Did Joshua Herdman Reveal Where Deathly Hallows will be Split Up?

Joshua Herdman, who plays Goyle, might’ve spilled the beans last week at a Harry Potter event in the U.K. about where Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be split up into Part 1 and Part 2.  According to MuggleNet:

Herdman said that the current plan was to split Deathly Hallows just after the trio are captured by the Snatchers and right before they are taken to Malfoy Manor. Many fans had speculated this is where the split would be, as it will provide quite a cliffhanger between films.

That’s disappointing.

Cliffhangers work in TV shows.  When you stick them in movies, people feel robbed.  Think The Matrix Reloaded.

A cliffhanger is wholly unnecessary in Deathly Hallows Part 1 because (A) we already know there’s more to come because it’s called “Part 1,” we don’t need to be reminded of it by ending the movie on an unsatisfying note, and (B) everybody’s going to see Part 2 anyway.

The whole point of cliffhangers is to get people talking and come back for more.  So if everybody’s coming back for more, and if everybody who read the books already knows full well how it’s resolved, why bother?

MuggleNet also notes that this isn’t the final plan, that the filmmakers could change things up a bit once they get in the editing room and see how things play out.  So I guess we can wait and see.  But I like my plan better.

Herdman also dropped a bomb about his partner in crime, Jamie Waylett, who plays Crabbe.  Since Waylett was arrested and convicted of hemp possession a few months ago, he’s “not expected to come back.”  In other words, he was fired.  But that has major plot implications on the climax of Deathly Hallows, so if you haven’t read it, stop right now:

Since Crabbe is killed near the end of the book, Herdman said that he — Goyle — would be the one killed now instead.  Interesting.  I wonder if they’ll mention why Crabbe isn’t there, or just pretend he never existed.

‘Half-Blood Prince’ Holds Up Well in 3rd Weekend

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince made $17.9 million in its third weekend in theaters — beating G-Force, the movie that topped Harry the previous weekend.  In addition, Half-Blood Prince was down only 39% from last weekend.  That’s a smaller-than-normal drop, which Movie Cultists notes is thanks to the film showing up on hundreds of IMAX theaters across the country.

Half-Blood Prince finished the weekend with a new $255.7 million total domestic haul.  Since then, it’s been making a steady $2-2.5 million per day, and on Wednesday surpassed the gross of 2002’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

It should beat the $292 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to become the second-highest grossing Potter film after Sorcerer’s Stone (which made $317).  But will it surpass the $300 million mark?

‘Half-Blood Prince’ Grabs $29.5 Million in its Second Weekend

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince scored $29.5 million in its second weekend, down a steep-but-expected 62% and coming in at second place below a surprisingly strong $32 million showing for G-Force, the talking gerbils movie.

Of course, Half-Blood Prince still has not one but two aces up its sleeve.  The first is its overseas gross: in Great Britain, it still handily won the weekend and has outgrossed fellow summer behemoth Transformers 2 by a large margin (a reversal of the U.S. grosses).

The second is IMAX: Half-Blood Prince could only book a limited number of IMAX screens when it opened because Transformers 2 had booked a month-long exclusive run.  That time frame is winding down, so when Harry takes its place, he might get a second wind.

Thanks to its huge opening, Half-Blood Prince is still running a few percentage points ahead of Order of the Phoenix, which made $290 million.  With a little help from IMAX, Half-Blood Prince could be the first Potter film since Sorcerer’s Stone to make over $300 million…but we’ll have to wait and see.

Biggest 5-Day World Premiere EVER

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince scored a record-breaking $396.7 worldwide over the Wednesday to Sunday span, making it the biggest five-day start of any movie ever.  $159.7 million of that came from the U.S., which isn’t quite as record-breaking but is still 13% bigger than what Order of the Phoenix did two years ago.

The demand seemed to be sky-high up front as the flick made $22 million just from the Tuesday night midnight and 3 a.m. showings — another record.  After that, it leveled out a bit, maintaining about a 10% lead over Order of the Phoenix and dropping slightly below it on Sunday and Monday.

Put together, what we’re looking at is a final domestic gross that’s very comparable to the last two movies’ $290 million — although breaking the $300 million mark is still very much a possibility, especially with more high-priced IMAX screens freeing up in the next few weeks after their one-month exclusive Transformers 2 run ends.

Record-Breaking $22 Million Midnight Screenings!

Any half-baked theories that Harry Potter has lost his relevance can officially be put to rest as the stunning numbers just came in from last night’s screenings, which began at midnight: $22.2 million.  That beats The Dark Knight’s record of $18.5, handily trounces Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’s $16 million, and nearly doubles the $12 million that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix made from its own midnight showings.

It remains to be seen how well Half-Blood Prince can sustain those numbers over its Wednesday to Sunday five-day opening period; conventional wisdom says that since the demand is pent-up, there will be enormous grosses today that will drop off going into the weekend.  Still, we just don’t know enough yet — it’s certainly possible that Half-Blood Prince will match or beat Transformers 2’s $200 million five-day opening.

