Harry Potter Movies

When you choose to take a piece of literature and expand upon it, either through roleplaying, or through some form of fan fiction, there are a number of choices that you have to make. First and foremost is, will you stick to the logical and chronological timeline that was laid out in the book? If you choose to follow the chronology of the book you can either choose to replay something that was written, simply mirroring what is in the story, or you can fill in gaps that the story doesn’t cover, such as time periods which were glossed over, or events which were not described in great detail.

On the other hand you can always choose to create a completely new derivative. You can make Harry Potter turn evil, or can have Hermione get a crush on Snape, or any of an infinite number of changes that you can make, to explore the “what ifs” of the story.

Another choice you have to make is time. A series such as Harry Potter stretches out over 8 years, and you can set your own derivative adventures during any of those years, or even before or after the events in the book.

Finally, you have to make choices about characters. You have the whole universe of Harry Potter characters open to you, but you have to understand their relationships, their connections, and how they react and interact with one another. This will all also be determined to some extent by the time period that your story is taking place in.

One of the things that can make a decent Harry Potter roleplaying session so difficult is that the book series is quite long and detailed, with literally hundreds of characters popping up at various points throughout. On the one hand this gives you a lot of room for creativity. On the other hand it also gives you a lot of room to make mistakes, and to forget important details.

Rupert Alexander Grint plays Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movie adaptation. Although his only acting experience prior to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was acting in one school play, he has already earned recognition and rave reviews from critics and fans. He only joined the auditions for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for kicks and unlike the other hopefuls, he came in with hip-hop lyrics he wrote himself that depicted Ron Weasley. The first harry Potter movie became a huge hit, and he climbed his way up to stardom. In 2005, he and his co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson ranked #9 in Entertainment Weekley’s Best Entertainers of the Year.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was the first book of the Harry Potter fantasy series by J.K. Rowling to be adapted for the big screen. It was released in 2001 and directed by Chris Colombus. The film’s plot follows Harry Potter, an ordinary boy who discovered on his eleventh birthday that he is actually a wizards. He gets sent off to a school of magic called Hogwarts to complete his magical training and education. Playing Harry Potter is newcomer Daniel Radcliffe, along with Emma Watson and Rupert Grint as his best friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasly. Among the adult cast members are Maggie Smith, Richard Harris, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, and Ian Hart.

Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) are set to return to the big screen for the sixth Harry Potter film adaptation, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Here’s the storyline…

The threesome are returning to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for their sixth year… Along with school bully Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton). Fortunately for them, Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) is also returning to lend a hand in defeating evil. Jim Broadbent joins the never-ending cast of veteran British actors already working at Hogwarts. He’ll be playing Dumbledore’s buddy, Horace Slughorn.

Voldemort’s forces of evil are amassing…

…Hogwarts is ceasing to be a sanctuary for Harry and his friends…

…They have to come up with a cunning plan…

…Now they have to recruit the unlikeliest of soldiers and prepare for battle…

The film is likely to be the darkest in the series so far with what director David Yates has described as ‘Train spotting moments’.

Shooting of the film started on 04 September, 2007 and it was originally planned for a UK and US release on 21 November 2008, but on 14 August 2008, the new release date was announced that is on17 July, 2009. In respect of the new release date many controversies have been raised and for that reason president & Chief Operating Officer of Warner Bros. production, Alan Horn gave a speech which is following:

“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 Potter fans. 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.”

Harry Potter Chess Sets are a fun way to show your love of Harry Potter!

Ever since the original Harry Potter book came out (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone), the fan base of the Harry Potter series has grown larger and larger. Many of these fans have become “rabid fans,” or fans that will do just about anything to get a hold of Harry Potter items.

It is no surprise then, that after Harry Potter Wizard Chess was revealed in the book, and after Harry had to win a life-size Wizard’s Chess game in the first book, that fans went nuts to find replica’s of the chess sets for their very own home collection.

