cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14708072

Come hang out while we fight a giant snake

Nowhere in my town has these anymore but I recently had to go out of town a few times and found more Harry Potter Kinder Eggs in a few stores way out in the country lol!

The only ones I don't have yet are Professor Trelawny, Luna Lovegood, and Cho Chang! I'm starting to think they don't actually exist lol

This puts me at 7 out of 12 figures! It looks like a lot of places near me are running out of the Harry Potter Kinder eggs now, so I'm not sure how many more I'll be able to get lol

I've found 5 so far, only 7 left to go!

"From a first-time appearance of the Divination classroom to surprise Boggarts and the Monster Book of Monsters, the Studio Tour is celebrating 20 years of Prisoner of Azkaban in the most fantastic of ways this summer - with plenty of new additions to look forward to.

Warner Bros. Studio Tour London is inviting us all to "Return to Azkaban" from 1st May, promising a fresh selection of props, costumes and sets all dedicated to the beloved third instalment of the Harry Potter series.

The biggest addition will be a first-time instalment of Professor Trelawney's Divination classroom, complete with velvet pouffes, patterned rugs and a tower made of 500 vintage teacups. (Well, we know Sybill loves her tea leaves!)

Beyond the Divination classroom, fans will be able to discover the interior of the famous triple-decker Knight Bus, as a full cross-section of the set will be displayed. Be amazed at the Knight Bus in action as the set rattles the beds, just as they did when bus driver Ernie made his bumpy ride with Harry through London.

Of course, the third Harry Potter story also gave us our favourite Defence Against the Dark Arts professor (not that it was a tough contest) in Professor Lupin. To pay homage, the Studio Tour will reveal a new section of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom on display, complete with the Art Nouveau-style Boggart wardrobe and that sinister Boggart jack-in-the-box. We hope you've been practising "Riddikulus"! WBSTL-return-to-azkaban-2024-key-art-landscape

Other highlights of Return to Azkaban include stepping foot into the magnificent Great Hall under an enchanted ceiling filled with over 100 floating candles, before being regaled by the Hogwarts Frog Choir and seeing The Monster Book of Monsters go on a rampage in Harry’s room at the Leaky Cauldron. Sounds like a perfect day out!

New for 2024, Return to Azkaban will run from 1st May – 4th September and all new features are included in the ticket price. Check the official website for all the details you need and to book your tickets.

***

It looks fun. PoA is my favourite film of the lot.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11003585

> It's one of the first things I would expect from a site like this. I know that J.K. Rowlings views are very controversial to put it mildly, but: > > 1. The fandom/books are not the author > 2. Harry Potter will become a part of the Fediverse at some point anyways - better to support it early on and shape its developing rather than having a company build a H.P. social network on top of the fediverse, which will be to our disadvantage > 3. In terms of potential users, this could be huge for the threadiverse > 4. We are in the Fediverse: defederation is always a possibility > > Or was it just never tried before / no one wanted to yet?

Oscar-winning actor Gary Oldman starred in the Harry Potter movie series as Sirius Black, and the actor credits the role with making him a better father. But Oldman didn't love everything about the Harry Potter series. On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Oldman said his performance in the films was "mediocre."

"I think my work is mediocre in it," Oldman said. "No, I do. Maybe if I had read the books like Alan [Rickman], if I had got ahead of the curve, if I had known what's coming, I honestly think I would have played it differently."

"It's like anything, if I sat and watched myself in something and said, 'My god, I'm amazing,' that would be a very sad day, because you want to make the next thing better," he said.

Also during the interview, Oldman revealed what he thought was the hardest scene to film in the Harry Potter series. He said this was the scene in Prisoner of Azkaban when he's lying by a frozen lake, with his soul leaving his body. Oldman said this took about a week to film, and all the time, he was just lying down and getting very cold and uncomfortable. "The hardest thing I had to do was lie next to a frozen lake," he said.

