Tag: Harry Potter

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Mobile Syrup

Where to stream the Harry Potter reunion special in Canada

Cast reunions are all the rage nowadays, be it last year for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, this year for Friends or anytime in between virtually for COVID.

Now, Warner Bros. is back with perhaps its biggest reunion special yet — a 20th-anniversary celebration of the Harry Potter film franchise.

To commemorate the milestone, the company has brought together the cast and crew of the beloved fantasy series for Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, including, most notably, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Rupert Grint (Ron) and Emma Watson (Hermione).

For Warner Bros., it’s a significant piece of original content to bolster its HBO Max catalogue in the U.S. Thankfully, though, the company’s ongoing partnership with Bell Media means Return to Hogwarts is coming to the latter’s Crave service in Canada on January 1st, 2022. This is the same date as the American HBO Max premiere.

Filmed at Warner Bros. Studios Tour in London, Return to Hogwarts offers a reflection on 20 years since The Philosopher’s Stone with Radcliffe, Grint, Watson, Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid), Tom Felton (Malfoy), Gary Oldman (Sirius), James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George), Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix) and more. The series’ four directors — Chris Columbus (the first two films), Alfonso Cuarón (Prisoner of Azkaban), Mike Newell (The Goblet of Fire) and David Yates (the final four movies) — will also appear.

However, Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling will only be seen in archival footage. Presumably, Warner Bros. is attempting to distance itself from Rowling amid the ongoing controversy surrounding her transphobic views, which much of the Potter cast has condemned.

Crave costs $9.99 for a mobile-only tier or $19.99 for a ‘Total’ plan that includes all HBO content, including Return to Hogwarts. 

It’s worth noting that all eight Harry Potter films hit Crave late last month. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses, a Helen Mirren-hosted game show, is also now streaming on Crave.

Image credit: Warner Bros.

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Mobile Syrup

All eight Harry Potter movies are now streaming in Canada on Crave

All eight of the main Harry Potter films are streaming on Crave.

This is a pretty notable get for the Bell-owned service, as the massively popular franchise wasn’t previously available on any streaming service in its entirety. Instead, the final four films were streaming, for a time, on Netflix, with the first four unavailable due to “territorial licensing.”

Crave has gotten all eight movies to coincide with the 20th anniversary of The Philosopher’s Stone, which opened in North American theatres on November 16th, 2001.

For reference, these are the eight movies now on Crave:

  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part I
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part II

All of these movies can be found in ‘The Harry Potter Collection’ on Crave.

It’s worth noting that the two Fantastic Beasts movies, which are prequels Harry Potter prequels, aren’t currently on any streaming service outside of PVOD platforms like iTunes and Google Play. The third Fantastic Beasts film, The Secrets of Dumbledore, will hit North American theatres on April 15th, 2022.

That said, this is the first of three major Harry Potter content releases for Crave. On November 28th at 8pm ET, the streaming service will also debut Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses. Hosted by Oscar winner Helen Mirren (The Queen), the four-part competition series will pit fans against one another in Potter trivia battles. Special guests, including Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy himself) and late-night comedian Jay Leno, will also appear.

Finally, Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts will premiere on January 1st, 2022. The reunion special sees Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Rupert Grint (Ron) and Emma Watson (Hermione) join Christopher Columbus (director of The Philosopher’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets) and a variety of other guests from the films to reflect on 20 years of Harry Potter on the big screen.

However, series creator J.K. Rowling has been noticeably absent from all of these 20th-anniversary celebrations, including the Return to Hogwarts special. It appears that Warner Bros. is trying to distance itself publicly from the writer, who’s come under fire in recent years for repeated transphobic comments.

Many of the Harry Potter films’ stars, including Radcliffe, Watson, Grint and Fantastic Beasts‘ Eddie Redmayne, issued separate statements to voice their disagreement with Rowling. During this time, there’s been a marked increase in hate crimes against trans people in both the U.K. and U.S., which LGBTQ+ activists have warned comes, in part, from harmful rhetoric from public figures like Rowling.

Image credit: Warner Bros. 

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Mobile Syrup

Niantic is shutting down Harry Potter: Wizards Unite in January 2022

Niantic has confirmed that it will soon be discontinuing its Harry Potter: Wizards Unite mobile game.

In a blog post, the San Francisco-based gaming giant said Wizards Unite will be delisted from the App Store and Play Store on December 6th, 2021, ahead of a full January 31st, 2022 shutdown. In-app purchases will also cease on December 6th.

Leading up to the shutdown, Niantic is offering bonus XP and other in-game rewards, as well as a promise that the game’s two-year narrative arc featuring Harry and Hermione will be resolved. A full breakdown of all of the gameplay changes taking effect starting today can be found here.

Wizards Unite originally launched in June 2019 as Warner Bros.’ response to Pokémon Go, also developed by Niantic. The game took the location-based, augmented reality framework of Pokémon Go and applied a Harry Potter coat of paint.

