Hogwarts, the Ride and More on the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Several rumor alerts tonight regarding the upcoming Wizarding World of Harry Potter park attraction under construction at Universal Orlando। Screamscape is reporting that the giant castle of Hogwarts will not only serve as the center of the park, but will also be home to a "big new ride [that] will be placed inside the massive Hogwarts castle that is currently under construction।" The report also continues to say "Once the ride portion of the castle is finished and walled in, they will begin to move in the pieces and build it up away from prying eyes until they are ready to make the big announcement. As for Hogwarts itself… if the rumors are true this thing will grow and grow. According to one source the massive castle structure will top out somewhere over the 200 foot mark, making it bigger than the castle at the Magic Kingdom (189 ft).


Also a second piece of news involves a potential Harry Potter show to take place at the theme park. Screamscape states that "one of the Hollywood casting sheets has posted a rather interesting casting choice looking for a SAG actor for a “Project Strongarm” shoot for a “Theme Park Attraction”. The shoot will only last 1 day in mid November, but they’re looking to shoot a British professor role (Male 50s – 70s) who will be “A friendly, welcoming professor who greets new students enthusiastically. This character appears as one element of a Harry Potter theme park attraction.” This also follows a report they have that the current Sinbad show will evolve into a Harry Potter show. Readers will recall that back in March, we at TLC had a report regarding casting beginning for "all the major parts for the characters in the books,” in addition to others such as “a wand instructor for the kids. They basically show kids how to do wand magic tricks.” Others “will be traveling actors through the park playing the parts of wizards that come together in duels. They have specific spots in the park that this happens for special effects. For example, one wizard throws a spell at the other, the other reacts, does stunts and the places around, or behind them, bursts into flames or there is an explosion.”

As exciting as all of this sounds, please keep all of this very much in the rumor category for now. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park is set to open in 2010. Thanks to UHP for mailing!

Rowling reads fairytale extracts

The seven books are all handwritten by the authOR

Author JK Rowling is to read from one of the original handwritten fairytales which were mentioned in her last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The author made seven handcrafted copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

She will read extracts from one of them at the Beedle tea party at the National Library of Scotland (NLS), hosted by The Children's High Level Group (CHLG).

The party will take place in Edinburgh on Thursday 4 December, the same day as the tale goes on sale in shops.

The National Library of Scotland has borrowed an original copy of the tales from Barry Cunningham, JK Rowling's first editor.

Mr Cunningham was one of only six people to receive an original Beedle, created, illustrated and hand-written by JK Rowling, as a personal gift from the author last year.

Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children in Eastern Europe are living in appalling conditions in large, residential institutions JK Rowling

The seventh copy was given to CHLG for the charity to auction, and was acquired by Amazon for a winning bid of £1.95m/$4m in December 2007.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is the volume of wizarding fairly tales left to Hermione Granger by Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore in the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The tales contained clues that were to prove crucial to Harry Potter's final mission to destroy Lord Voldemort, but only one of the five stories, 'The Tale of the Three Brothers', was recounted in the book.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard, published by CHLG on 4 December, will reveal the four remaining tales, translated from the original runes by Hermione Granger, alongside notes by Professor Dumbledore and illustrations by JK Rowling.

The charity was co-founded by JK Rowling and Emma Nicholson MEP.

Local school children will be invited to attend the special charity launch. Net proceeds from the sale of The Tales of Beedle the Bard will fund the charity's work with vulnerable children across Eastern Europe.

JK Rowling co-founded The Children's High Level Group

To celebrate the launch, children across the UK and those visiting from further afield, will get the opportunity to see one of only seven original copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard on display at NLS.

The month-long Beedle display will take place from 5 December to 4 January.

JK Rowling said: "Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children in Eastern Europe are living in appalling conditions in large, residential institutions.

"Contrary to popular belief, fewer than 4% of them are orphans, but are in care because they are considered disabled or their families are poor or from ethnic minorities.

"The charity is publishing The Tales of Beedle the Bard to raise money to fund our work in helping these children out of institutions and in to loving families or community care homes.

"I hope that The Tales of Beedle the Bard will not only be a welcome present to Harry Potter fans, but an opportunity to give these abandoned children a voice.

"It will encourage young people across the world to think about those who are less fortunate and help change many young lives for the better."

There will be the opportunity for 10 local schools to each bring up to 20 pupils, aged 8 to 11, to the Beedle tea party.

The tickets will be allocated through a random ballot, to be run by the Edinburgh Evening News, from Wednesday 5 November 2008.

Harry Potter invisibility cloak a step closer to reality

An invisibility cloak, like the one Harry Potter used to wander around Hogwarts unseen, may be a reality within five years, claim scientists.