Interview on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAO2y3kqkl0

I've never seen these before or perhaps my eyes glossed over the 'notice me not' charms on them, but they look amazing.

I think its AI...

I've heard some people place a lot of the responsibility for Harry Potter becoming popular at the altar of the US Christian Right. Considering their wealth, reach and influence it seems plausible to me!

What's your recollection of that era?

I haven't even watched the extended US versions of PS (SS) and CoS yet. I'll have to remember to acquire them.

I always catch one or two on TV.

wrong answers only

i mean, it's a british series set in britian by a british author with british characters speaking british english. why would they be saying 'parking lot' instead of 'car park'? that doesn't make sense!

and even at 8 i don't think i was so stupid that i couldn't figure out what an ice lolly was from context clues. furthermore, context clues are important for children to learn, not to mention dialects in general.

plus it seemed very inconsistent? some of the obvious slang they'd change but they'd leave in stuff like 'trainers' or 'snogging' in the US versions which confused me even more as a child because i was used to being spoon-fed the US vocab -- which doesn't immerse you in the setting as much and get you used to hearing the slightly different words as often.

A notable aspect of Sybill Trelawney's character is that she has no recollection of the prophecies she has made. Is it possible that she has made other prophecies which no one happened to be around to record? She seems to spend most of her time alone in her tower.

The routine had already been rehearsed. A fight with the snake Nagini was supposed to send Harry Potter flying. And it certainly did that. David Holmes, Daniel Radcliffe’s stunt double, felt the impact, and it hurt. But that was the nature of stunt work. He was always taking a knock, and showing off another bruise.

The next day the team came back to perfect the routine. It still wasn’t quite as spectacular as hoped. So they did what they’d done hundreds of times before: added more weight to the pulley system that would launch Harry so that he would fly through the air faster.

“I knew straight away,” Holmes says today, 14 years later. “I knew I’d broken my neck. I was fully conscious.” He had hit the wall at pace and with such brutality that he was left flopping, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. His boss, the stunt coordinator Greg Powell, asked if he could feel his legs. He couldn’t. That day not only changed Holmes’s life for ever, it changed the lives of so many people on the set of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. Powell, who had to live with getting it wrong; best friend Marc Mailley, who had to take over from Holmes as the stunt double; actor Daniel Radcliffe, who had been coached in gymnastics by Holmes and adored him. And on it went.

Later that day, it was reported that there had been an accident in pre-production on the set of Harry Potter. “I remember seeing the news report on TV,” says Dan Hartley, then a junior member of the crew working as the video playback operator. “I got on the phone to one of the crew and he told me he’d heard it was Dave and something bad happened. For the next few days we were trading messages and we learned that Dave was paralysed.” Hartley had worked with the team for almost a decade. “Within a month we were meeting on the set and adjusting to this new norm, and it was horrific. I’d known Dave for almost 10 years and we were a very tight crew, and now he wasn’t there. Yet the team was still on the production. We’d lost one.”

***

I meet Holmes at his home in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. The house would make the perfect setting for a futuristic sci-fi movie. Doors open and shut, lights switch on and off, a lift rises and descends at his command. “I designed the house in my head when I was on the spinal ward,” he says. “The technology I’ve put in place gives me as much independence as possible.”

Holmes grew up in Essex, the middle of three boys. His father is a deacon at the local Baptist church, his mother worked with disabled children for decades. He smiles. “Then her son goes and breaks his neck!” All three boys were super energetic – great fun, but hard work. At the age of five, an outreach team from British Gymnastics visited his school to check out the children’s potential. The three Holmes boys were supple and capable. “My mum took us to Havering Gymnastics Club and she discovered that not only was it the world’s best babysitter, it got rid of the excess energy we had.”

in 2000, he had turned professional and was working as Radcliffe’s stunt double in Harry Potter. For Holmes, it even beat Radcliffe’s job. “You get to be a character without the pressures the actors have. I get to inhabit that character and use my skills as a gymnast to enhance the story.” He was well paid for a glamorous job he loved, a star in his own field, yet he could retain his anonymity. Win-win.

