Harry Potter Movies

J.K. Rowling testified before a full packed courtroom in a lawsuit to block the publication of a Harry Potter lexicon as she tells the judge that the book amounts to a “wholesale theft” of almost 20 years of her writing career. She claimed copyright infringement last year upon suing Michigan-based RDR Books to stop publication of Steven Vander Ark’s “Harry Potter Lexicon.” Steven Vander Ark is the one behind the popular lexicon website and RDR wanted to publish a printed version of the website and charge 24.95 dollars. Rowling said that the printed version is just a copy or rearrangement of her own material that it almost amounted to plagiarism. But RDR defended that the lexicon would serve as a reference guide to organize and discuss the complicated world of Harry Potter.

There will be two parts that Warner Bros. will be making for the seventh and final book of Harry Potter, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” The first part will be released in 2010 and the second part will follow the next year. This decision extends a movie contract that has taken $4.49 billion in worldwide ticket sales or an average of $897 million for each of the five films, this according to Box Office Mojo. It might be a great way to prolong a franchise because fans are still crazy about such an idea. The additional film will help bring visitors as well to the Harry Potter theme park that Warner Bros. is planning to open with NBC Universal next year.

Yahoo Movies, as part of their summer movie preview, has posted a gallery of 20 Great Movie Creatures and included in this list of magical entities that are surely familiar to Harry Potter fanatics is Kreacher. We know Kreacher as the house elf at Grimmauld Place who’s known to be very loyal to the Black family and hates Harry Potter more than anything. Other creatures included in the list are ET, Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the King Kong original from the classic film way back in 1933, Jabba the Hut from Return of the Jedi, Asterious the Minotaur from the newly released film Prince Caspian, and the Flying Monkeys from the Wizard of Oz.

Michael Rosen, UK’s Children Laureate has made a few comments about J.K Rowling in his tour to Scotland while promoting literacy among students. He said that Harry Potter does deserve credit for encouraging a generation of children to read but he feared that Harry Potter’s success may prevent youngsters from discovering other books and authors. He also said that JK Rowling is more of an adult writer leaving you hanging in the air at the end of each chapter with no idea what is going to happen next. And according to him children cannot cope with that. But there are some who disagreed to what he said and this includes the chairman of the panel of judges that chose Rosen to be Children’s Laureate. She said that it is true that children should not end with J.K. Rowling books alone but the point is, children have begun reading because of her book.

The Children’s Choice Book Awards had nominated J.K. Rowling as “Author of the Year” for her work on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. And as most of you Potter fans have expected, she won the award which was voted by over 55, 000 children. The awards were presented as part of Children’s Book Week which is the longest running literacy event in the country. It was sponsored by the Children’s Book Council. The said program was created to provide young readers an opportunity to voice their opinions about books written for children and with the results, it would help develop a reading list that will motivate children to read.

Scholastic is the publisher of Harry Potter books and for its 10 year anniversary celebration, they announced to release a special edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on September 23. The said edition will feature new works and material from J.K. Rowling and the Mary Grandpre’s new artworks.

The book will cost $30 and currently, 28 million copies of the original version of the said book in print in US alone. Worldwide, there are 375 million copies, all in 65 languages.

J.K. Rowling’s featured material is not determined yet but Mary GrandPre’s contribution will be a new cover with a Harry Potter drawing where he gazes into a mirror of Erised as well as four colour frontispiece.