Chinese devise anti-invisibility cloak Harry Potter invisibility cloak 'within five years' Two invisibility cloak materials developed Radical advances in optical technology mean that scientists may soon be able to direct light around an object "like water around a pebble" thus rendering it invisible. Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter using his invisibility cloak Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana are using new ultra small "nanotechnology" and "metamaterials" combined with the mathematical principles of Einstein. "One of the most exciting applications is an electromagnetic cloak that could bend light around itself, similar to the flow of water around a stone, making invisible both the cloak and an object hidden inside," said Professor Vladminr Shalaev, lead researcher who published his work in Science. His team's theoretical design uses an array of tiny needles radiating outward from a central glass spoke, resembling a round hairbrush, and would bend light around the object being cloaked inside. The needles are so small that it reduces refraction or distortion of the light to almost zero so that any one looking at the cloak would not notice the light is being re-directed. The research which is funded by the US Army Research Office would be especially useful to the military who think it could be used to make tanks, buildings or even soldiers disappear. The experiments are a development of work by Sir John Pendry at the Imperial College, London, who originally outlined how metamaterials could be constructed to cloak objects by deflecting and cloaking objects. He said his cloaking device would be used to hide objects such as aircraft or tanks from radar. "Whereas (Einstein's) relativity demonstrates the curved nature of space and time, we are able to curve space for light, and we can design and engineer tiny devices to do this," said Prof Shalaev. As well as a cloak of invisibility other uses include computers and consumer electronics that use light instead of electronic signals to process information, and "planar hyperlens" that could make optical microscopes 10 times more powerful and able to see objects as small as DNA.

Wizard time awaits as Harry Potter heads to Lakes Aquarium

The greatest wizard on the planet will arrive on the platform of Lakeside station in the beautiful Lake District, on October 27, as he makes his way to the fabulous Wizards on Windermere event at the Lakes Aquarium, running between October 27 and November 2. Harry Potter lookalike, Luke Williams, described as the most realistic Harry Potter in the world, will be using his uncanny resemblance to Daniel Radcliffe to bring magical moments into the lives of children and adults alike.

Luke, who also has an uncannily accurate Harry Potter voice, will show off his superb magic and balloon modelling skills, as well as mingling with families arriving for Wizards on Windermere.

Inside the Aquarium, enthralling creepy creature talks are being staged throughout the thrilling event, to offer exciting insights into the lives of toads, frogs and scary spiders living at the attraction.

Families will be able to create their own creatures in creature-themed craft activity sessions and facepainting will also be available between October 28 - November 1.

On October 27 and also on October 28 and 31, everyone will go bats, as the Furness Bat Group provides introductions to their nocturnal creatures. On November 1 and 2, it’s the turn of Furness Owls, who will bring their wise old feathered friends to the Aquarium to captivate visitors of all ages.

There’s a mystical quiz trail and lots to see and do each day, ranging from watching the magical performance of diving ducks foraging underwater for food, to enjoying the technical trickery of the attraction’s Virtual Dive Bell.

Cups and sorcery will also be served up in Oscars, a café with a superb Windermere lakeside location and views. To give everyone an appetite for Halloween, the menu will be supplemented with delights such as pumpkin soup, Halloween eyeball pizza, ghost toast, pumpkin bread pudding, Halloween frothy punch and screaming spice and Tarantula cookies.

Admission is £8.50 for an adult, £5.50 for a child aged 3-15 (children under 3 enter for free), £7.00 for OAPs and £25.00 for two adults and two children (other family tickets are available for families with 1-4 children). Online purchase from Lakesaquarium.co.uk provides at least a 10% discount.

ASIA’S HARRY POTTER COMING TO DAVAO

Wuthinan Krichkumchorn, the so-called Harry Potter of Asia, is coming to Davao City to perform the act that won him the People’s Choice Award in the recently-concluded international Festival of Magic 2008 held in Malaysia.

The 12-year-old Thailander impressed the crowd with his Harry Potter act, a huge hit that captured the hearts of the audience in that magic festival. Trained by Thailand’s Magic Guru Mamada, Wuthinan or plain called Harry is Asia’s most promising magician. He and several other topnotch Asian magicians will be in Davao City for the three-day international magic festival this weekend. A competition, open to all Filipino magicians, will start on Friday at the atrium of Gaisano Mall of Davao, and the finals will be held on Saturday, also at the same venue. The Friday and Saturday shows are for free. On Sunday evening is the grand show at CAP Auditorium featuring Asia’s Harry Potter. For tickets on Sunday’s show, contact 225-8399/297-6776/(0920)9148297/(0921)9757789.

Harry Potter star eyes up American universities

2:05PM Monday Oct 13, 2008

Emma Watson has fuelled rumours she may be planning on attending an American university after touring Harvard's campus.

Emma Watson has been touring the campus of Harvard University.