Then there was the Potter family. “Greg was my film father from when I was 14. I was a member of his extended family.” Holmes and Mailley were inseparable, and he soon became close to Radcliffe “Initially, I was Dan’s PE coach. He’d come into the stunt office, we’d shut the door, and I’d let him be a kid. He’d be jumping off Portakabins on to trampolines. We’d do judo, boxing, sword fighting, anything he wanted to do that day. On the first two films he was like my little brother, and by the third film he’d grown into one of my best friends and still is to this day.” Then it all came crashing down.

Holmes knew there hadn’t been something quite right about the rehearsal the day before. Mailley suggested he should take Holmes’s place the following day. Holmes wouldn’t hear of it – it was his stunt and he would be doing it even if it meant taking another whack. At least it shouldn’t be as bad as yesterday, Mailley told him. “It was an old way of doing flight on a wire with weights that is not done any more. It’s banned in the film industry as a result of his accident across all major studios,” Holmes says. “The rehearsal the day before was violent and fast, but we went for something a bit faster and a bit more violent the second day. In stunt rehearsals we were constantly trying to push the boundaries of what stunt action could be, whether that is flying through the air or a 15-minute fight routine.”

So stunt coordinators just added weights on the pulley system to enhance the action? “Yes. I’m not going to go into any more detail. The repercussions from my accident mean nobody will be put in that situation again. And that’s enough for me. It’s much more sophisticated and controlled now.”

Did he sense it was dangerous at the time? “I hope you don’t mind, but I don’t want to relive the most horrific day of my life again. Is that all right?” he says gently. “Listen, thankfully for me, because of this film, my legacy on camera is not now me just hitting that wall 14 years ago. Maybe people will take some positives from the way I handled it, hopefully with a bit of dignity – even though all the dignity is taken away.” Among other things, the accident left him with terrible PTSD. “I’d hear the noise in my head of the crunching of my spinal cord. That would happen as I was falling asleep.”

When things get too upsetting, Holmes seeks refuge in humour. “There’s a lot of jokes I want to tell you, but I won’t.” Go on, I say. “Voldemort hit me with a spell –Wingardiumquadriplegia.” He laughs. “That’s a cracking joke. Part of me would love to do the Edinburgh festival.”

Look, he says, he was a stuntman – of course, he knew he was being paid to take chances. In hospital, despite being paralysed, he again began to feel he was lucky. “I was a stuntman, I did a risky job, and I was put in a ward with two boys who were there because of hate. One was caught up in the Mumbai terrorist attack – he’s now one of my best friends, Will Pike. The other boy, Oliver Hemsley, was walking on the road in Whitechapel and he was stabbed in the neck and the chest because he’s gay. Then they kicked a bottle of gin into his chest and he had to have his heart taken out [temporarily, and massaged]. They urinated on him as well. So I met real victims. Granted, it was not my fault, but it was a stunt accident and I did that job and I had to accept the risks. No stuntman should ever be doing that job unless you fully accept the risks.”

...

In one way, Holmes adapted astonishingly well to his disability – designing his new home from the hospital bed, comforting loved ones, telling his mother there was no point in being angry or bitter. He says Warner Bros, the studio that made the Potter films, acted admirably. “Roy Button, who was head of physical production and had given me many bollockings before, came to my bedside and said, ‘Don’t worry, there’s going to be a process, you’re going to be all right.’ I needed that voice of authority and they’ve always been supportive.”

Was he already worrying about the future financially? “Well, I’d just signed the mortgage. I was starting to own a home. Life was happening.” He had moved into the house with his then girlfriend. But the relationship did not last. “Everything changed. There is not one aspect of your life that is not affected by spinal injury. Nothing is the same.” He pauses. “Apart from one thing – watching a film. That’s the same, so I watch films.”

