Horrible news Harry Potter fans!

Warner Bros. is postponing the release of Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the sixth film in the franchise– set to be released Nov. 21– will now hit theaters in July of 2009.

In a statement, Warner Bros. president Alan Horn blamed the writers strike for the delay.

“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,” he said. “We agreed the best strategy was to move Half-Blood Prince to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tentpole release for midsummer.”

The studio said it still plans to release a two-film adaptation of the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, with the first film on track to be released on Nov. 19, 2010.

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WENN

Daniel Radcliffe has compared the latest Harry Potter installment to cult movie Trainspotting - insisting the new film contains “a fair amount of sexual energy and drug parallels”.

Radcliffe recently finished filming the sixth Potter movie - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which is due for release in November.

And the star insists that there are moments in the picture which are very similar to scenes in Ewan McGregor’s controversial 1996 film.

He says, “There’s a fair amount of sexual energy and drug parallels. We have a couple of Trainspotting moments. That’s two films I never thought would be mentioned in the same breath.”

Source

WENN

Attention Harry Potter fans! There may be only two books left to translate to the big screen, but there will be three movies released.

On Thursday, Warner Bros. announced that the final ‘Harry’ film, (based on the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) will be released in two parts.
Part one of the final film will debut in 2010, to be followed months later by part 2.

In a statement, Warner Bros. President, Jeff Robinov said, “We feel that the best way to do the book, and its many fans, justice is to expand the screen adaptation. The Deathly Hallows is so rich, the story so dense and there is so much that is resolved that after discussing it with Jo, (J.K. Rowling) we came to the conclusion that the two parts were needed to do it justice.”

The movies (the sixth is in production now) are based on British Author J.K. Rowling’s best-selling fantasy novels about the adventures of boy wizard Harry Potter and his friends, as they grow into maturity at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Deathly Hallows, the much anticipated final book in Rowling’s series, was published last July, selling 11.5 million copies in its first 10 days–in the U.S. alone.

The final volume is more than 750 pages, filled with several twists and turns as Harry and his friends, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley take on the evil Lord Voldemort for the last time.

WENN

Kids and adults around the world waited in line last night for the latest, and last installment of the new Harry Potter book. At 12:01 a.m. many fans got their hands on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but I expect many more fans will have to wait for new shipments to arrive as, I am sure, bookstores have sold every last copy.

The books has a print run of 12 million in the United States. Rowling herself gave a midnight reading to 500 contest-winning kids at London’s Natural History Museum. Lucky!

So, what about the book itself? I got this critique from Sue Corbett from People Magazine:

Rowling doesn’t want anyone spoiling the plot of her wildly successful epic, but she’s quite the tease herself, having whipped readers into an anxious frenzy by dropping hints about characters biting the dust in Deathly Hallows. And boy, do they ever. The first death comes in chapter one, and the final body count is high. Harry is in peril from the beginning, with Death Eaters swarming the skies as he’s about to turn 17. The plot careens nearly non-stop from one scrape to the next – it may be some of the most exhausting fiction ever put to page. But it’s also exhilarating, and a must-read for those with nagging questions about Snape’s true nature, Dumbledore’s childhood, and all else Hogwartian. As expected, it all ends with a Star Wars-worthy battle between Good and Evil. Rowling’s fans won’t be disappointed.

I don’t know if anyone has read it yet, but personally I am dying to read it! However, I fear that I am going to have to wait  a bit for the bookstores to restock. Anyone want to give a review without giving away any of the big surprises!?

Nearly a fifth of Harry Potter fans say they will skip straight to the last page of the final book to find out how what happens to the boy wizard, a survey showed on Saturday.

Fans’ web sites are buzzing with speculation over the possible ending of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final book in the series.

Author J.K. Rowling has fuelled the intrigue by saying that “more than two” characters will die but she has refused to name the victims or give any more clues.

According to the poll of 500 children for the Waterstone’s book chain, 17 percent of readers will flick to the end without ploughing through all 608 pages first.

But a third say they are prepared to stay up all night to finish the book after its July 21 release.

Girls will race through the novel quicker than boys, taking about 30 hours to finish.

Nine out of 10 think it will be sadder saying goodbye to Harry than Prime Minister Tony Blair, the survey said.

“There’s no doubt that Harry will be missed, he’s a hard act to follow,” said Waterstone’s spokesman Wayne Winstone.

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How about you? Would you skip to the end?