The Harry Potter star - who plays Hermione Granger in the wizard franchise - sparked rumours she is set to enrol at the Massachusetts' establishment, after inspecting the dormitories and the admission office.

Emma also paid a visit to the English department, where eager fans reportedly had to be stopped from approaching her.

Harvard's Dean of Admissions refused to comment on whether the 18-year-old actress is applying to the university.

Emma previously revealed she is taking a break from movies, adding she is keen to further her education.

She said: "I've applied to a few universities for next year, including several American ones. If I do go there I will do a liberal arts degree, but if I stay in the UK I'll do English Literature."

The actress added she has decided to go travelling following the postponement of the release date of the next instalment in the film series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Emma said: "I've just come back from Kenya, It was amazing - I've just always really wanted to go there. I went to Masai Mara, and I went to beaches and it was a great place. I've just got back from Hong Kong too.

"I may go over to New York to see Daniel Radcliffe in Equus over there. I am going to make the most of my time off."

The sixth instalment was originally planned for release in November this year, but was pushed back until July 2009 by film company Warner Bros.

Potter author earns $10 a second

The Harry Potter author's incredible earnings -- equivalent to about $10 a second -- are from the 375 million sales of the seven books in the popular children's series, a percentage of revenue from the movie adaptations and spinoff merchandise, including toys and video games, according to financial bible Forbes.

J.K. -- real first name Joanne -- is believed to be worth around $1.1 billion and is expected to see her earnings soar even further, with three more Harry Potter movies scheduled for release.

Forbes spokeswoman Lacey Rose said: "It was wizardry that transformed J.K. Rowling from a destitute single mother on welfare into a super-rich success.

"On the big screen, her Potter franchise has already generated $4 billion at the worldwide box office -- and she still has three flicks to go."

After completing the Harry Potter series, the author -- who earned more than the other writers in the top 10 put together -- devotes most of her time to charity work, including the Children's High Level Group, which she founded.

Last month, she donated $1.9 million to the U.K.'s ruling Labour Party.

The Vancouver Province

Forbes: Rowling banks £170m in year

JK Rowling is the world's best paid author, banking more than £170 million in the last year, the US business magazine Forbes has said.

Rowling, who wrote the first of her best-selling books about boy wizard Harry Potter while an impoverished single mother, earned 300 million US dollars (£170 million) over the past year.

The 43-year-old billionaire author's income was six times that of second-placed James Patterson, who wrote Along Came a Spider.

Last month, Rowling donated £1 million to the Labour Party ahead of its annual conference, indicating that her gift was motivated by Labour's record on child poverty and Tory leader David Cameron's offer of tax breaks to married couples.

A Forbes spokesman said: "It was wizardry that transformed JK Rowling from a destitute single mother on welfare into a bestselling billionaire."

The magazine described her work as "a children's literary sensation" and a "publishing hit".

It went on: "Once a single mother on welfare, Rowling can now claim best-selling billionaire status thanks to her Harry Potter franchise.

"Over on the big screen, her Potter franchise has already generated 4.5 billion dollars (£2.6 billion) at the worldwide box office - and she still has three more flicks to come."

Last month, she won a New York legal battle and succeeded in blocking publication of a Potter encyclopaedia which she described as "wholesale theft" of her work.

She also said it had forced her to stop work on a new novel because the lawsuit had "decimated my creative work".

Daniel Radcliffe Reveals Boy Crush

Daniel Radcliffe revealed he has a crush on his Equus co-star Lorenzo Pisoni and describes him as “gorgeous.” According to Contact Music, the Harry Potter star even goes as far to say that if he were gay, he wouldn’t hesitate to marry him. Racliffe said:

“We’re getting on very well indeed. I’ve written some really, really deeply sexual things on some of the cards I’ve given him for opening night. But just to wind him up, you know. He’s great. He’s a truly remarkable man. You know, if I was gay or a female I’d, well, just want to marry him. He’s gorgeous, and he’s a really cool bloke as well. He’s great.”

Sounds like someone is almost ready to come out of the closet soon. It’s okay to be gay Daniel!

Daniel Radcliffe on Going Nude

'Harry Potter''s Daniel Radcliffe hit Broadway Thursday night for the debut of Equus and the stars lined up to see what all the hub-bub was about! "The Insider'''s spotted an all-star audience -- Kathleen Turner, Glenn Close, Judith Light and many more -- who came to watch the boy who took on Voldemort take on Broadway!

This may be Radcliffe's Broadway debut but the play's lead role is certainly not new to him. The world's most famous wizard is reprising his role in Equus after his sold out run in London's West End. The play also marks the first time in over 30 years a new production of Equus has come to Broadway.

It is not only Radcliffe's acting, but also his lack of clothes during part of the play, that has created quite the stir among theater-goers. For about ten minutes of the show Radcliffe disrobes fully.