What was hardest to accept? “It’s all hard. It killed me that I couldn’t go back to work on Harry Potter. I wanted to see Harry through to the end. I’d read all of those books, picturing those action sequences. It killed me. The book behind you has even got my Post-it notes from where I read it and went, ‘There’s a stunt I might be doing.’ I could read the character and picture the stunts I was going to do. No one in the world had that, except me. Honestly, all I wanted to do was go back to work.”

Even though he knew he couldn’t return to work, he refused to accept that he had to change his lifestyle after the accident. He talks about a lost decade, then decides “lost” isn’t quite the right word. “It was a decade of decadence and fun. I’d say I wasn’t grown up enough. The thrills I used to get setting myself on fire and jumping off buildings, I was just trying to find that in the way I could.” Such as? “I’d take groups of people to Ibiza and blow thousands of pounds.” He travelled the world, drove ridiculously fast customised cars he could control with his hands, partied, drank and took drugs. “I was fortunate to have those experiences, but I wasn’t really dealing with this. I was putting it on the back burner and not accepting my disability for what it is, which is a life-changing thing.”

The Boy Who Lived is not just a moving examination of the devastation wreaked on Holmes’s life, but also the profound impact the accident had on others. Greg Powell was at the top of his game when it happened. He is a tough, charismatic, cigar-chomping man who comes from a line of boxers and stuntmen (his father and uncle were Nosher and Dinny Powell respectively). In one of the film’s most powerful moments, he breaks down. “I was the last one to touch him, when he could walk, and the first one to touch him when he couldn’t walk, and that’s an awful feeling. I feel choked up there proper. It hurts, cos I fucked his life right up. He’d have been doing anything he liked now,” he tells Hartley in the film.

Had Holmes been aware of the effect the accident had on Powell? “Yeah, he carries that scar on him every day.” He talks of his mentor with affection. “Greg’s legacy should not just be the stunt accident he was connected to through me. The legacy should be every working-class stuntman he opened the door for, all the action sequences he’s brought to the world, whether that’s Tom Cruise floating with the sweat dripping in the first Mission: Impossible or us making the first broomstick flight.” And has he become known for the accident? “Of course. Death by association. But you know he still goes to work, he takes great precautions with safety – double, triple, quadruple checking, not over-rehearsing stunts any more, not letting the director do too many takes when someone’s taking a whack.”

...

Is there anything he gained from the accident? “Yeah, hugely. I will always say breaking my neck made a man of me. For sure, 100%.” But he believes it’s only over the past few years that he has truly accepted his disability.

There have been terrible lows along the way. In 2019, when he had four spinal surgeries and a brain drain, his mother thought she was going to lose him. He says he was in such pain, he no longer cared. “I asked not to be resuscitated. I told my surgeon: if you get into complications, let me go. The mix of medication, pain and irritability all kicked into a state of hopelessness.” Did he actively want to die? “No, but I thought if it happens, I’ll be happy to. I’m cool. I’ve had a good crack.” How long did the hopelessness last? He grins. “Not long.”

He came back fighting harder than ever. Now, he says, there is so much he is doing and still wants to do. He has recorded 41 episodes of a podcast series called Cunning Stunts, in which he interviewed stunt performers with the help of his old friend Radcliffe. There is a lovely generosity to Holmes. As with Mailley, he tells me how happy he is to have seen Radcliffe, who is one of the producers on The Boy Who Lived, evolve and grow. “He’s my boy, isn’t he? I love him. I love him. I’m so proud of him. You think of how many child stars don’t make it through that pressure, that whirlwind. Every time I see his physicality, to know I had just a little input into that brings me joy.” What does he mean? “Look at him, he’s ripped!”

...

