Mellark Bakery Pictures and A Hunger Games Talk in Boone

June 25, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The intrepid Amy Sturgis has sent along this great image of the Mellark family bakery, formerly known as the old store in the abandoned Henry River Mill Town, which was recently transformed into District 12 (the location filming, which is just with the primaries right now, has moved on). You can see the store’s original appearance here along with the rest of the site here. Obviously, only a little had to be done to make this place into a reasonable facsimile of the most benighted District in Panem, since there is plenty of District 12 to go around in Appalachia, as we’ve mentioned here before. That connection, along with some of our other favorite discussion points, will doubtless be part of our riveting conversation this Tuesday, June 28 (yes, it’s intentionally on Tuesday, the day on the which the Reaping and the first day of the Games occur!) at the Watauga County Library in Boone, NC. I’ll be leading the program, which  is free and begins at 6 pm.

Thanks for the pic, Amy!

Filed Under: Elizabeth Baird Hardy, Hunger Games, Movie Thoughts Tagged With: , , ,

Deathly Hallows Part 2 Film Countdown Begins: Getting Ready for the Big Premiere

June 25, 2011 by 3 Comments

As the excitement increases about next month’s release of the second half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, we’ll be posting plenty of relevant pieces about plans, activities, and feedback. But we’ll also be revisiting some our “Greatest Hits” that relate to the film. If you have a favorite from the archives that you’d like to see featured as part of the countdown, send us a note, and we’ll dust it off and bring out! For those who really get into the whole movie premiere hoopla, now is the time to make plans (and maybe a swell costume, if you are into that sort of thing). I’m looking forward to seeing what folks are sporting at Leaky-Con, where many of them will be going to the midnight release. Though I don’t do the costume angle myself, I am a keen spectator, and I love seeing creative approaches (last year at Infinitus, several of the HogPros wondered for hours about the guy in the soda jerk outfit; he was Florean Fortescue).  Melanie Lee, friend of this blog, has a fun persona and plan that she’ll be using to reach out to others on July 15, and she’s sharing some of her goodies with us.  We’d also like to hear what others have planned, too! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Elizabeth Baird Hardy, Movie Thoughts Tagged With: ,

Hunger Games Movie News: A Legendary Music Producer, a Perfect Snow, and a Two-Part Mockingjay

June 13, 2011 by 4 Comments

We try not to cover every little scrap of movie movie news here at Hogwarts Professor (Oooh, look, they’ve chosen a gaffer! ) but we do have some nifty recent announcements on which we have not yet chimed in with our two knuts’ worth of commentary. The filming of The Hunger Games  is going on now, of course. Based on reports from the casting agency providing “background” (i.e. extras), they will need the Capitol people in August, and the District 12 folks I know are done, so it seems likely that Jennifer Lawrence and her fellow Tributes are out in the wilds of western North Carolina trying to kill each other, or at least, looking like they are trying to kill each other; they have nice weather for it. Much of that filming is shrouded in secrecy, including the bit that features a permit for a big explosion scheduled near the North Fork Reservoir later this month (apples, anyone?). But a few very clear bits of news do merit our attention, as we think about music, the world’s scariest Snow, and four films for our consideration. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Elizabeth Baird Hardy, Hunger Games, Movie Thoughts, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

We Didn’t Start the Fire: Young Adult Reading Controversy

June 12, 2011 by 16 Comments

Recently, the Wall Street Journal published an article decrying the state of Young Adult fiction, proclaiming that the whole genre has gone to the sewers with the graphic, the gruesome, and the crude.  The article has generated a firestorm of  response, and some pretty lively email amongst the Professors here and our associates, so we  thought it was about time that we got up a post about it so we could continue that conversation here! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Elizabeth Baird Hardy, Hog Profs Round Table, Hunger Games, Twilight Tagged With: , , , , ,

Hogwarts Professor Visits Site of 1863 Hunger Games

June 6, 2011 by 1 Comment

Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to Gettysburg, PA, with my husband, Michael C. Hardy, who is a Civil War historian and author and had a book signing there.

While there, we visited several battlefields in addition to numerous sites on the most famous and most visited battlefield in the United States, including this, the so-called “Devil’s Den.” What on earth, you may ask, does that have to do with our conversation here? Actually, quite a bit. Join me after the jump to see why the event whose 150th anniversaries kick off this year is, in many respects, our very own Hunger Games, and I’m standing here in the arena.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Elizabeth Baird Hardy, Hunger Games Tagged With: ,