Seeing this gap in goods, product creators jumped onto the opportunity, and today we have a large variety of Harry Potter chess sets that we can get for our homes.

These sets range from under $50 to over $700! Obviously, the more you pay for one of these chess sets, the higher quality it will be.

Unfortunately, some greedy manufacturer’s are out for nothing but extreme profit, and some of these sets are very low quality and are priced high.

They prey on Harry Potter fan’s obsessions with the sets, and charge much more than they are worth.

However, as long as you are a smart shopper, you can avoid this issue.

Remember to always look at the feedback for the model chess set! If there is no feedback available, open a new window and search for the product in Google to see if you can find any feedback about the set.

Harry Potter Chess sets are a great way to express your love of the series, but remember to always be mindful of where you are buying from. If the supplier doesn’t offer any ratings, feedback score or pictures, it should scream SCAM to you.

Just be careful, and soon enough you will enjoy a replica Harry Potter Chess Set in your own home that you can show off to all your friends! (Or keep to yourself if you’re a closet fan.)

Happy and safe shopping!

When I first started reading Harry Potter, I was immediately fascinated by the fantastical universe that J.K. Rowling created. This thing rarely happens to me and therefore I knew that I had laid my hands on something majestic.

Harry Potter is a story about a ten-year old boy who is living at his uncle’s house because his parents died when he was just a baby , and discovers that he has magical powers. At his 10th anniversary, he is invited to join Hogwarts, a prestigious school of magic where young wizards from all over the world are taught to control their special powers.

As time goes by, Harry finds out the cold truth about his parents – they were killed by Lord Voldemort who tried to kill him too, but a powerful spell protected him, defeating Voldemort and giving him a thunder-like scar on his forehead. Along the story, Harry must face a lot of challenges which threaten his life. His two best friends, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley offer him a great deal of support whenever he needs it.

Harry Potter is composed of a series of seven books full of excitement, magic and action. Their titles are: “The philosophers’ stone” , “The chamber of secrets”, “Prisoner in Azkaban”, “Fire Chalice”, “Order of the Phoenix”, “The Half-Blood Prince” and “The Deathly Hallows”. The reader will encounter giant spiders, three-headed dogs, dementors, ghosts, centaurs and last but not least, werewolves. All in all, Harry Potter is a must and I would definitely recommend it to anyone, young or old, who enjoy reading a good book.

The world of Harry Potter goes far beyond the gates of Hogwarts Castle. After following Harry and his friends adventures, you can continue them with Harry Potter toys and games. The movies and books have generated a huge line of items. The sales volume of this brand well exceeds thirty billion dollars. Through toys, games, apparel and other items, the Harry Potter brand is huge.

No matter which is your favorite book or movie, there are plenty of branded items for sale for everyone who loves the characters. The games and toys are suitable for most age groups. As your child grows older, you can be sure to find toys appropriate for their age. There are many of the characters from the books and movies available as action figures. These are great to collect or just play with.

The Lego Company has produced a Harry Potter Lego series. For those who love to build, the Lego sets are necessary. They are based on the movies and you can buy the Lego Final Challenge, with sixty building pieces, the Flying Lesson for the Quidditch lover, and the Sorting Hat is a fun set as well. The prices of these sets depend on the amount of pieces and can run from $39 to $89. The ultimate Lego set is Hogwarts Castle. This set has over 943 pieces and many of the characters. You can add on to the set with other packages. The Castle can be bought for over $500. To complete the scene, you can also purchase the Hogwarts Express train.

There are many games based on the Harry Potter theme. Video games for the computer and for all of the gaming systems, will lead you to a whole other world of wizards. Board games are a great way for family fun. You can buy a Clue type game, a Trivia and Mystery at Hogwarts game – all have been enjoyed by the many that have played them. In addition to the action figures, you can buy other toys as well. There are trading cards, jigsaw puzzles for different age groups and those soft plush toys.

