Alan Horn of Warner Bros. issued a statement today in response to the many complaints about the delayed release of Half-Blood Prince:
Many of you have written to me to express your disappointment in our moving Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to Summer 2009.
Please be assured that we share your love for Harry Potter and would certainly never do anything to hurt any of the films. Over the past 10 years, we have nurtured and protected each film, and the integrity of the books upon which they are based, to the best of our ability.
The decision to move Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was not taken lightly, and was never intended to upset our Harry Potterfans. We know you have built this series into what it is, and we thank you for your ongoing enthusiasm and support.
If I may offer a silver lining: there would have been a two-year gap between Half-Blood Prince and the much-anticipated first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which opens in November 2010. So although we have to wait a little longer for Half-Blood Prince, the wait from that film until Deathly Hallows will be less than 18 months. I am sorry to have disappointed you now, but if you hold on a little longer, I believe it will be worth the wait.
Alan Horn
President, Chief Operating Officer
Warner Bros.
Thoughts? My initial, cynical reaction: Horn says, “…although we have to wait a little longer for Half-Blood Prince, the wait from that film until Deathly Hallows will be less than 18 months.” Right. Unless you decide to move that film from November to the following July, too.
One of the blogs I regularly follow, Problogger, noted today that Yahoo! Buzz went public today. Problogger notes that Yahoo! Buzz will probably neither be the most successful social media outlet ever, nor will it fade into obscurity. Since I have no fresh Potter stories at the moment (not wanting to talk about naked Radcliffe like the rest of the world), I thought we’d play a little social media game tonight: All Hog’s Head fans who have any form of Yahoo! account - let’s submit a Hog’s Head story to Yahoo! Buzz tonight and see how well it works. I’ll take this post down after the next couple hours.
This is just an experiment.
So here’s what you have to do - it’s very simple: Click on this link, see the story at the top (which is a story from The Hog’s Head), and click on “Buzz Up.” That’s it!
Entertainment Weekly, who is owned by Warner Bros. parent company Time Warner, Inc., featured the face of Daniel Radcliffe in their new Fall Preview issue that hit newstands in the middle of last week. The only problem is that the film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will not be released until July 17, 2009. The decision was announced by Warner Bros. around the same time the magazine hit newstands. This is sure to be an amusing story in light of our disappointment in having to wait nearly a year for the film. Word to Entertainment Weekly: I can’t wait for the Summer Preview issue…next year!
I suggested, upon hearing the news of the delay of the Half-Blood Prince movie, that the only silver lining to the news would be for Azkatraz 2009 attendees. The LA Times got a note from a member of Team Azkatraz, Heidi Tandy, saying that very thing. There is no way they’ll be able to accommodate everyone from Azkatraz planning to go to that movie, which means they’ll either have to rent more theaters, or Azkatraz attendees will have to find their own theaters. Either way, there won’t be an empty seat in San Francisco for the midnight showing. Might be wise for a few theaters to open up extra midnight showings, given that there may be 1,000 more people than usual looking for seats!
There’s lots of time to plan in advance for Azkatraz…I’d love to see a big Hog’s Head contingency there. Anyone planning to go?
Despite the fact that the supposed next big Potter event - the release of the Half-Blood Prince film - has been delayed till next summer, the Potterverse will be alive and kicking, with lots of key events, until that film release. Here’s a breakdown, in as close to chronological order as possible. Consider this your magical map to the next 8 months in Potter:
John Granger’s first books since the release of HP7. How Harry Cast His Spell: The Meaning Behind the Mania for J.K. Rowling’s Bestselling Books is currently available. This is the revised version of the older Looking for God in Harry Potter, and it’s a great starting place for Granger’s indispensable work on Potter. The Deathly Hallows Lectures is on its way! More details on that to come.
September 21: NYC Wizard Rock Festival - Guess I should have planned my NYC trip for a month later!
Any time now (?): The decision in the Vander Ark/RDR vs. JKR/WB trial. Not to bring up a touchy subject, but that decision, whenever it comes, will make a big splash in the lake next to Hogwarts. Hopefully it won’t upset the grindylows too much.
October: My Book! Ready for the title? Harry Potter & Imagination: The Way Between Two Worlds. More info, including cover art and release date to come.
Halloween: Apart from the fact that Halloween is always a good time to celebrate and discuss Harry Potter, there is a conference scheduled for Northern Illinois University on Halloween and the following days. Details to come.
November 4:Harry, A History by Melissa Anelli, webmistress of The Leaky Cauldron. With a forward by and interviews with Rowling, this book, which focuses on the Potter phenomenon, is likely to get a lot of attention.
November 8: A Harry Potter event in Hudson, Ohio. Details to come.
Later in November (hopefully): A volume of excellent essays on Potter from Zossima, edited by myself. More info to come.
Forthcoming: The release of James Thomas’s book from Zossima Press on re-reading Harry Potter. This will be a must-read. Details to come.
May 21-14, 2009:LeakyCon. Highly unlikely that I’ll be at this one, but I bet it’ll be pretty big.
July 17, 2009:Half-Blood Prince film (finally!)
July 18-21:Azkatraz. The website’s getting active. Should be a really good time. I intend to be at this one.
The Marauder’s Maps is alive and active: there are lots of things I’ve missed (book releases, Wizard Rock events, etc.), so feel free to add events in the comments!
Note:Did you know you can share The Hog’s Head posts through social media? Get involved with social media link-sharing sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, or Reddit, share this post on your Facebook or Twitter page, or email it to friends by using the “Share and Enjoy” links below. A drink on the house to all who share this post.
