Mike Newell Confirmed to Direct GoF

It's official (and just hitting the wires): Mike Newell is confirmed to direct Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The franchise's first British director, Newell directed the hit movies Four Weddings and a Funeral and Donnie Brasco. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is very tentatively scheduled forContinued...

Jason Issacs New Film to Open

Jason Issacs plays a card shark in his new film Passionada, a role that's "180 degrees" from Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series.

"New" picture of Rickman not new

Thanks everyone for emailing us this pic of Alan Rickman as Snape, but it's not a new PoA filming pic, it's actually a very old CoS filming pic.

Property Prices Skyrocket Thanks to J.K. Rowling

Property prices in Perthshire have seen a dramatic increase since J.K. Rowling purchased her six bedroom 19th century home there:
A three-bedroom farmhouse next to Rowling's Strathtay property sold last week for well over £300,000. That's around £200,000 more than it would haveContinued...

Harry Potter In Comic...Again

Darby Conley must be a Harry Potter fan...he's once again featured our favorite wizard-in-training in his Get Fuzzy comic.

Fiona Shaw

The UK's Independent profiles Harry Potter actress Fiona Shaw:
...despite all the media attention being given to the actress's next venture, her Edinburgh Festival Chekhov debut in The Seagull under the direction of Peter Stein, most of the population, if asked to name one of her roles, would only be able to point at the tall,Continued...

Harry Potter for Academics

The Kansas City Star offers up this article on scholarly analysis of the books, while noting that many Potter professors are from - Kansas.

Bloopers

Enjoy finding movie bloopers? This article mentions Harry Potter:
The first two Harry Potter films each had 107 bloopers, including a visible cast on the broken wrist of Emma Watson, who plays Hermione, and the wires controlling an owl and a giant spider in the sequel.

Editor's Note:
MovieBloopers.com has reader submitted bloopers (someContinued...

Book Piracy

The latest article on the subject of Internet book piracy.
Even if something's sent out in old-school paper style, today's scanners can quickly convert a whole book to a format that's easily e-mailed or uploaded. That's apparently how Harry Potter pirates got The Order of the Phoenix online, scanning every one of itsContinued...

Vote On the German Cover of OotP

The official German Harry Potter site is currently offering a chance for visitors to choose which Book V cover they like best.
Editor's Note: The site is, obviously, in German. To reach the book covers, click on "Zum Wahllokal" on the main page and you'll link right to them. If you're interestedContinued...

Book Pirates Charged

Police in Chile have charged two men in connection with selling illegal translations of Order of the Phoenix:
"Not only is it illegal, not only is it a pirate copy, it's a really bad translation," said Eduardo Castillo, president of the Chilian Book Chamber business group.

Pics from the Sun on Official Site

The pics that ran in The Sun a while back are on the official HP site, a small bit larger and with captions. This also puts to rest speculation that these are rehearsal pictures, as they are tagged as 'PoA pictures.' Thanks Parker, for the tip!

More On Isaacs As Hook

USA Today has an article discussing the latest Peter Pan movie and how a certain baddie we all know might just be what gets the audience hooked on the film.

Book Burning Response

A bit more on that book burning we told you about earlier this week, as well as response from the local community:
Other books, magazines, posters, compact discs and movies that members believe do not promote God also went up in smoke Sunday, as more than 50 people gathered outside the church for the fiery display. Among theContinued...

WB and BBC in Disagreement

From Guardian Unlimited:
If the row is not resolved, the studios could - in theory - stop the BBC showing their films: the corporation wants to make Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone the centrepiece of a ratings-busting Christmas schedule.