Peter Shaffer's Tony Award-winning play tells the distrurbing tale of a stable boy who in an unbelievable act stabs six horses with a pick axe, and his psychiatrist (Richard Griffiths)who seeks to understand the mystery behind the shocking event.

Equus is playing at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City.

JK Rowling wins legal bid to block Harry Potter encyclopedia

JK Rowling has succeeded in a US legal bid to block the publication of an unauthorised encyclopedia of the world created in her best-selling series of Harry Potter books.

A judge ruled today that the author proved that Steven Vander Ark’s ‘Harry Potter Lexicon’ would cause her irreparable harm as a writer.

Rowling and Warner Bros, the Hollywood Studio behind the film adaptations of her books, sued US independent publisher RDR Books last year.

In emotional appearances at Manhattan Federal Court last spring, the author had warned that the floodgates would open on unauthorised versions, and spinoffs, of her books if a judge allowed publication.
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* I don't want to cry - I'm British, says J. K. Rowling

She had to ask for a glass of water to regain her composure when asked to describe what her seven-book series meant to her. “I really don’t want to cry because I’m British. It means setting aside my children and everything,” she said.

“These characters meant so much to me, and continue to mean so much to me, over such a long period of time. It’s very difficult for someone who is not a writer to understand. The closest I can come is to say to someone, ‘How do you feel about your child?’.”

Vander Ark had described the book as a modest but extensive guide for fans like himself, and not an attempt at serious scholarship. US copyright law allows teachers, academics, journalists and critics to use excerpts of an author’s work, but on a limited basis.

The unauthorised encyclopedia was compiled through a website, the Harry Potter Lexicon, which was founded by Ark.

J. K. Rowling's earnings top £3m a week

J. K. Rowling has made £5 a second in the past year as soaring sales of the final book in her Harry Potter series secured her place as the high-est-earning author in the world, according to Forbes magazine.

The 43-year-old writer, who composed much of her first book in a cafe because she could not keep warm in her council flat, earned six times more than James Patterson, the world’s bestselling crime author.

Her fortune, currently estimated to be £560 million, surpassed the Queen’s riches several years ago and is likely to extend her lead as royalties and earnings from film adaptations continue to pour in.

A world obsession with Harry Potter has resulted in 375 million book sales and the most lucrative film franchise ever. The first five films took £2.2 billion in box office receipts - more than all 22 James Bond films (£2.18 billion) or the six films in the Star Wars series (£2.08 billion). The sixth film is likely to rake in £500 million at cinemas and the seventh instalment could make double that figure because Warner Bros, its distributor, has decided to split it into two films.The mother of three had two children while creating the world of Hogwarts.

Forbes, the materialist’s Bible, noted that her £160 million annual income was more than the next nine writers put together. Lacey Rose, author of the report, said that Rowling’s place is likely to continue despite her announcement that she has no intention of writing another Potter book. “While the publishing industry has struggled to come up with a ‘happily ever after’ storyline in recent years, there’s still plenty of money to be made in the business of books,” she said. The adventures of the teen magician took the publishing world by storm in 1998, when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone became a hit.

Rowling shares creative control over the movies and negotiated an undisclosed cut of the profits. She also receives a cut from toy merchandising machine, with Mattel earning an estimated £100 million plus million worth of Potter paraphernalia. Video games by Electronic Arts generate even more, and images of the boy wizard appear on everything from sticking plasters to sweets. An amusement park, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, is being constructed in the Islands of Adventure area of Universal’s Orlando park.

Rowling, who has homes in Edinburgh, Perthshire and London, has said: “I know I am the luckiest woman in the world.” She is now devoting much of her energy and fortune to charity, including the Children’s High Level Group, which she founded. Last month she donated £1 million to the Labour Party.

Forbes’ top-earning five authors are: J.K. Rowling £160 million; James Patterson £26.7 million; Stephen King £24 million; Tom Clancy £18.7 million; Danielle Steel £16 million.

Remembering Richard Harris

Richard Harris, who was born in Limerick, Ireland on October 1, 1930, would have been 78 years old today. Richard Harris was Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies, but was previously most famous for A Man Called Horse and King Arthur in Camelot. He only agreed to be Dumbledore after his then 11-year-old granddaughter threatened never to speak to him again if he didn't.

Harry Potter bookends recalled for excess lead

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A new product recall from the Consumer Product Safety Commission: Harry Potter bookends (see photo).

The CPSC says "the paint on the bookends contains excessive levels of lead, violating the federal lead paint standard."

No injuries have been reported.

According to the CPSC, the bookends were sold in "elementary school fundraising programs, discount and dollar stores nationwide from June 2004 through January 2006 for between $3 and $28."