Potter Is Blind To The Dark Side

As the star of a wildly popular film franchise, you’d think Daniel Radcliffe would be well-versed in pop culture phenomenons. But as it turns out, Harry Potter himself hasn’t seen “Star Wars”!

In an interview with Moviefone, Radcliffe reveals that he’s never seen the 1977 space opera. “Yeah, I know. It’s really bad,” he says of the gap in his film knowledge.

The 22-year-old actor explains, “I saw 'The Phantom Menace,' and everyone's like, ‘You saw that one! You didn't see the originals?!’ I know! I was ten! I didn't know any better!”

But despite never having seen the films – of which Radcliffe says, “I'm sure they're amazing and incredible” – the actor does have a criticism. “I think there is a slightly more balanced split between the sexes in the fan base of 'Potter,'” Radcliffe postulates. “I associate 'Star Wars' as being a predominantly male thing. And I think 'Potter' is split more evenly.”

He also notes that “because 'Potter' started out as a book, it's created a generation of literary nerds in a way that 'Star Wars' perhaps didn't.”

Despite the differences, Radcliffe says he sees where the comparison comes from. “I do think of 'Potter' as being this generation's 'Star Wars,'" the actor says. "It's something that an entire generation has lost themselves in and it's a meticulously created, detailed world.”

And Radcliffe  loves the major thing that “Star Wars” and “Harry Potter” have in common: nerds. “Nerds are the best things in the world,” he says, “I think of myself as a nerd.”

And this nerd won’t be a “Star Wars” virgin for long – someone is getting him the new Blu-rays.

“I know that I would love them because I'm a geek,” he says, “so I would definitely get into them.”

Harry Boozer

Now that Daniel Radcliffe's decade-long turn as "Harry Potter" is drawing to a close, the actor is revealing some personal details about life behind the scenes at Hogwarts. The 21-year-old says in an interview with GQ UK that by the time he was filming "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," he was drinking to deal with the fame.“I became reliant on [alcohol] to enjoy stuff … There were a few years there when I was just so enamored with the idea of living some sort of famous person’s lifestyle that really isn’t suited to me," the actor reveals in the interview according to U.K. paper the Telegraph.

Although he'd begun drinking whiskey on the set of his 2009 film, Radcliffe says he was able to avoid paparazzi evidence. “I really got away with that," he says, "because there were so many instances when a paparazzi shot like that could have been taken."

He soon realized that something had to change, and as of last August gave up alcohol altogether.

"As much as I would love to be a person that goes to parties and has a couple of drinks and has a nice time, that doesn't work for me. I do that very unsuccessfully," Radcliffe admits. "I'd just rather sit at home and read, or talk to somebody that makes me laugh. There's no shame in enjoying the quiet life. And that's been the realization of the past few years for me."

Besides, he says, "I'm actually enjoying the fact that I can have a relationship with my girlfriend where I'm really pleasant and not f--ing up totally all of the time."

Pottermore?, Yes Please!

After years of refusing to release her boy-wizard books in electronic format, Harry Potter mastermind J.K. Rowling is finally taking the digital plunge, launching an online store that will sell Harry Potter e-books directly to consumers and a social-networking site designed to keep the Potter magic alive.

The free-to-access site, known as Pottermore, launches for the first million users on July 31 and opens to the general public — with the online e-book store — in October. Once the online store opens, the full Harry Potter series will be available as e-books in multiple languages, compatable with any electronic reading device.

Pottermore is a full-on Harry Potter online universe that allows readers to join a Hogwarts house and travel through the first Harry Potter book, while collecting points and playing games. Perhaps the biggest draw is the extra material that Ms. Rowling has written and unearthed from her notes, which gives intense Potter fans much-desired background and explanations about key characters, places and plots.

“I’ll be sharing additional information that I’ve been hoarding for years about the world of Harry Potter,” Ms. Rowling said in a Monday press conference in London. “I can be creative in a medium that didn’t exist back in 1990 when I started writing the books.”

Ms. Rowling has built the Potter franchise into a behemoth since the first of her seven Harry Potter novels was published in 1997. The series – the final installment of which was published in 2007 — has sold more than 450 million books worldwide, and spawned an eight-part film franchise for Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros.that is about to wrap up. The series is also featured in “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” area at the Universal Orlando theme park. In 2010, Forbes magazine estimated Ms. Rowling’s net worth at $1 billion.

Now, Pottermore is Ms. Rowling’s next step toward keeping the franchise alive and vital beyond the book series.

THE DEATH, AND THE END, OF HARRY POTTER

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (in theaters July 15), the filmmakers behind what’s certain to be one of the biggest films of the decade faced the challenge — and daunting pressure — of finishing strong, of sticking the landing, of simply not screwing up the ending. But director David Yates had more to sweat than just making sure that the final battle between the kick-ass wizard, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and evil Jack-O Faced VOLDEMORT  (Ralph Fiennes) was certifiably magical. The climactic novel in J.K. Rowling’s blockbuster book series actually ends with an epilogue set 19 years after the Harry/Voldy apocalyptic wand duel, a memorable coda with the huge emotional moments worthy of a tissue or two. (Our guess is that most of you have read the book at least once – 

SPOILER ALERT! 

