Big Thank You’s to Rev George and James and the other HogPro All-Pros who kept me up to speed on events in the world of Harry Potter while I have been away from the blogosphere this past month. I’m back from wonderful trips to Stronghold Castle and Augustana College in Illinois, Pepperdine University and Biola’s Torrey Honors Institute in California, and beautiful Liberty, Tennessee, for Pascha celebrations with my family.
More on those adventures in the next few days — as well as letters from China — but “first, the news.” After the jump — Emma “spiritual, not religious,” Newt scheduled for three movies, Harry’s time under the stairs coming to West End, Casual Vacancy on teevee real soon, and the Tolkien/Rowling collaboration in China!
Rowling Confirms Harry Potter Being Adapted for London Stage
Rowling said the prequel to the seven-part book series, which have already been turned into eight Warner Bros. movies, will “explore the previously untold story of Harry’s early years as an orphan and outcast.”
Veteran British theater producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender will co-producer with Rowling, who will not write, but collaborate with a writer. Neither the writer or director have been chosen yet, however, as the project will enter the development phase in 2014.
“Over the years I have received countless approaches about turning Harry Potter into a theatrical production, but Sonia and Colin’s vision was the only one that really made sense to me, and which had the sensitivity, intensity and intimacy I thought appropriate for bringing Harry’s story to the stage,” Rowling said in a statement. “After a year in gestation it is exciting to see this project moving on to the next phase. I’d like to thank Warner Bros. for their continuing support in this project.”
Unauthorized Chinese Harry Potter sequel based on the Hobbit
In 2002, a very much unauthorized and peculiar sequel to Harry Potter was published in China by an anonymous author. The title of the book was Harry Potter and Bao Zoulong and it primarily consisted of the text and narrative from the Hobbit. All character names had been changed apart from Gandalf’s (reason is unclear). In a first introductory chapter, Harry, Hermione and Ron are all transformed into Hobbits by a mysterious sweet and sour rain. After that, the book is almost a to-the-word copy of the Hobbit up until the very end where a chapter details how Harry becomes human again and returns to the Dursleys.
The book was quickly discovered and in November 2002 the Bashu Publishing House agreed to pay a $3,400 fine and publish a public apology in China’s Legal Times.
Young-0 has translated the first and last chapter so you can find out how hilarious the plot is for yourself. Here is link to excerpt of unauthorized sequel: http://www.young-0.com/excerpt
Rowling to Get Casual Vacancy HBO/BBC TV mini-series
HBO will co-produce a miniseries adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s bestselling novel “The Casual Vacancy” with the BBC.
The production, which will air in three one-hour installments, will begin production this summer in South West England, HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo announced Wednesday. The BBC announced plans for an adaptation in 2012, the same year the novel, Rowling’s first post-“Harry Potter” book, was released.
Rowling Posts new Quidditch Chapter on PotterMore
“The ICWQC [International Confederations of Wizards Quidditch Committee] has the unlucky job of regulating this contentious and anarchic competition,” Rowling writes. “A source of vehement disagreements, a security risk for all who attend it and a frequent focus for unrest and protest, the Quidditch World Cup is simultaneously the most exhilarating sporting event on earth and a logistical nightmare for the host nation.”
The chapter goes on to list some of the most controversial rules and moments in the tournament, which stretches back to 1473, including not just the Death Eater-driven events of “Goblet of Fire,” but also the “Attack of the Killer Forest” in 1809 and “Royston Idelwind and the Dissimulators” of 1971.
Read the chapter on Pottermore.
Newt Scamander Magical Creature Flicks to be a Trilogy Block Buster (Wrap.com)
Wherever [Kevin Tsujihara] learned the skill, his deft touch became clear to Hollywood’s creative community last September. That is when Warner announced that Ms. Rowling had agreed to adapt for the big screen her “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” a 2001 book billed as one of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts textbooks. Three megamovies are planned. The main character will be a “magizoologist” named Newt Scamander. The stories, neither prequels or sequels, will start in New York about seven decades before the arrival of Mr. Potter and his pals.
Convincing the famously independent Ms. Rowling to dive back into film was a coup. “When I say he made ‘Fantastic Beasts’ happen, it isn’t P.R.-speak but the literal truth,” Ms. Rowling said in response to emailed questions. “We had one dinner, a follow-up telephone call, and then I got out the rough draft that I’d thought was going to be an interesting bit of memorabilia for my kids and started rewriting!”
She added, “When Kevin got the top job, he brought a new energy, which rubbed off. He’s a very engaging person, thoughtful and funny.”
Emma Watson “More Spiritual Than Religious”
AP: Did stepping into the world of “Noah” make you consider your own take on religion?
Watson: I already had the sense that I was someone who was more spiritual than specifically religious. … I’m really interested in those things that are more far-reaching than culture, nationality, race, religion.AP: Some groups have already criticized Aronofsky for taking liberties with the biblical text. What’s your response to them?
Watson: If we had gone with exactly the original story, Noah doesn’t say anything until he steps off the ark. You would have been watching a silent film. None of the women are really spoken about in the biblical story. There wouldn’t of been any women in it. He had to adapt it for the screen.
- And, of course, Daniel Radcliffe is a public atheist, even a “militant atheist”
To the last bullet point, I always wonder how Radcliffe feels about playing the most important Christ figure in recent literature . . .