News Archive, 2nd Quarter 2003

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'Harry Potter' kids now teens as fifth book hits shelves

Story dated: Jun 4th, 2003.  Source: Hello Magazine

As JK Rowling prepares to release the fifth Harry Potter book this month, the pint-sized actors who entered Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry have made a dramatic transformation into model teens.

With the passing of Emma Watson's April birthday – the young actress turned 13 – all three of the stars who appeared on the scene in Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, including Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, are officially teenagers. And now, the blossoming trio are featured striking a grown-up pose in the upcoming It's Totally Raining Teens issue of Vanity Fair.

While Daniel, Emma and Rupert are currently filming Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban, it's as yet unknown how producers will handle their adolescent growth spurts. Star Daniel, who plays the title character, has shot up eight inches since he appeared in the first instalment in 2001.

Meanwhile, JK Rowling – whose fifth book, Harry Potter And the Order Of The Phoenix has sold millions of advance copies weeks before its release – is set to read segments of her new novel at The Royal Albert Hall. The June 26 reading and an interview conducted by actor Stephen Fry will be broadcast live over the internet to an anticipated audience of millions. "This is what the internet should be about - making the impossible possible with a bit of web magic," says a spokesperson for the event.

Potter filming 'is on schedule'

Story dated: Jun 3rd, 2003.  Source: CBBC Newsround

Harry Potter film-makers have dismissed a newspaper report that the latest movie is running behind schedule in Scotland.

Warner Bros told CBBC Newsround website that there was no truth in the rumours that bad weather had been holding up Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban.

A studio insider said that everything was going to plan with the filming in Glencoe.

The Daily Express newspaper had reported that filming was two weeks behind schedule.

It also claimed that midges - mini-flies which are common in parts of Scotland - had been biting the cast members, making them scratch like mad!

There's been heavy rain in the area in recent weeks.

But Warner Bros told us they always planned to have both indoor and outdoor sets.

Looks like the weather's meant they've spent more time indoors of late!

'Prisoner of Azkaban' filming report roundup

From Hi-lands.com, May 29th, 2003:

The spells of heavy rain were interspersed with spells of a more spooky kind at the weekend.  In the midst of the West Highland showers, Harry’s wisecracking, red-haired, freckly friend Ron Weasley (played by Rupert Grint) was the centre of attraction – along with his pet rat!  But not just any old rat, you understand.  For Scabbers was once the bad guy, Animagus Peter Pettigrew, who, through sheer wizardry made a magical metamorphosis into a rat!  The cameras rolled only for interior shooting – because of those rainy spells.  And, as can be seen from our pictures, Ron, taking a stranglehold on Scabbers, is fleeing from Hagrid’s Hut.  But there was still no sign of the giant, Hagrid – Robbie Coltrane – himself.  Two leading senior actors who are currently on location in Potter Land in Glencoe are Sir Michael Gambon and Robert Hardy.  Gambon (62), renowned for his roles as Maigret and as The Singing Detective, has taken over from the late Richard Harris as Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  He has been emerging daily from Hagrid’s Hut in his long flowing robes, with a long flowing beard – which has a bizarre protective silk sheath cover – to match.  Meanwhile, Robert Hardy (67), the larger-than-life Siegfried Farnon in All Creatures Great & Small, is geared up in a forbidding-looking black suit and hat, which makes him look for all the world like an undertaker.  In fact, Hardy has the part of Fudge, a prison governor who tries to spirit Hagrid away from his hut – to lock him up!

From Abernethy Press, May 16th, 2003:

[A WB spokesperson] said big names like Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) have been in the area.  She added: “It’s going extremely well and everyone has been incredibly kind.  “Obviously we have had loads of children around and from coverage in the newspapers you can see that Robbie Coltrane has been here.  The rain has not actually stopped filming – any film production that goes on has scenes that you can shoot should it rain.  We have been filming for the last few days and once the summer comes back out we will be back out.”

An insider confirmed it is expected the film crew will remain in the area for the next few weeks.  But locals said it was too wet in Glencoe for Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), his pals Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), Draco Malfoy (Tom Fenton), and Coltrane to venture out on location.  Outdoor sequences were due to be shot at the elaborately constructed set in Clachaig Gully and contingency plans made to shoot indoors [in] Fort William.  But the cast and crew were hopeful of seeing cameras rolling at Lochailort and Hagrid’s Hut.

Finishing touches were put to Hagrid’s Hut over the weekend with on the mountainside above, a frontage of Hogwart’s School.  Towering above the hexagonal hut and the Sundial Garden, which now has its Pumpkin Patch and Scarecrow in place, is a turreted gatehouse and a staircase which leads through an Archway to Nowhere.  However, there was some last-minute battling against the elements – and the slopes – to get a series of Standing Stones – to actually stand.  