We’ll keep you updated going into the weekend…

‘Half Blood Prince’ Review Round-Up!

The reviews have started pouring out for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and you’ll be happy to know they’re almost all positive.  As I write this, it’s sitting at a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, with only one rotten review — and that one gave it 3 out of 5 stars, hardly a pan.

The general consensus?  Not a lot of action, a lot of relationships, and great performances all around.  Here are a few reviews to keep you busy:

CHUD:

A remarkable achievement, a film that is moving, that is funny, that is honest and true and sad and sweet. It’s a movie about characters who we have come to know and love, and it’s a movie that understands that it’s these characters, and not the magic they perform, that is the real hook of the series.

The BBC:

Those wanting noisy spectacle and endless action will be disappointed. This is a talky Potter.

It feels long - but not in a bad way. The main characters and the complex plot get a chance to breathe…relationships are what interests Yates.

Even when we first meet Harry in a cafe at Surbiton station, he is effortlessly catching the eye of a waitress.

Variety:

But assessing the romantic entanglements is not nearly as much fun as simply beholding the big physical changes in the young actors, whose onscreen maturation will have been documented across the span of a decade when all is said and done. The biggest change since “Phoenix” two years ago has been registered by Tom Felton, who plays Malfoy; he’s now a tall stringbean in the Jimmy Stewart mold, with a face that’s come to resemble that of Jonathan Pryce, and he towers over Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry, who looks to be the shortest person in the cast (not true when Imelda Staunton was around).

Rupert Grint, as Ron, has always looked a tad older than the others and continues to while showing more character. Emma Watson, perennially appealing as Hermione, has become a very attractive young woman, and Bonnie Wright’s Ginny intrigues as the sort of initial plain Jane who keeps growing on you.

The Independent (written by a 15-year-old girl):

The acting of all three main characters has stepped up a level: still not great, but it’s passable. They are, naturally, shown up by co-stars Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith and Jim Broadbent. Only one big name, Michael Gambon, disappoints; he doesn’t quite capture the pure love of Albus Dumbledore – at times coming across as too harsh.

The scriptwriters bungled several key set pieces, including the funeral scene – although they almost make up for it with a magical passage where students and teachers raise their wands in tribute. Tears poured down many faces in the cinema at that moment.

The Half-Blood Prince is frightening, funny, romantic and entertaining but as the end credits rolled, I still felt disappointed. I had waited all year to see my second-favourite Potter book brought to life. If I wasn’t a die-hard fan, I’m sure I would have loved it. My gripe is that the film was simply too different from the book.

I think that twinge of disappointment is something all die-hard Potter fans feel after seeing every single film.  You’re excited, you know it was good — but there’s just that nagging subconscious telling you that it didn’t live up to the books.  But how could it?

What I’m excited about is that Steve Kloves wrote the script after skipping the fifth movie.  Order of the Phoenix felt rushed; I’m looking forward to enjoying the quieter moments this time around.

All-New 2 Minute ‘Half-Blood Prince’ Clip!

iTunes recently debuted a  full two-minute clip of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and it’s no fluff: we start with Dumbledore and Harry talking at Hogwarts, they apparate to the cave, and Dumbledore stabs himself in the hand.  Really.  It’s cool.

It’s all over YouTube, but the embedding has been suspiciously disabled on every video, so you’ll have to click through to check it out.

How will Deathly Hallows be Split Up?

Ever since triumphantly announcing that they plan to milk Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for not one but two movies, Warner Bros. has been tight-lipped on one thing: where they’re going to split the story up.  In other words, where Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I will end, and where Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II will start.

*Lots of Deathly Hallows spoilers.*

This is partly because for a while, they didn’t have any idea.  (Make no mistake: they came up with splitting up the movies, then went to writer Steve Kloves to ask him to make it work.  There were no creative reasons.  The whole “this way we can include as much from the books as possible” rationale is a ploy to get all us Potter fans to forget that Warner Bros. is doing this primarily as a way to make even more money.)

But now they do know.  Both parts of Deathly Hallows are currently filming, and this quote — from producer David Heyman in an interview with Empire magazine — is the most that’s been said on the matter:

“We’ve played around with a couple of places,” said Heyman, “and ultimately settled on a place that we think is very exciting, and I think quite bold, in that it’s not necessarily where one might expect. You want to give a sense of completion, on one hand, but a sense that there’s another piece, more to come. We tried one and then Steve (Kloves, screenwriter) came up with the idea to try it another way and when we tried that, it felt just right.”

