and Canada the screenplay sold more than two million copies in the first two days, an “unprecedented” result for a script book according to publisher Scholastic.

Despite the success of the script, initial sales of the book fell far behind those of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, the seventh and final novel in the series.

Within 24 hours of being released in 2007, “The Deathly Hallows” sold 2.65 million copies in Britain, publisher Bloomsbury said, while Scholastic recorded 8.3 million copies sold in the US.

Globally the seven Harry Potter novels have sold more than 450 million copies since the first book hit the shelves in 1997. The wizard’s adventures have been translated into 79 languages and eight films.

An additional 250,000 tickets of the Harry Potter play are due to go on sale on Thursday, for performances at the Palace Theatre until December 10, 2017.

With speculation that the new play could be taken to Broadway in New York, Rowling said she was enthusiastic about performances abroad.

“I’d love it to go wider than that. I’d like as many Potter fans to see it as possible,” Rowling told journalists at the gala opening.

source: interaksyon.com

J.K. Rowling announces Harry Potter spin-off movie series

LONDON - Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is to make her screenwriting debut by penning a series of spin-off films set in the magical world of the British boy wizard, she announced on Thursday, putting her in line for another huge payday.

The first film will be called "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" and will be based on a textbook of the same name used by Harry and his classmates at their school Hogwarts, Rowling said on her Facebook page.

Set in New York and featuring magical zoologist Newt Scamander -- the author of Harry's textbook -- it will be set 70 years before the events of the core Potter novels.

The Warner Bros. film comes two years after the final movie in the eight-part series spawned by her phenomenally successful novels.

"I always said that I would only revisit the wizarding world if I had an idea that I was really excited about and this is it," the 48-year-old Rowling said.

She pitched the idea to Warner Bros. herself after the US studio approached her about making "Fantastic Beasts" into a film.

"I thought it was a fun idea, but the idea of seeing Newt Scamander, the supposed author of 'Fantastic Beasts', realized by another writer was difficult," she wrote.

"Having lived for so long in my fictional universe, I feel very protective of it and I already knew a lot about Newt.

"As hardcore Harry Potter fans will know, I liked him so much that I even married his grandson, Rolf, to one of my favorite characters from the Harry Potter series, Luna Lovegood."

Rowling added: "Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for 17 years, 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world.

"The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt's story will start in New York, 70 years before Harry's gets under way."

Rowling, who has sold more than 450 million copies of the Harry Potter books, has been keeping busy since the final novel in the series was published in 2007.

She published her first novel for adults, "The Casual Vacancy", last year to mixed reviews.

In July, she was unmasked as the real author of critically acclaimed detective novel "The Cuckoo's Calling", published under the nom de plume Robert Galbraith.

With an estimated fortune of £560 million ($885 million, 666 million euros) the former single mother is the 156th richest person in Britain, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

Warner Bros. said the new film would spawn video games and other products including links to the Pottermore website as part of an "expanded creative partnership" with Rowling.

"We are incredibly honored that Jo has chosen to partner with Warner Bros. on this exciting new exploration of the world of wizardry which has been tremendously successful across all of our businesses," said Kevin Tsujihara, CEO of Warner Bros. Entertainment.

"She is an extraordinary writer, who ignited a reading revolution around the world, which then became an unprecedented film phenomenon.

"We know that audiences will be as excited as we are to see what her brilliant and boundless imagination conjures up for us."

Warner Bros. will also act as worldwide distributor for the upcoming television miniseries adaptation of "The Casual Vacancy", which begins production in 2014, it said.

source: interaksyon.com

Harry who? Daniel Radcliffe goes from boy wizard to gay beat poet

PARK CITY, Utah – Daniel Radcliffe casts off boy wizard Harry Potter to play the voice of the 1950s Beat Generation in new movie “Kill Your Darlings” — a seductive tale of friendship, gay love and murder.

Radcliffe, 23, plays poet Allen Ginsberg aged 17 — a naive and closeted teen who struggles to find his place in the world years before the sexual and cultural liberation of the 1960s.

As Ginsberg enters Columbia University in New York, his encounters with fellow mavericks Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan), William S. Burroughs (Ben Foster) and Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston) bring about a new vision – the founding of the Beat Generation.

Indie film “Kill Your Darlings” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to critical praise this week and was purchased by Sony Pictures Classics for wider distribution later this year.

After 10 years and eight “Harry Potter” films, Radcliffe is also looking for a new place as an actor, appearing on stage in 2007 in London and New York in the drama “Equus,” for which he appeared fully nude, and musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” in 2011.

“Kill Your Darlings” sees Radcliffe pushing boundaries again as Ginsberg comes of age, including a raunchy sex scene with a man.

“Everybody wants to have as diverse a body of work as they can possibly have, and that’s what keeps people interested in your career,” Radcliffe told Reuters.

“There’s a lot to live up to in a sense that you’re playing someone so well known, and revered by so many people, but we’re not making a reverential film about him in any way,” he added of his role as Ginsberg.

Hollywood entertainment publication Variety said Radcliffe gives a performance “to banish any semblance of Harry Potter from the screen.”

The Hollywood Reporter review noted a scene in which Ginsberg “decisively embraces his sexuality (that) likely will be viewed as a major step for the actor toward distancing himself from the Harry Potter persona.”

Radcliffe joins a long line of actors who have portrayed Ginsberg on film, including Ron Livingstone in 2000′s “Beat” and James Franco in 2010′s “Howl.”

“I purposely stayed away from other portrayals of (Ginsberg) because I find I am a terrible mimic, so I didn’t want to end up doing an impression of James Franco doing Allen Ginsberg,” the young actor said.

Radcliffe said that while the film shows the four men who went on to create a literary and cultural revolution in America, the story is not solely about the birth of the Beats.

“It’s about showing how much fun they had and how they sparked off each other, and it’s that energy and vitality that launched the Beats,” Radcliffe said.

Director John Krokidas said Ginsberg’s story was central to the film because he had the biggest personal journey.

“At the beginning of the film he’s very much the dutiful son … but he never shows who he is inside, because he’s taking care of everyone else,” Krokidas told Reuters.

“By the end of the film, he becomes the rebel, he self-proclaims himself as a poet and finds his own voice.”

source: interaksyon.com