Interview with Jessie Cave , on kissing Rupert Grint

LA Times has an interview with the actress who will portray Lavender Brown in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

Do you remember what your first day on set was like?
It’s funny, I was filming for six months, but I remember my third day was the big kissing scene. I remember thinking, ‘Why are they doing this so early?’ It helped actually because the nerves kind of added to the scene. There were so many extras, like 70 other people in the room, it could have gone so wrong. The first day was kind of building up to the kissing scene, so it was immediately going into the deep end.

Harry Potter Videos: A restrospective+ Half blood extended trailer

This 9-minute trailer takes audiences back through the first 5 Harry Potter films, reviewing key plot points and ultimately building up to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

This clip features Harry’s plunge into the pensieve in order to explore Dumbledore’s first memories of the young Tom Riddle aka Lord Voldemort.

New Posters for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince!

Mugglenet.com has posted new hi-res posters of the movie!

Check out their awesomeness-ess (hehehe):

Ron

Hermione

Harry

Dumbledore

Less than 80 days til the movie comes out on July 15!! Hooray!

Deathly Hallows set photos

Celebuzz has TONS of photos on the set of Deathly Hallows, the seventh and last book in the Harry Potter series.They’re filming the movies back to back, so the actors don’t get too old on them. haha!

Here’s a still from the scene where Harry, Hermione and Ron flee from the Death Eaters during Bill and Fleur’s wedding:

By the way, I don’t think Hermione wore a red dress for this scene in the book. I will start re-reading the 6th book in preparation for the movie (I might as well read the 7th book while I’m at it! )

Half-Blood Prince to be shown July 15, 2009

Associated Press reports that the 6th movie installment of Harry Potter will be shown two days earlier than the original announcement.

Quote from the article:

That gives the movie a head-start on the weekend during what’s shaping up as a highly competitive summer season for Hollywood, which has major franchise films opening virtually every week.

“Every day the kids are out of school in summer is just like an extra Saturday,” Fellman said.

I think this is good news! I’ve already set a date with my boyfriend to watch Half Blood Prince even though it’s still 91 days away. I’m so excited!

*Jumps up and down*

*squee!*

Where are they now?

I haven’t been able to blog for quite a while now and the main reason for this is my laziness. In the past days I’ve found myself unplugged from the world wide web. Well, at least I was unplugged at home. Sayang nga ang DSL ko dahil talagang tinamad ako ng maraming araw. What have I been doing?  I’ve been glued to the tv set during my free time! Ang dami ko palang mga tv shows/tv episodes na hindi napapanood! Ang religious ko lang kasing panoorin ay Grey’s Anatomy, How I met your mother at Heroes. I’ve kinda let everything slide. Marami ding mga movies na palabas sa cable na hindi ko pa napapanood! Kaya ayun! Twing gabi umaabot ako ng hanggang hating gabi kakanood lang ng tv. Tapos sa umaga naman nasa labas ako. Hayyy…

Anyway, in my last post I talked more HP updates. Well, I’m going to give you the sweet synopsis of the interview transcripts I’ve read so far.

As many of us know, the 7th HP book has an epilogue,but instead of answering everything and finally putting a period on the story, it leaves us with lots and lots of questions! It’s almost as if we don’t want the story of Harry Potter “The boy who lived” to end! ( Ayoko naman talaga. It’s hard to part from the story especially since I’ve been following it since I started college!10 years ago na yun!)

Eto na yung mga kasagutan ni Rowling sa mga tanong na “where are they now?” :

1. Kingsley Shacklebolt is the new minister of magic and the office (and the wizarding community) has improved dramatically under his lead.

2. Winky the house elf is still at Hogwarts, but she’s quite sober now.

3. Hermione began her career at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Then she moved to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

4. Teddy was raised by his grandmother Andromeda, like Neville, who was also raised by his grandma after his parents were attacked by Death Eaters. He’s a metamorphagus like his mother.

5. Ron joined George at the Weasleys’ wizarding  Wheezes.

6. Ginny played for the Holyhead Harpies and after retiring to have her family, she became a Quidditch correspondent at the Daily Prophet.

7. Luna married the grandson  of Newt Salamander (Rolf).

8. Remus was killed by Dolohov and Tonks was killed by Bellatrix.

9. Snape has no portrait in the Headmaster’s chamber because he abandoned his post before dying. But Rowling says she is sure that Harry would see to it that Snape gets his portrait somehow.

