The normally-reliable Slashfilm recently published a hunch that Daniel Radcliffe and actress Lily Rabe would be starring in a big-screen adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’s novel The Lucky One.

Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out, but there might be some truth in it.  The news came from a couple of tweets from producer Christine Vachon, who revealed that she attended a script reading with Radcliffe, Rabe, and director Douglas McGrath.  She didn’t reveal the name of the movie.  So if it’s not The Lucky One, what is it?

MTV suggests it might be Nothing Else Like it on Earth, a story about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.  Sigourney Weaver and Nathan Lane have also been attached to the project.

Still, there have been no confirmations, and the fact is, a script reading doesn’t mean you’re actually involved in the movie.  A lot of times, script readings are done as favors, or just to check out a story and find out how well it plays when you have actors speaking the lines out loud.

But stay tuned.  Whether or not Radcliffe ends up in this movie, it sounds more and more like he’ll have an interesting post-Harry Potter career.

Wait, what?

In the Harry Potter franchise, Helena Bonham Carter plays Bellatrix Lestrange, of course.  But if you’ll remember, there’s a scene in Deathly Hallows — the one where they break into Gringotts — in which Hermione takes some polyjuice potion in order to transform into Bellatrix.  Naturally, Emma Watson wouldn’t be filming those scenes — Carter would.

The actress told MTV recently that the scenes were great fun to film:

“The best bit about being Bellatrix in this one is also because I got to pretend to be Hermione,” she added of a pivotal scene that has the evil witch’s identity being assumed by Harry’s friend in order to gain access to Gringotts Wizarding Bank, which holds Hufflepuff’s cup — and a part of Voldemort’s soul. “Because Hermione takes polyjuice potion and gets to look like Bellatrix.”…

“It was great fun,” she said of the scene. “[I was] looking at Dan [Radcliffe] and Rupert [Grint] and they were treating me as if I was 17.”

Carter also reveals that all of her scenes take place in Part II of Deathly Hallows — which is a pretty big clue in terms of where they’re going to split the book up.  The scene in which she tortures Hermione happens around the midpoint of the book, but it’ll be in the second film.

The Harry Potter movie machine has been chugging along for ten years now, and has employed thousands of people.  A fair number of romances have assuredly sprung up over the course of the past decade as a direct result of shared Potter employment — yet probably none quite as adorable as Bonnie Wright and Jamie Campbell Bower.

Wright officially met Bower at a party, but the two both appear in Deathly Hallows — Wright as Ginny, of course, and Bower as Grindelwald, the wizard from Dumbledore’s past.  (Bower also appears in The Twilight Saga as the Volturi’s Caius.)

The two have been dating for six months but officially came out as a couple at this year’s BAFTA awards.  Ginny and Grindelwald — now there’s an odd couple for you.

Not sure how I feel about this, but apparently Warner Bros. is giving the go-ahead on turning Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, both parts, into 3D.

Apparently the conversion cost is only $5 million, plus another $5 million in expenses for 3D glasses and such, which the studio assumes it will easily be able to make back in added revenue.

It’s hard to deny that 3D movies currently tend to make more money, especially when Avatar is still raking in millions, about to breakthrough Titanic’s record $600 million gross.  But is 3D right for Harry Potter?  The series doesn’t take place on an alien world, it takes place in England, and Deathly Hallows Part 1 in particular takes place largely in the woods.

Hopefully it won’t hurt the movies…it just feels unnecessary.  But hey, studios are in the business of making money.

We’ve seen videos and concept art in preparation of Universal Orlando’s The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park, but here’s the first photo of what Hogwarts Castle will look like.  Very, very cool!