No event is complete without a Harry Potter costume. You can get Harry, Hermione, or Dumbledore costumes complete with wands, robes, and glasses. These are great for Halloween or a Potter party. You can also buy wizard robes, wands, and Harry Potter glasses that are sold separately.

There are many different clothing items available. You can buy t-shirts, robes, pajamas and other items based on the Houses of Hogwarts. You can sport a Gryffindor tie, a Slytherin Robe, or a Hufflepuff scarf. Do not forget your Quidditch broom and robe so you can play the high-speed game like Harry.

The most important item to have is of course the wizard wand. These are great collector items and there are many to choose from. Most of the wands are based on the actual wands seen in the movies. You can buy Ron’s, Harry’s and other character wands for around $29. You can also find great wands to play with. Most will light as you wave the wand to perform your magic.

The world of Harry Potter is right at your fingertips. You can relive your favorite movies and part of the books through the toys, games, and costumes.

Many articles have been written on the subject of Harry Potter and his remarkable appeal to the mass market, but that’s not going to stop me putting in my five cents on the subject.

I came to Harry Potter late myself, having dismissed the books as something for children for several years. It was a silly dismissal on my part since I can name several children’s books that I still happily read. However, a couple of years ago the staggering media coverage of the movies forced me to read the books to see what all the fuss was about. Since then, like most everyone else, I have been captivated.

I have read all of the Harry Potter books in order, watched the movies and read many articles about various aspects of both Harry and J.K. Rowling and I believe that I have identified two key elements in the success of Harry Potter. I make no claims that these are the only elements, but I believe they are central to its appeal to both children and adults.

GROWING UP ALONG WITH THE READER

One obvious feature of the Harry Potter novels is that Harry ages. With each book, a year goes by. While this is not unique to Harry Potter, it is unusual for a writer to stick with a single feature character over so many years. Particularly when those years encompass the key ages of ten through seventeen.

As a result of this, and the fact that the books have come out over an approximately nine year period (most likely ten by the time the final book is published), the children who read the Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s/Philosopher’s Stone have effectively grown up with Harry Potter.

Whether by accident or design, it seems that J. K. Rowling has reflected that increasing maturity in both Harry and her audience by telling tells that become progressively darker and more complex in their characterization.

This reflection of Harry’s growth towards adulthood conveniently mirrors the same growth that Rowling’s core audience was experiencing. It also has the side benefit of attracting the interest of adults, many of whom became aware of the books through their children but discovered something with a little more depth than the average children’s tale.

So the increasing sophistication helped Harry Potter capture an ever larger audience, but what was it that appealed to them in the first place?

THE IMPORTANCE OF ARCHETYPES

The Harry Potter books are packed full of archetypes. From the Dursely’s, a family that will be very familiar to anyone who has read the works of Roald Dahl, to Lord Voldemort (Tolkien anyone?), to the boarding school environment (a setting used in many older British children’s books) to the magical creatures which inhabit Harry Potter’s world.

Now, it’s important to be clear on this point. I am not suggesting plagiarism. Those allegations have been made and in each case, clearly showed to be false. No I am talking here about archetypes:

“the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype.”

Like all writers (like everyone), J K Rowling has been influenced by her own experiences, by what she has seen and by what she has read. In creating Harry Potter she has called on much of that and made use of (knowingly or unknowingly) many archetypes from both fantasy and children’s literature. Archetypes are present to some degree in almost all fiction and used well can create extremely satisfying stories.

They also tend to create stories that have a mass appeal, because archetypes are things that we are all familiar with to some degree and humans by nature (whether they will admit it or not) like the familiar. Don’t believe me? Look at one of the most popular movie series of all time.

Star Wars was heavily influenced by Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with A Thousand Faces which maps out the common underlying structure of myths using archetypes. It is the use of that very structure which allowed Star Wars to break out from the sci-fi niche and become a cultural phenomenon. The use of archetypes made the alien situation less threatening to audiences.

Rowling is in good literary company on her journey. J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings can also be mapped against the same mythic structure and it has more than stood the test of time and popularity.