10. Percy Weasley worked as a high ranking official under Kingsley after the whole incident. He has completely turned a new leaf.

11.  Dementors do not guard Azkaban anymore. Their numbers are more controlled now and that accounts for the clear skies in Britain.

12. Lockeheart will never recover.

13.  George will never get over losing Fred, but he does have a very successful career. He names his first child Fred.

14 Lily had feelings for Snape, and might have grown to love him romantically if not for his fascination in the Dark ARts.

15. Voldemort had to kill the following to create each of his horcruxes: Moaning Myrtle (The diary), Hepzibah Smith ( Hufflepuff’s cup), A muggle tramp (the locket), Bertha Jorkins ( Nagini), an Albanian Peasant ( Ravenclaw’s diadem), Tom riddle senior (the ring/ one of the deathly hallows.

16. Harry kept the Marauder’s Map and one day, James (his son) took it out from his desk.

17. Dolores Umbridge was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned for crimes against Muggleborns.

18. Rita Skeeter still writes and she wrote a biography of Harry. It’s probably more fiction than fact.

19. The jinx on the DADA post has finally been lifted.

20. Aberforth still works as the barman at Hog’s Head.

21. Firenze was welcomed back to the herd.

22. Voldemort is the stunted hideous thing Harry saw at King’s Cross station when he was talking to Dumbledore.

23. Krum found his true love in Bulgaria.

24. Dark Marks fade into a scar

25.The Quibbler has returned to its advanced state of lunacy and is appreciated for its unintentional humor.

26. Members of the DA kept their coins and became like badges of honor–proof that the owners fought against voldemort from the start.

27. “I did it my way” by Frank Sinatra was played during Dumbledore’s funeral.

More Harry Potter updates

There’s an article/interview on rottentomatoes with Alfonso Cuaron. Haven’t read the entire thing yet, but from what I’ve gathered so far, he is might take on the task of directing the 7th Harry Potter book– Deathly hallows! Yey! I LOVE his work and he was also the director of my favorite HP Movie: Prisoner of Azkaban! I HOPE I HOPE I HOPE he agrees to do it!

Also, JKR was interviewed by Meredith Vieira on Dateline NBC and they talk about the book more! ALSO! There’s  a web chat transcript on both Mugglenet and Leaky where JKR answers questions from her readers! She tells us more about the ending and she answers more ” where are they now?”  questions!

I will try to post more about it later!

** Can’t you see I’m excited? I used a lot of exclamation points in this post!

Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

In the 6th book we learn that Harry chooses not to return to Hogwarts and instead, he will seek out and destroy the rest of Voldemort’s Horcruxes. This is the premise of book 7.

As Harry becomes of age, the protection his mother gave will lose it’s power. This means that Harry will not be safe at the Dursley’s anymore. The Order decides to transfer the Dursley family and Harry on the same night. The results are not what they expected. Mad Eye and Hedwig are killed in this confrontation with Voldemort and his Death Eaters. George loses an ear.

Everyone attends Bill and Fleur’s wedding at the Burrow, but the party is disrupted by an grave announcement: the Ministry of Magic has fallen in the hands of the enemy. Harry, Ron and Hermione flee to safety and find themselves in Number 12 Grimmauld Place once more. They formulate a plan to get in the Ministry and retrieve one of the horcruxes. This results in chaos. But once again, the trio manages to escape.

Months go by and Harry notices that he gets “visions” more frequently now. Ron leaves them after a fight. Hermione and Harry go to Godric’s Hollow to try and get information from Bathilda Bagshot, a historian and writer and incidentally, Dumbledore’s neighbor as well. They are attacked by Nagini and barely escape again. This time Harry’s wand breaks.

More time goes by. They are in the woods now, and Harry retrieves the goblin-made sword of Gryffindor, with the help of Ron, who finally finds them. He tells them how the new ministry is rounding up all the Muggle-born wizards and witches. They get captured and are brought to the Malfoy’s. In the dungeon they find Ollivander, the wand maker and Luna and Griphook, a goblin. Dobby the house elf saves them but ends up sacrificing his own life.Harry asks Griphook to help them break in Gringotts Bank.