Then there’s his plan to launch a stunt studio to enable working-class kids to get a foothold in the industry. He was lucky, he says – Powell gave him his start. To become a professional stunt performer in Britain you have to sign up to the British Stunt Register. To do that, you need exceptional skills in at least six sporting disciplines. And it is almost impossible to acquire those skills without private coaching. Holmes was one of the few exceptions because he earned enough money as a teenager on the Harry Potter films to pay for his own coaching. “Right now we can only have posh boys training for the stunts register. Scamps like me who were born in Romford could not afford to train for the stunt register. We shouldn’t be in the situation where Marc can’t find black boys to double black actors because the socioeconomic background doesn’t allow for it. So that’s my big dream.” Another grin. “It would cost 35 million quid. But I’ve got some connections.”

One reason Holmes has renewed hope is that a year ago he began a relationship with Rosie, a woman who was left even more severely disabled than him after a car crash at the age of 19. “At the moment she has a team of 14 looking after her – her needs are more complex than mine. She’s beautiful. She’s all woman. I fell in love with her over words on email. The greatest way. I didn’t even see her face. It was so natural,” he says. “It took four people to get us close enough for our first kiss, but it was worthwhile.”

Despite his positivity, Holmes’s long-term prognosis is poor. His life expectancy is 65. “My dad’s 65 now. That’s a lot taken off. My surgeon said to me, ‘Breathing, speech and swallowing independently, you’ll be lucky to keep all three.’ That ain’t easy to face.” As for the pain, he says, it’s constant. “It feels like I’ve got 10 elephants standing on top of my head. I’ve got so little muscle structure holding its weight. I’d do 30 years in prison if I could do a handstand again. There’s no amount of fuckery compared to what I have to live with. This is hard. This is the biggest test I can think of, particularly for someone who needed to move as much as I did.”

He hopes the film will give people an accurate sense of his life, for good and bad. Is he pleased with it? “I haven’t watched it. I’m just not ready yet. I live it every day, I don’t need to see it. I know there will be a time in my life when I get in bed and won’t get out of it, and that’s when I’ll watch the film.” For now, he says, there’s no need to think about that time. “Why look death in the face? Push him down the road. Kick him up his arse.”

\- David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived is on Sky Documentaries and Now from 18 November in the UK and on HBO on 15 November in the US. *** article cut down to around half of original wordcount.

Harry Potter star Miriam Margolyes has given a rare glimpse into her relationship with partner Heather Sutherland.

Appearing on The Graham Norton Show on Friday night (November 3) to promote her new book, Oh Miriam!, the actress commented on her 54-year relationship, revealing that the couple live apart but now have plans to live together.

"We are together, but we live apart. She is in Amsterdam, and I am in London but now we want to live together," she said. "I really do want to live with her because we are old, and we haven't got much time left. It is silly to live apart."

Margolyes appeared on the sixth episode of the late-night chat show's latest series, alongside Succession star Sarah Snook, The Morning Show's Greta Lee and pop legend Boy George.

Margolyes will be on our screens again soon as she is set to join David Tennant in the upcoming 60th-anniversary specials of Doctor Who, which premiere on Saturday, November 25.

https://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/a45743787/harry-potter-miriam-margolyes-relationship-update/

***

Trainee train drivers have been sought for one of the world's most scenic rail routes.

ScotRail said the new personnel would be based in Fort William and were likely to regularly travel the West Highland Line.

The line connects Glasgow with Oban and also Fort William and Mallaig, taking passengers through places that have featured in films and on TV.

The locations include Glenfinnan, which has appeared in the Harry Potter films.

The West Highland Line was voted the top rail journey in the world by readers of independent travel magazine, Wanderlust, in 2009.

The route's stations include Corrour, dubbed the highest at 408m (1,339ft) above sea level and most remote station in the UK. It appeared in the 1996 film Trainspotting, which starred Ewan McGregor.

Scenes for Harry Potter and the Chambers of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban were shot at the Glenfinnan Viaduct. The privately-run Jacobite steam locomotive also featured in the films.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-67337137

***

Harry Potter star Matthew Lewis has joined the cast for the second series of Avoidance, the BBC series from Romesh Ranganathan.

In addition to Harry Potter, Lewis has had roles on All Creatures Great and Small, Happy Valley and Ripper Street, with the star also appearing in the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special last year.

https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a45778870/harry-potter-matthew-lewis-bbc-avoidance/

***

Now, as the wait continues for updates on the Harry Potter TV show, Yates shares his thoughts on Radcliffe's post-Wizarding World career in a recent interview with Looper. The actor has since focused mostly on smaller projects, and Yates has nothing but praise for his former collaborator. Check out the director's full comment below:

> "Dan is fearless, and I've admired what he's been doing. He'll dive into any number of different roles to redefine himself. It's admirable that he keeps trucking, and he's done particularly well recently. So all strength to Dan, and I hope he keeps going. I'm sure he will."

https://screenrant.com/daniel-radcliffe-post-harry-potter-career-yates-response/

Harry Potter Director Says Fantastic Beasts Is ‘Parked’ For Now

Arresto Momentum.

Harry Potter director David Yates has confirmed that Fantastic Beasts is on hold, for now. During an interview with Total Film, the filmmaker offered an update on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

“With Beasts, it's all just parked,” he said. “We made those three movies, the last one through a pandemic, and it was enormous fun, but it was tough.”

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore was the last to film, and while fans originally thought Beasts would be a trilogy, J.K. Rowling confirmed there were actually five films planned. "We knew that from the start, and we set a trilogy as a kind of placeholder,” she said. “But we've now done the plotting, so we're pretty sure there's going to be five movies.”

However, making the sequel wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. “We were actually filming when there wasn't a vaccine,” said Yates. “Thankfully, no one got sick, but we did have the most detailed protocols in place.”

On top of difficulties with filming, the film just didn’t do very well. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore earned just $407.2 million at the global box office, based on a $200 million budget.

“We're all so proud of [Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore],” added Yates. “When it went out into the world, we just needed to sort of stop and pause, and take it easy.”

When it comes to box office performance, 2016's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was a commercial success, grossing more than $800 million worldwide, even though its opening weekend numbers fell short compared to the rest of the franchise. However, The Crimes of Grindelwald suffered a 20% decline, earning $650 million globally, with The Secrets of Dumbledore only dwindling further.

Crucially, it was critically panned, with IGN giving it just 4/10. Our Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore review said: “While Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore finally makes Dumbledore canonically gay, it does little else of note, remaining scattered across half a dozen inconsequential subplots for most of its runtime. It looks drab and feels like it was made by people who want to leave its magical premise behind, even though the series refuses to have anything resembling grown-up politics or perspectives.”

Unfortunately, the future of the franchise reportedly rested on the fate of The Secret of Dumbledore, so it’s unsurprising to see Warner Bros. shelve Fantastic Beasts, at least for the time being.

Want to read more about Harry Potter? Check out Daniel Radcliffe’s documentary about his Harry Potter stunt double as well as how to watch the Harry Potter movies in chronological order.

Daniel Radcliffe produces film about his paralysed Harry Potter stunt double

Documentary tells story of David Holmes who sustained a spinal injury during filming of The Deathly Hallows: Part 1

!image

***

Daniel Radcliffe has teamed up with his Harry Potter stunt double, who became paralysed after an on-set accident, for an HBO documentary. David Holmes worked closely with Radcliffe on the Harry Potter films until he sustained a spinal injury during filming for The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 in January 2009. The gymnast from Essex, who was selected to play Radcliffe’s double in the first film, broke his neck and was paralysed from the chest down.

The forthcoming documentary, titled David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived, is executive produced by Radcliffe and debuts in November. It will feature candid personal footage shot over the last decade, behind-the-scenes material from Holmes’s stunt work, scenes of his current life and intimate interviews with Holmes, Radcliffe, and others.