***TO ALL YOU LOSERS THAT HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK, YOU SHOULD NOT KEEP READING***

The epilogue has married couples Harry and Ginny (Bonnie Wright) and Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) at Platform 9 and 3/4, sending their children off to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Yates first shot the scene at King’s Cross railway station in London during the middle of production on Deathly Hallows — Part 2 (filmed concurrently withDeathly Hallows — Part 1 over the course of 261 days), with Radcliffe, Watson and Grint made-up to look like the adult versions of their characters. Yet late last December, several months after shooting what they thought were their final moments together, the actors were summoned back to King’s Cross for a re-do. “I didn’t want older actors,” says Yates. “If you spent seven movies with these guys, you know these kids, and you want to end with them. We ended up with a scene that for all sorts of reasons, not just the make-up, just didn’t work. I asked the studio to have a second pop at it, with a very simple solution — simple make-up, which may be enhanced slightly with special effects — that’s really charming.”

Thus, shooting the epilogue — or rather, reshooting the epilogue — marked the official LastHarry Potter Thing That The Harry Potter Kids Ever Shot, and Yates says that in retrospect, it was only fitting; if he had to do it all over again, the director says he would have planned from the start to shoot the epilogue at the end of production. According to producer David Heyman, the new version of the scene was effective and affecting enough to change their minds about an idea for the filmmakers had about what to show on screen during the roll of closing credits. “We thought about a nostalgic look back at how the kids have grown over the previous films,” says the producer. “We decided against it because this ending captures all of that.” Heyman — who has produced all eight of the Harry Potter films and has a close rapport with Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint — says watching the young actors film the epilogue was emotional for him, not to mention surreal: “It was a funny day, seeing them made up to look in their late thirties. It really accentuated the reality of the situation. I knew it had been 10 years, but I didn’t realize they had aged that much.”

DEATHLY HALLOWS PRT1 DVD

Don't forget To run ur wizard butts to the nearest BESTBUY, TARGET, or wherever you get ur damned DVD's to get ur magic on! 

FINAL POTTER DE-3-D'd

It looks like the planned 3-D release of the "Harry Potter" grand finale (well, the first part at least) is kaput. A press release put out on Friday states, "Warner Bros. Pictures [owned by Time Warner, the owner of CNN] has made the decision to release 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1' in 2D, in both conventional and IMAX theaters, as we will not have a completed 3D version of the film within our release date window."

This will almost certainly be a disappointment for fans of the movies, especially those who have seen the last few in IMAX 3-D. The release goes on to say, "Despite everyone’s best efforts, we were unable to convert the film in its entirety and meet the highest standards of quality."

Earlier "Potter" releases included several scenes in 3-D for IMAX theaters, but this time trailers and ads for the film promised the entire movie in 3-D, perhaps in response to the success of "Avatar" last year.

This news could conceivably boost Disney's "Tron Legacy" and "Tangled," DreamWorks' "Megamind" and 20th Century Fox's "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and "Gulliver's Travels" during the holiday movie season. All five of these will be released in 3-D, with "Tron" becoming the high-profile 3-D release of the season.

At the same time, it's hard to imagine that too many people will skip out on one of the most anticipated movies of the year, simply because it will not be in 3-D; we think the "Potter" faithful will show up to theaters to see the beginning of his final adventure in any dimension.

A Little Potter Tease

It's finally all coming to a sad end, but in a two part breathtaking outro, the three stars of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” – Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, who play Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, respectively – opened up about filming, friendships and finally finishing 10 years of hard work. (Oh, and that highly-anticipated kiss scene.)“Deathly Hollows,” Watson explained to the U.K. publication, is a far cry from the first six movies in the series. First, it’s split into two parts and took 18 months to shoot. Second, it’s much more emotional.“The emotional stuff is much harder,” Watson told Empire. “These last two films have been on a completely different level in terms of what they’ve demanded from me physically and emotionally.”Radcliffe said the scenery made it look like a World War II film, with Hogwarts turned into a fiery pile of rubble and young wizards’ corpses strewn across the battle field.“No acting required; it’s absolutely terrifying,” Watson added. “I felt like I was in the army.”Grint’s character, who normally provides some comic relief, takes on a much more serious role.“You begin to see his paranoia as he sees Hermione and Harry getting closer and he’s not quite fully trusting of Harry’s ability,” Grint said. “Things begin to get a little bit heated.”It gets heated on the battlefield as well. Part one of the movie focuses on Harry, Ron and Hermione on the run looking for Horcruxes, with part two dedicated to the apocalyptic battle with Voldemort.“The second half is just this unrelenting chase that turns into a battle and doesn’t stop,” Radcliffe said. “You barely have a chance to catch your breath.”And as for that kiss scene? Not so steamy.Watson said the kiss between Ron and Hermione has been building for eight films, but “Potter” isn’t like other, shall we say...more overt movies.“It’s not ‘Twilight,’ you know,” Watson said. “We’re not selling sex. So, whenever there is any hint of that, everybody gets terribly excited.” 

Look for part one of “Deathly Hallows” in theaters on November 19. Part two will follow in July 2011.