By now, they’ve managed to destroy Riddle’s diary (in book 2) , Marvolo’s ring, Slytherin’s locket. They have Hufflepuff’s cup as well. They head off to Hogwarts where Harry thinks the last horcrux is. They must find Ravenclaw’s Diadem.

Everyone at the school is getting ready to fight and Albus Dubledore’s brother, Aberforth is a great help. There is an escape route from the Room of requirement to the Hog’s Head where Aberforth is the barman. They are able to evacuate the younger students this way. Percy reemerges and Lupin,Tonks and Fred die.

During the commotion, Ron and Hermione goes back into the Chamber of secrets and got the basilisk fangs and destroyed the cup. Harry finds the Diadem of Ravenclaw with the help of the Gray Ghost,which happens to be Rowena Ravenclaw’s own daughter!

Harry uses the Invisibility Cloak to find Voldemort, and he learns the truth about Snape.

Voldemort thinks that he has finally killed Harry but he just destroyed the bit of himself inside Harry! Harry is a Horcrux! He is unconscious for a while and gets to talk to Dumbledore in a “dream”. Voldemort doesn’t know that Harry is only pretending to be dead in order to get back inside the school!

Neville kills Nagini, the last of the Horcruxes.

Another one on one battle ensues between Harry and Voldemort. Voldemort uses Avada Kedavra but it rebounds and it kills himself instead of Harry!

So that’s the whole story in a nutshell.

I think the book was pieced together nicely. We got to know more about Dumbledore and his past, the events that led to his death, his real plans for Harry,etc. We also got a real up close look at the life and politics inside the wizarding community. ( The bit about Muggle born wizards being round up for questioning reminded me a lot of how the Germans subjugated the Jews). It answered questions about the night Voldemort attacked the Potters and it surely opened my eyes about the professor we all loved to hate: Severus Snape. I’ve totally changed my mind about him after reading his side of the story. Also, I loved the bit about the house-elves and how they banded together in support for Harry. I really felt sad when Dobby died; I felt glad when Kreacher had a change of heart. Ang galing ng break-in nila sa Gringotts! Ang galing ng story about the Deathly Hallows at ang ganda talaga ng story ng friendship nina Harry , Hermione at Ron! Gusto ko ng purse na katulad nung kay Hermione! It’s so useful! Pati tent , books at mga damit pwede ilagay sa maliit na beaded bag!! Hanep!

Basta, ang daming magandang points sa story! It’s the best and most action packed among all the HP books! Worth it talaga ang pagpupuyat ko to read it! (Saturday late evening until Sunday afternoon, mga 2pm) Hindi ko kasi maibaba ang libro dahil engrossed talaga ako! Kung pwede lang hindi na ako tatayo sa inuupuan ko para lang matapos ko at malaman kung ano na ang nangyari! Ganon ang feeling ko!

Pero kahit super nagandahan ako sa story, this book is far from perfect. Meron kasing WEAK and CHEESY part. I didn’t like the ending at all. I think naging “safe” mashado si Rowling. It was too predictable. That Epilogue /19 years after part was a total let down and JK Rowling’s editors should have insisted that she write a different one! My reasons for disliking this? Well, it’s incomplete! It mainly focuses on Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione. It only mentions Neville (he’s the character that really CHANGED for the better! I love his new-found confidence!) and Draco in passing. What happened to the other characters? Walang full closure eh. I would have liked to know what became of the Weasleys (they are such lovable characters! And they’ve always been by Harry’s side all throughout the series. Why aren’t they mentioned in the end?) and the other members of Dumbledore’s Army like Luna Lovegood (she’s such a quirky character. I also want to know how she reacted dun sa ginawa ng father nya kay Harry) or the Order of the Phoenix (was Snape exonerated ?) .. and whatever happened to Tom Riddle’s/Voldemort’s body? Why’d he have to die because his spell rebounded on him? I wanted Harry to be the one to finish him off!! Arrgh! Also, who is the new Hogwarts Headmaster after Snape died?

Basta, ang ganda ng story, pero ang panget ng ending! Read it for yourselves!

Anyway, here are some nice quotes from the book:

Ron: “..he must’ve knew I’d run out on you” . “No”, Harry corrected him. “He must’ve known you’d always want to come back.”

Dumbledore: ” You are the true master of death, because the true master does not seek to run away from death. He accepts that he might die and understands that there are far ,far worse things in the world than dying.”

My overall book rating: 5 Golden Snitches. Yey!