And a few days ago Harry’s “Hypogriff” [sic], the half-bird, half-horse contraption on which he rides majestically around, was moved onto the Glencoe set.  This is understood to be the most expensive piece of electronic gadgetry ever used in a film – and that’s including the complicated technology so beloved of the James Bond moviemakers.

So far this month, there has not been a dry day in nearby Fort William, the town which usually records the highest annual amount of rain – around 80 inches – in the UK.

Harry Potter crew takes to the hills

Story dated: May 16th, 2003.  By Cate Devine for The Herald.

The sun breaks through and adds its magic to Glencoe

THE weather was wizard in Glencoe yesterday on the first day of outdoor filming for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third in the phenomenally successful series.

After three days of enforced filming inside Fort William auction market complex because of rain, the 300-strong cast and crew of the Warner Brothers company were finally able to emerge into the sunshine and start the cameras rolling on vital exterior sequences surrounding Hagrid's Hut and Hogwarts Castle.

Even Hedwig, Harry's pet owl, got to stretch her wings. In fact, she is a he who had flown up specially from London to play his first major role and, as a principal character, he had just enjoyed a lunch of frozen mouse, brought in from Lanarkshire.

David Heyman, the producer, was also happy. "This place is just beautiful," he said. "The scale, the majesty and the wildness of this part of Scotland is perfect for preserving the magical feel of Harry Potter."

As the cameras rolled, Hagrid's hut nestled snugly on the southern slopes of the mighty Aonach Eagach ridge, its stone chimney billowing wood smoke across the grassy glen and out towards the copse of Scots pines that has become the Forbidden Forest. A voice shouted "cut!" and a line of Hogwarts schoolchildren suddenly emerged. They painted an oddly familiar picture as they yomped down the hill in single file.

Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Grainger were the exceptions - they were whisked discreetly into a Land Rover to be driven down the short path back to base. Emma Watson (Hermione) wore a school uniform of a pale yellow shirt and short black skirt, while Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) and Rupert Grant (Ron), were wrapped protectively in full-length Barbour bushman coats. The children have to be looked after because they are in every scene.

They may just have been acting as a class of Gryffindors learning the Care of Magical Creatures, but for the next hour all 30 children - including local extras - had to attend real-life school lessons in makeshift classrooms because it is muggle law that they do so.

A security man got a stern message on his walkie-talkie. Spectators were to move away immediately from the principal children or we would be asked to leave the set. A helicopter dropped off lunch to the various security personnel dotted around the mountainside.

Later, the stunning peaks of Glencoe will become the perfect backdrop for the game of Quidditch during which Harry falls off his broomstick because he sees his nemesis, Sirius Black, disguised as a black dog imprinted on the bright blue sky.

Onlooker Samantha Perry, from Middlesbrough, said: "Today in Glencoe has been as magical as any trip on the Hogwarts Express."

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban will be released in summer 2004.

Dan wins second Silver Otto Award

Story dated: Apr 23rd, 2003.  Source: Bravo magazine (Germany).  Tip credit: Nicky.

Readers of German magazine Bravo have once again voted Dan as the runner-up in the Best Male Actor category of their 2002 Otto reader awards.  Dan was presented with his second Silver Otto award by a Bravo journalist at the launch party for the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets DVD/video earlier this month at Leavesden Studios.  He received his first Silver Otto last year as runner-up in the 2001 awards.  Lord of the Rings star Orlando Bloom was the winner of the 2002 Golden Otto award.

View scans of an article from Bravo about Dan's award: (1) (2), or read a translation of the article.

'Potter' video gets magical launch

Story dated: Apr 9th, 2003. Source: Reuters

By Sam Andrews

LONDON (Hollywood Reporter) - Amid animated mandrake plants, mist-wreathed giant spiders and a row of silent basilisk heads, Leavesden Studios on the outskirts of London has played host [yesterday] to the global launch of the "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" video.

Cast members -- including Robbie Coltrane, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Miriam Margolyes -- mixed with producer David Heyman and director Chris Columbus at the event, attended by about 450 guests and members of the press.

Radcliffe, Grint and Watson arrived in spectacular fashion via the Weasleys' magic Ford Anglia car and were joined by many other cast members for a photo call.

The two-disc DVD and VHS are scheduled for release on Friday around the world -- except in Japan (April 25) and France (June 5). Warner Home Video is prepared for big business on the title; its predecessor, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," has sold almost 50 million units.