To figure out where they might have split up the book, you’ve got to think like a screenwriter.  While novels can be more free-form, screenplays have a definite Act 1, 2, and 3, with action beats every ten minutes.  Here are, in my mind, the major action set pieces of Death Hallows:

• Harry escapes 4 Privet Drive with the help of the Order; Mad-Eye dies.
• Bill and Fleur’s wedding is crashed by Death Eaters; Harry, Ron, and Hermione escape to 12 Grimmauld Place.
• Harry, Ron, and Hermione infiltrate the Ministry of Magic to steal the locket.
• Big fight in the woods; Ron leaves.
• Harry and Hermione are ambushed by Nagini at Godric’s Hollow and escape.
• Ron returns and uses Gryffindor’s sword to destroy the locket.
• Xenophilius Lovegood tells Harry, Ron, and Hermione about the Deathly Hallows, they escape after he admits Death Eaters are coming for them
• Harry accidentally says “Voldemort” and they’re captured and brought to Malfoy Manor
• Escape from Malfoy Manor: Pettigrew dies and Dobby apparates everybody to Shell Cottage, then dies from a knife wound
• Harry, deciding to go after the Horcruxes and not the Hallows, breaks into Gringott’s Vault with Ron, Hermione, and Griphook; they retrieve the Hufflepuff Cup but lose Gryffindor’s sword to Griphook.
• Aberforth Dumbledore smuggles Harry, Ron, and Hermione back to Hogwarts, where they’re reunited with the D.A.
• The Battle of Hogwarts begins.
• Harry, Ron, and Hermione head for the Room of Requirement to destroy Ravenclaw’s diadem; they battle Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle.  Crabbe dies.
• Voldemort kills Snape; Snape gives Harry his memories.
• Voldemort “kills” Harry.
• Neville kills Nagini, setting off another round of battle; Mrs. Weasley kills Bellatrix.
• Harry and Voldemort face off; Voldemort dies.

I started writing this article with one idea about how the movies will be divided.  After writing that, I have another one.

FIRST IDEA:

The night of Harry and Hermione’s battle with Nagini serves as Part 1’s climax.  Shaken, they return to the woods.  Harry follows the Patronus and finds Gryffindor’s sword — and Ron, who destroys the locket.  The trio is reunited.

Afterwards, they visit Xenophilius, who tells them of the Deathly Hallows.  Now that we know why the movie is named what it is, it ends.

Deathly Hallows Part 2 opens with the trio still hiding in the woods; the plot kicks off when they’re captured by Death Eaters and taken to Malfoy Manor.

NEW IDEA:

The events at Malfoy Manor serve as Part 1’s climax.  Hermione’s getting tortured, all seems lost, Dobby shows up, miraculous escape, etc. etc.  Afterwards, at Shell Cottage, Harry buries Dobby and decides to ignore the Deathly Hallows and keep going after the Horcruxes.

Deathly Hallows Part 2 opens with the infiltration of Gringott’s.

NOTES:

The first idea could work, but I now like the second idea a lot better, and if I were a betting man, I’d place money that I’ve gotten it right.  Though in the novel, the escape from the manor happens nearly two thirds of the way through, the list above suggests that there’s plenty left to be told in Part 2.  It also makes sense in that the Manor scenes are by far the biggest thing to happen mid-book; they’re an obvious choice for a climax.

And ending the movie with a burial and then a big decision from Harry (Horcruxes vs. Hallows) allows the movie to finish strong, with an eye toward the follow-up movie.  It’s the perfect example of what Heyman said: “You want to give a sense of completion, on one hand, but a sense that there’s another piece, more to come.”

The main problem is a problem I’ve had with splitting up the book from the very beginning: Deathly Hallows Part 2 will be basically all climax.  Starting out the movie with the infiltration of Gringott’s will provide a fun action scene, but after that it’s basically the Battle of Hogwarts and lots of big deaths and huge revelations all the way.  Will they be able to sustain the momentum or will we get battle fatigue?

To be honest, I think it’ll work — this little exercise has actually made me feel better about splitting the book up.  That is, of course, if I’m right.  In reality, who knows? Maybe the first movie consists of everything up until the epilogue, and the second movie just drags the epilogue out for two hours.

New ‘Half-Blood Prince’ Harry/Dumbledore Featurette

A new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince featurette has just been released, and it contains a lot of footage we haven’t seen yet. The focus is on Harry and Dumbledore’s relationship — and as Michael Gambon, the actor portraying Dumbledore, says, “the relationship turns into more of a friendship” this time around, which is a terrific interpretation.

After keeping Harry and Dumbledore apart for most of Order of the Phoenix, I remember I was delighted when Dumbledore announced at the beginning of Half-Blood Prince that he would take a closer interest in Harry’s education.  What follows certainly isn’t a letdown, that’s for sure.  That’s part of J.K. Rowling’s genius: everything she sets up, she pays off in an extremely satisfying fashion.

The featurette is actually really good.  Check it out:

First ‘Half-Blood Prince’ TV Spot is Very Hormonal

Warner Bros. continues to alternate between making Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince look like a super-dark drama and a light and fluffy romantic comedy.  This first TV spot is definitely the latter.  Dumbledore and Harry having a heart-to-heart about girls, Lavender Brown claiming possession over Ron…it’s all here.  Check it out: