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Harry Potter Fans Fight 8-Month Film Delay

{ August 20, 2008 @ 12:39 pm } · { Movies }
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On Social Networking and Fan Sites, Potter Enthusiasts Lash Out at Studio

By JENNA WORTHAM

Fan outrage is boiling online over the delayed release of the next installment in the Harry Potter film franchise.

 

 

from Warner Bros.
from Warner Bros.

Potter fan sites MuggleNet and The Leaky Cauldron are bubbling with dismay and anger about the scheduling move, announced Thursday by Warner Bros. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is now scheduled to hit theaters in July 2009 rather than in November 2008.

“Totally disgusted by WB’s decision,” wrote a user known as ocean on MuggleNet. “I’m totally convinced that the decision was motivated by money and only money.” On Leaky Cauldron, a user known as Savannah wrote: “This is a huge let down (sic). I can’t believe that they are moving it back by nearly eight months!”

Potter fans are also airing their grievances on social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube. A Facebook group named The Delay of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Has Ruined My Life is calling for a nationwide boycott of the film on opening day.

Additionally, multiple petitions are rallying fans online and off: One form is picking up steam with nearly 35,000 digital signatures, while a campaign by Dumbledore’s Army is urging fans to take up pencil and paper to make their concerns heard.

Some Potterphiles are even planning to protest outside Warner’s corporate headquarters in New York, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. says the decision to magically transform the film into a summer release will boost the Half-Blood Prince’s box office potential.

“Like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers’ strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films,” said Alan Horn, president of Warner Bros., in a statement Thursday.

Fox News recently suggested Potter star Daniel Radcliffe’s highly anticipated — and entirely nude — debut in Broadway play Equus triggered the delay from the studio, which doesn’t want the chaste image of the bespectacled wizard tarnished.

The delay is not expected to affect the final two installments in the franchise, which are tentatively slated for release beginning in 2010.

 

 

Harry Potter movie pushed back to July 2009

{ August 15, 2008 @ 8:39 am } · { Movies }
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tsk tsk tsk.. bad… :(

Reuters: The release date for the sixth Harry Potter movie, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” was pushed back on Thursday to July 2009 from its original slot in November 2008, movie studio Warner Bros. said.

The eight-month change in the opening date to July 17, 2009, is expected to disappoint millions of Harry Potter fans around the world who have already been waiting more than a year to watch the next big-screen installment in the international literary and film phenomenon.

 Trailers for “Half-Blood Prince” began running last week in advance of the expected November movie release worldwide.

 Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc, said it had decided to make the change to bolster its release schedule for the lucrative summer moviegoing season — a period that can account for as much as 40 percent of Hollywood’s annual box office receipts.

 Warner Bros. President Alan Horn said the studio was also still feeling repercussions from the three-month Hollywood screenwriters strike that ended in February but has “impacted the readiness of scripts for other films.”

 ”We know the summer season is an ideal window for a family … release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment,” Horn said.

The studio said the change of date would not alter production plans for the final, two-part Potter movie adventure, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” The release date for part one is tentatively set for November 2010.

 ”Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and last story from British author J.K. Rowling about the boy wizard and his friends at Hogwarts School, was published in July 2007. The series has sold an estimated 400 million copies, and the books have been translated into more than 60 languages.