From time to time, I’m sent books by WaterBook Press to review and give away. This upcoming week is a Children’s Extravaganza Tour, and I have three children’s books I’ll be reviewing here on the site and then giving away. Hence, the August giveaway is three children’s books:
Five more pictures from the Half-Blood Prince movie we now won’t see until July 17 of next year. Images of Snape, Bellatrix, and Slughorn, and the Slug Club are of interest. (HT to HPANA)
This is going to disappoint a lot of folks (myself included). Warner Bros has apparently decided to change the release of the film version of Half-Blood Prince to Summer 2009 (instead of Thanksgiving of this year).
“Our reasons for shifting ‘Half-Blood Prince’ to summer are twofold: we know the summer season is an ideal window for a family tent pole release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment. Additionally, like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers’ strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films–changing the competitive landscape for 2009 and offering new windows of opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of. We agreed the best strategy was to move ‘Half-Blood Prince’ to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tent pole release for mid-summer.”
Alright, patrons - let’s show ‘em how rowdy we can get here in The Hog’s Head. Bar fight time.
“We never thought there was going to be another Harry Potter” ~ Samantha Gutierrez, manager of the Children’s and Teen’s Department at Barnes and Noble.
There’s been a lot of buzz around The Twilight Saga, a quartet by Stephanie Meyer about teen vampires which has even been proclaimed “the next Harry Potter.” The fourth and final book, Breaking Dawn, was recently released with Potter-like midnight parties. If you’ve interacted much with Harry Potter fandom outside of this blog, you’ll know that many Potter fans have also become big Twilight fans.
I haven’t read it yet, so I’m in no position to make a judgment call on it. But I’m wondering if any Hog’s Head patrons have read the series and would like to comment. Is it really “the next Harry Potter”? And the real question is: Is it great literature, or is it the first successful marketing campaign to tap into Harry Potter fandom?
This story has been making the rounds for years, and apparently scientists are getting ever closer to making a magical object a reality. Despite the fact that I argue in chapter one of my book that magic and science need not be antithetical, something about the possibility of a real invisibility cloak leaves me un-enthused.
Maybe it’s that the idea of that technology being real is a little scary for matters such as warfare. Maybe it’s the simple fact that it feels like some of the magic gets lost - or more importantly, that it might be seen as an Enlightenment rationalist’s one-up on a supernaturalist (”While you’re over there playing with stories about being invisible, we’re over here making it happen for real”).
More than anything, I think it’s the fact that the cloak in the Potter books is so invested with meaning that I don’t want to see it detached from that meaning. The invisibility cloak has a long history in story. King Arthur had one. Harry had one. Those are two biggies. I’m not sure I want everyone to have one. Dumbledore’s got wisdom for us all: this one is more real in my head than it would be in my hands.
Just a reminder that MythCon 39 is this upcoming weekend (August 15-18) in New Britain, CT. Sadly, despite the fact that I’ll actually be in CT this weekend, I’ll not be able to attend. But the conference looks great, and the rates are excellent for a conference from such a great organization. There are also excellent day-pass rates ($20/day for Friday and Monday, $30/day for Saturday and Sunday). If you’re able to go, I’d highly recommend it.
If you’re a Hog’s Head patron, and you’re going to MythCon, please do come back to this post and give us updates in the comments section.
I’m going to begin a new Hog’s Head practice of starting each week off with a subject for discussion. This week - the Olympics and the TriWizard Tournament. With the Beijing Olympics underway, Potter fans are reminded of the “Olympic” event that is the TriWizard Tournament in Goblet of Fire.The HP Alliance is noting the parallels along the lines of international cooperation and the Olympics’ theme, “One World, One Dream,” particularly in their call to use this time to raise awareness about Darfur.
Most definitely, Goblet of Fire, particularly in the character of Dumbledore, emphasizes the need for international cooperation in the fight against evil. But beyond Book 4, this theme gets little to no attention. In Deathly Hallows, Voldemort is brought down quite apart from widespread international cooperation. In reality, he’s brought down by the courageous actions of a few (non-government) individuals.
In light of this, some questions for discussion:
What happened to the theme of international cooperation in Harry Potter?
Does the lack of emphasis on the theme after Book 4 reflect the improbability of international cooperation (”it just ain’t gonna happen”), or does it reflect the Fabian element (”it’s gonna take a long time and a lot of work before that happens”)?
Is there something discordant about the emphasis on globalization in Book 4 and the clearly localized solution to the Voldemort problem in Book 7?
Is it simply a plot issue - Voldemort didn’t have time to become an international threat before Harry brought him down?
Overall - what is message of the Potter books about international cooperation?
Despite the fact that the supposed next big Potter event - the release of the Half-Blood Prince film - has been 
by Travis
Just a reminder that 
I’m going to begin a new Hog’s Head practice of starting each week off with a subject for discussion. This week - the Olympics and the TriWizard Tournament. With the Beijing Olympics underway, Potter fans are reminded of the “Olympic” event that is the TriWizard Tournament in Goblet of Fire. 
Most definitely, Goblet of Fire, particularly in the character of Dumbledore, emphasizes the need for international cooperation in the fight against evil. But beyond Book 4, this theme gets little to no attention. In Deathly Hallows, Voldemort is brought down quite apart from widespread international cooperation. In reality, he’s brought down by the courageous actions of a few (non-government) individuals. 