Set after the Battle of Hogwarts, Wizards Unite tasks players with going around to locate mystical creatures and items and “unconfound” them, as well as fight dark wizards. The game allows you to choose your wizarding house, their wand and their profession (Professor, Auror or Magizoologist).

However, the game just never seemed to quite take off, despite the massive popularity of the Harry Potter brand. According to the analytics firm Sensor Tower, Wizards Unite has only generated $4.7 million USD (about $5.9 million CAD) in revenue so far in 2021. By contrast, Pokémon Go has topped $1 billion USD (roughly 1.2 billion CAD) this year alone. Overall, Wizards Unite‘s to-date revenue sits at only $40 million USD (about $50 million CAD).

Looking ahead, Niantic says it has the recently launched Pikmin Bloom and the upcoming Transformers: Heavy Metal in the works. Of course, the ever-popular Pokémon Go will also continue to receive support.

Altogether, the company notes that it has “nine games and apps in our development pipeline.”

Image credit: Niantic/Warner Bros.

Source: Niantic

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Potins

J.K. Rowling writes through the pain

J.K. Rowling put her work over her own health on Thursday (01.19.17) when she an hour lying on the floor typing out her new story idea, despite having a bad back.

The ‘Harry Potter’ writer had been trying to working on fresh material but was suffering with severe muscular pain and so decided to try and ease her discomfort by having a relaxing bath.

However, while she was soaking her aching body in the hot water, Rowling was struck by a moment of fictional inspiration and decided to jump out of the bath, take the pain and get writing.

The 51-year-old novelist-and-screenwriter said: "Pro tip: an hour spent typing while sitting on the bathroom floor will not help your bad back. Rather the reverse … I started work early, back hurt, thought I’d have a bath, had idea in bath, got out of bath and started typing, stayed on floor for an hour. (sic)"

Some of Rowling’s 9.05 million followers then tweeted her exercise advice to strengthen her weak back, with some recommending "pole dancing" and others detailing exercise combinations which could help.

Many mentioned Pilates as a good fitness tool to strengthen her core, and it seems the social media users proclaiming Pilates is the answer to Rowling’s problems are echoing her husband Neil Murray’s advice to her.

Referring to one follower named Megan who advocated Pilates, Rowling replied: "My husband appears to have set up an account in the name of Megan in a last ditch attempt to make me take his advice."

Rowling’s most recent project was the ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ film which saw her pen the screenplay for Eddie Redmayne, Colin Farrell and Ezra Miller and the rest of the cast to bring to life on the big screen.

Categories
Potins

J.K. Rowling writes through the pain

J.K. Rowling put her work over her own health on Thursday (01.19.17) when she an hour lying on the floor typing out her new story idea, despite having a bad back.

The ‘Harry Potter’ writer had been trying to working on fresh material but was suffering with severe muscular pain and so decided to try and ease her discomfort by having a relaxing bath.

However, while she was soaking her aching body in the hot water, Rowling was struck by a moment of fictional inspiration and decided to jump out of the bath, take the pain and get writing.

The 51-year-old novelist-and-screenwriter said: "Pro tip: an hour spent typing while sitting on the bathroom floor will not help your bad back. Rather the reverse … I started work early, back hurt, thought I’d have a bath, had idea in bath, got out of bath and started typing, stayed on floor for an hour. (sic)"

Some of Rowling’s 9.05 million followers then tweeted her exercise advice to strengthen her weak back, with some recommending "pole dancing" and others detailing exercise combinations which could help.

Many mentioned Pilates as a good fitness tool to strengthen her core, and it seems the social media users proclaiming Pilates is the answer to Rowling’s problems are echoing her husband Neil Murray’s advice to her.

Referring to one follower named Megan who advocated Pilates, Rowling replied: "My husband appears to have set up an account in the name of Megan in a last ditch attempt to make me take his advice."

Rowling’s most recent project was the ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ film which saw her pen the screenplay for Eddie Redmayne, Colin Farrell and Ezra Miller and the rest of the cast to bring to life on the big screen.

Categories
Potins

Daniel Radcliffe teases a return to Harry Potter

Daniel Radcliffe has teased he’ll play Harry Potter again "in the future".

The 26-year-old actor, who played the titular wizard in the hit movie series based on the books by J.K. Rowling, has delighted fans and said he’s not ruled out a return to the role that rocketed him to world-wide fame.

The ‘Now You See Me 2’ actor says he’d be willing to play an older version of Harry under one condition, and said: "It would depend on the script. The circumstances would have to be pretty extraordinary. But then I am sure Harrison Ford said that with Han Solo and look what happened there! So I am saying, ‘No,’ for now but leaving room to backtrack in the future."

Daniel was thrust into the limelight when he was cast as the orphan with magical powers alongside Emma Watson and Rupert Grint as Harry’s two best friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.

And it’s not known whether his fellow child stars would follow his lead and play the Gryffindor alumni once more.

Daniel can be seen in playing a magician called Walter, who is out to avenge his father, with Jesse Eisenberg, Dave Franco and Woody Harrelson, but says he never saw the link between his old character and Walter.

