† NillaMora †

Announcements were made today in relation to the Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Awards, and included a mention for the fifth Harry Potter film. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is one of the ten nominees for the Hollywood Movie of the Year Awards. With the awards to be presented October 23 in Los Angeles, California, and determined by online voting (click here to vote) the other films nominated include: 300
The Bourne Ultimatum
Hairspray
Ocean's Thirteen
Ratatouille
Shrek the Third
The Simpsons Movie
Spider-Man 3
Transformers

The 2007 Annual Hollywood Film Festival will take place from October 17 to 22 in Los Angeles. To read more about these awards and the film festival, click here via Film Threat.

While he doesn’t mention butterflies, NECA has now updated their website with information on a new Ron Weasley action figure that talks. Noting the figure modeled after actor Rupert Grint comes with a wand, the Ron Weasley talking action figure “speaks” six phrases from the “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” film including the following:

Sky News in the UK has a new video interview with actor David Thewlis now online, where the actor discusses his new novel “The Late Hector Kipling,” the works of author J.K. Rowling, and his role as Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter films. In the final minutes of the conversation (interview runs a total 7:13), David Thewlis says he will be back for the remaining two Harry Potter movies, noting how much really loves working on the films, and is very complimentary about the directors and his fellow cast members. David also confesses he has not read all of the Harry Potter novels, revealing he has read them all only up to “Goblet of Fire.” He jokes he “pays a 12 year old neighbor in Harry Potter memorabilia he steals from the set” to fill him in on all of Lupin’s antics (he did not read “Order…

Movie review

95 minutes. Rated PG for fantasy-action and some scary images. Several theaters.

Although its origins can be traced back to the late 1960s, "The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising" plays like a Harry Potter knockoff. It communicates almost no sense of its own identity; everything seems borrowed and tired.

Alexander Ludwig, a young actor best known for his work in sports sequels ("The Sandlot 3," "Air Bud 3"), plays the Potterlike hero, Will Stanton. Christopher Eccleston is his chief adversary, a monstrous creature known as "The Rider," who might…

by Vanessa Thorpe

A young boy enters a parallel world, full of magic and mischief, and finds he must save it from the influence of a dark, powerful wizard. If this is a story that sounds overfamiliar, news that the boy concerned has the name Harry Potter might confirm that we are in well-known narrative territory.

Yet this is not the work of JK Rowling. It is the plot of a children's fantasy film from 1986, almost a decade before Hogwarts School had even been imagined. Now it is about to be remade in Hollywood.

Troll, directed by John Carl Buechler, was a low-budget hit in America when it came out. The Boston Globe called it 'an exciting, dark surprise' and the film achieved a word-of-mouth reputation after taking third place at the box office on its opening weekend, despite the fact it was up against the blockbuster Nightmare on…

Director David Yates is quoted in a UK newspaper saying the role of Young Voldemort for the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince film has been cast, but refused to give the name of the young actor who will play him in the sixth Harry Potter movie. In Richard Kay’s column from The Daily Mail, there is a mention of the upcoming movie, along with the possibility the actor in question may be the young nephew of Ralph Fiennes who of course portrays Lord Voldemort. The article states that while David Yates declined to reveal the name of the actor, the columnist says that the role will be played by 11 year old Titan Tiffin. Full quotage is as follows :

MTV has a fun new video interview today with two of the UK’s finest actors, Michael Cain eand Jude Law, who discuss the fact that they have never been asked to be in a Harry Potter movie. While promoting their new movie “Sleuth,” they point out that “Ken” has been in the Harry Potter films, with Ken being “Sleuth” director Kenneth Branagh, who so memorably portrayed Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Actor Jude Law (twice nominated for Oscars for his excellent work in “Cold Mountain,” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley”) says he has read all the Harry Potter books but joked he was too old to play Harry. Meanwhile Michael Caine (two time Oscar winner for “Hannah and Her Sisters, “Cider House Rules”) says the Harry Potter films aren’t his sort of movie. He says he has never been…

Harry Potter producer David Heyman is the subject of a new feature in Variety. In this new interview, David Heyman discusses various cast members of the Harry Potter films, mentioning both the acclaimed adult actors he has in his films, but also the younger actors. Saying he is equally proud of all members of his cast, including those who may not always get the spotlight some of the cast does, the article states:

“The smallest part is treated with the same attention and care as the lead roles,” he says. “Not just in the casting, but also the…

BOSTON - The National Braille Press is auctioning a rare complete set of Harry Potter books autographed by author J.K. Rowling as part of the non-profit's annual fundraiser.

The fundraiser, emceed by "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno, is scheduled for Oct. 26.

The seven-book print set, donated by Rowling, is the only item that can be bid for online. Rowling rarely signs books. A similar set sold in Scotland recently for $40,000.

The books will be placed in a bank vault until the event. The money raised will help the press…

We have another look for you today about the special visual effects and processes used in creating the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix film. Back in August we told you about a lengthy detailed look at some of the special effects OotP that featured the Centaurs, Kreacher and more. Now, CGSociety has another such look, which is very technical yet fascinating account of the amount of time consuming and careful meticulous work that went into creating the visual effects seen in the fifth Harry Potter film.

In this feature, we learn about the various processes used to film certain scenes, such as the scene when the Trio encounter Grawp in the Forbidden Forest. Noting that for the part when Grawp picks up Hermione (Emma Watson) in his hand, ” the effects crew composited greenscreen footage of the actress filmed riding a giant hand attached…