Of course following Campbell’s roadmap the story should end with “The Hero’s Departure”…

But that’s a whole other discussion.

For several decades, the alluring world of Fantasy novels was dominated by such stalwart offerings such as the classic Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. In recent years, huge hordes of readers surged towards the imaginative magical world of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling. In both cases, the genre of fantasy novels was redefined and extended to include new visions of fantastic locales, amazing characters and new styles of storytelling for this popular genre.

Now, thanks to a newly published effort by American author R. Leigh, called The Winds of Asharra, the Fantasy fiction genre has been radically redefined once again, this time for grownups seeking fantasy characters with some sizzle and sex appeal. In short, The Winds of Asharra is genre bending, a combination of Fantasy and Romance novels, with equal parts adventure and sizzle. It’s enough to fog Harry Potter’s glasses or make Tolkien’s hobbits blush.

The Winds of Asharra is 600+ pages long, set in the sensual world of Asharra, a place with twin suns and a purple sky. Unlike traditional fantasy fiction, there’s not a wizard, witch or troll in sight. Instead, the reader is treated to such unique and diverse characters as evolved feline-like creatures, intelligent telepathic trees, musical dragons and dream inducing mystical crystal beings. The main characters, two 18 year old Earth teenagers, Victor and Zoe, unexpectedly arrive on the surreal and sensual land of Asharra and embark on a journey of self discovery in a world where adventure, love, sex and home all have new meanings. When Ionera, a troubled Asharran girl with a mystical secret enters Victor’s life, his priorities turn upside down and new challenges present themselves including the beginning of an epic quest which will benefit all of Asharra if successful.

While these elements, although unique, sound appealing, there are two reasons why The Winds of Asharra represents a distinct change in popular Fantasy Fiction. Apart from the adventure elements, WOA (as its fans refer to it) adds great romance and humor to its story, elements which are often lacking in modern fantasy fiction. In fact, we found it difficult to categorize the Winds of Asharra. Was it Romantic Fantasy, Fantasy Romance or something else? In any case, it’s Fantasy fiction for adults, definitely not for the pre-teen set.

The final reason why WOA should be regarded as decidedly different is the successful effort to develop and insert a complex fantasy philosophy into the book. Much like L Ron Hubbard had done in years ago with Dianetics, Author R. Leigh introduces a plausible philosophy of the Asharrans into WOA, a creative, positive, life affirming worldview that is refreshingly optimistic in these troubled times.

Even the author of WOA is decidedly different and uniquely mysterious as the back cover of the book suggests: “Author R. Leigh is a mystery to local neighbors, appearing enigmatic and ageless, and wearing an ever present red crystal pendant. Some have guessed this author’s secret other-worldly origin, speculating that the tales of Asharra might somehow be true. Outskirts Press does not confirm this and will not comment on rumors that the manuscript for this novel appeared in our offices out of nowhere. We urge you to read this book and decide for yourself.” True or not, this made us smile and secretly hope that there are elements of the fantastic in our world, waiting to be discovered.

In conclusion, The Winds of Asharra is unabashedly different, worthy of examination by any graduate from the Harry Potter books who is eager to take the next step into a new fantasy universe, the world of Asharra.

Potential readers can visit their official website at http://www.thewindsofasharra.com.

The Winds of Asharra is published by Outskirts Press and available in Paperback and Hardcover from selected retailers and online booksellers around the world. US wholesale distribution is through Ingram and Baker & Taylor

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was released in 2005. Directed by Mike Newell, the film revolves around the events of Harry Potter’s fourth year at Hogwarts. The school was selected to host the recently revived competition called the Triwizard Tournament. Though Harry does not apply to join and represent the school, the Goblet of Fire mysteriously selects him to join the tournament. Three days after its US release, The Goblet of Fire grossed over $102 million at the American box office, the highest tally for a Harry Potter flick. It earned a over $896 million worldwide and became the highest grossing film of 2005.