He said: "I actually didn’t consider the connection to magic until somebody pointed it out to me. They were like, ‘You are going to get loads of questions about magic again,’ and I went, ‘Oh, damn, I guess I am!’

Meanwhile, despite firmly making a distance between him and Harry, Daniel is still mobbed by Potter fans, especially in Japan and Mexico City.

He told Radio Times: "They are the two places where I thought, ‘OK, I can’t really walk around here.’

"It is much more now because when I was younger I wasn’t going out by myself. Also, the fans of the films were younger and they were indoors with their parents whereas now we are all in our 20s. The people who were big fans of Potter I am more likely to meet now, rather than when I was in my teens."

An adult Potter is currently depicted in London’s West End in J.K. Rowling’s play ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’, with Jamie Parker in the title role.

Categories
Potins

J.K. Rowling favours Dumbledore in Harry Potter

J.K. Rowling has revealed her favourite ‘Harry Potter’ character is Professor Dumbledore.
The author of the books about wizard Harry Potter’s wizarding adventures was chatting to fans on Twitter on Monday (11.04.16) when she was posed the big question and despite having Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Harry, Rubeus Hagrid and even Dobby – the loyal house elf – to choose from, she settled on the head teacher of Hogwarts, whose full name is Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.
Asked by one of her followers on the social media site, "Besides Harry, who is your favorite character in the series?" she wrote back: "Dumbledore."
Professor Dumbledore guided the young Harry Potter through his battles with his greatest adversary Voldermort and was the Head of the Transfiguration department and a member of the Order of The Phoenix.
The character was depicted by Richard Harris and then Michael Gambon in the film adaptations and fans were left devastated when he met his death at the end of ‘Half-Blood Prince’.
However, the new trailer for the upcoming prequel movie ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ which stars Eddie Redmayne as central character Newt Scamander, has teased that Dumbledore will be brought to life once more, after Colin Farrell’s character Graves said his name.

Categories
Potins

Daniel Radcliffe has savings of almost 60m

Daniel Radcliffe has almost £60 million in savings.

The 26-year-old actor – who shot to fame playing Harry Potter in the movie adaptations of JK Rowling’s books – holds £59,393,476 in his company Gilmore Jacobs, according to reports filed to Companies House.

This is £2 million more than he had the year before, according to the Daily Mirror newspaper.

The new accounts date up until March 2015.

Meanwhile, Daniel recently admitted he finds watching his own movies ”pointless” because he is so critical of himself.

He explained: ”I stopped watching myself quite recently because it’s never great.

”Sometimes I’ll be happy, but I’ll never be like, ‘Oh yeah, that was awesome.’

”I always focus on the stuff that I would rather have done differently and it’s a bit pointless after a while.”

And he insisted that he was determined to become a huge success after ‘Harry Potter’ because he wanted to prove the doubters wrong.

He said: ”Sometimes I think it’s useful for me to believe that’s what people are thinking.

”It’s always been a driving factor, that people assumed we were going to disappear or become f**k-ups. That’s always been a motivation. To prove those people wrong.”

Categories
Potins

Daniel Radcliffe honored with star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Daniel Radcliffe has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The 26-year-old actor – who shot into the limelight after starring in the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise at the age of 11 – was awarded with the 2,565th star at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California, yesterday (11.12.15) after being recognised for his remarkable career over the past 15 years.

Speaking to Variety at the ceremony, Daniel said he was shocked but thrilled to have been given the honor.

He added: ”We (Brits) have a national embarrassment about people saying nice things about us, so I was taken aback at first but then I had a real sense of gratitude. Only about 20 per cent of people who work in film and television end up on the Walk Of Fame. It’s kind of amazing.

”I don’t know if they remove these things, but no matter how badly I mess up, they can’t remove it.”

Daniel, who is among the small number of child stars to carve out a successful career in Hollywood into adulthood, went on to thank his parents Alan and Marcia, who flew out to the US for the ceremony, for their support over the years.

Meanwhile, the handsome star was across the pond to promote his forthcoming movie ‘Victor Frankenstein,’ in which he portrays assistant Igor to the mad scientist obsessed with creating life, played by James McAvoy.

However, as well as a large stash of films under his belt, Daniel has also made a name for himself on Broadway after starring in the musical comedy ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’ and the psycho-drama ‘Equus.’

Categories
Cinéma

Colin Farrell cast in Harry Potter spin-off?

Colin Farrell has reportedly been cast in the Harry Potter spin-off ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’.

The 39-year-old actor – who’s currently starring in the HBO series ‘True Detective’ – has been added to the star-studded line-up for eagerly-awaited movie, with Colin set to play the wizard Graves, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

He will star alongside Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne and Katherine Waterson, with Eddie playing the lead role of Newt Scamander and the actress playing the female lead, Tina.

Meanwhile, ‘Harry Potter’ creator J.K. Rowling recently offered an insight into what fans of the original franchise can expect from the spin-off movie.

She previously posted to Facebook: ”Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for 17 years, ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world.

”The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, 70 years before Harry’s gets under way.”