“The film is a coming-of-age story of stuntman David Holmes, a prodigious teenage gymnast from Essex, England, who is selected to play Daniel Radcliffe’s stunt double in the first ‘Harry Potter’ film, when Daniel is just 11,” the official synopsis from HBO said.

“Over the next 10 years, the two form an inextricable bond, but on the penultimate film a tragic accident on set leaves David paralysed with a debilitating spinal injury, turning his world upside down. As Daniel and his closest stunt colleagues rally to support David and his family in their moment of need, it is David’s extraordinary spirit of resilience that becomes their greatest source of strength and inspiration.”

HBO said the film, which is directed by British filmmaker Dan Hartley, reflects universal themes of living with adversity, growing up and forging identities in an uncertain world.

Holmes, who is now 42, has previously revealed details of his tragic accident, which occurred during a flying scene at Warner Bros Studios in Leavesden.

In an interview with the Mirror in 2014, he said he was pulled backwards “at speed” by a high-strength wire in a “jerk back” stunt that replicates the effects of an explosion. However, Holmes was launched into a wall and immediately broke his neck.

He has said the new HBO documentary tells the story of not just his achievements in front of the camera, “but also the challenges I face every day, and my overall attitude to life after suffering a broken neck. “In the turbulent world we find ourselves living in right now, I would like to quote Harry: ‘We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.’”

Holmes also thanked medical staff, Radcliffe and the Harry Potter author, JK Rowling, for their support. Writing about Radcliffe, he said they were both “immensely proud of our time on the Harry Potter films, and the joy and comfort it brings to audiences around the world on a daily basis.”.

It is not the first time Radcliffe and Holmes have collaborated since the Harry Potter films – in 2020 the pair joined forces to launch Holmes’ Cunning Stunts podcast, which features interviews with other stunt performers across Hollywood.

“I think there’s a myth around stuntmen that they are just superhuman in some way,” Radcliffe said of the podcast at the time. “When the public see something really painful or horrible, they think it was a visual effect or that there’s some clever, safe way of doing it. Often that’s not the case.

“There’s no way of faking, for example, falling down stairs. When you get hit by a car, you’re still getting hit by a car, even if it’s going slower than it would. They find the safest way of doing it, but it can still hurt.”

Anyone else? I’m curious to know how they could raise both Lily and Petunia. I’d love to know more details about their relationship with their kids.

In a new paper published on the open access and non-peer reviewed site arXiv.org, co-authors Ronen Eldan of Microsoft Research and Mark Russinovich of Microsoft Azure propose a new way of editing or removing knowledge of copyrighted works by erasing specific information from a sample LLM — namely, all knowledge of the existence of the Harry Potter books (including characters and plots) from Meta’s open source Llama 2-7B.

As the Microsoft researchers write: “While the model took over 184K GPU-hours to pretrain, we show that in about 1 GPU hour of finetuning, we effectively erase the model’s ability to generate or recall Harry Potter-related content.”

The magic formula

First, they trained a model on the target data (Harry Potter books) to identify tokens most related to it by comparing predictions to a baseline model.

Then, they replaced unique Harry Potter expressions with generic counterparts and generated alternative predictions approximating a model without that training.

Third, they fine-tuned the baseline model on these alternative predictions, effectively erasing the original text from its memory when prompted with the context.

To evaluate, they tested the model’s ability to generate or discuss Harry Potter content using 300 automatically generated prompts, as well as by inspecting token probabilities. As Eldan and Russinovich state, “to the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to present an effective technique for unlearning in generative language models.”

They found that while the original model could easily discuss intricate Harry Potter plot details, after only an hour of finetuning their technique, “it’s possible for the model to essentially ‘forget’ the intricate narratives of the Harry Potter series.” Performance on standard benchmarks like ARC, BoolQ and Winogrande “remains almost unaffected.”

Expelliarmus-ing expectations

As the authors note, more testing is still needed given limitations of their evaluation approach. Their technique may also be more effective for fictional texts than non-fiction, since fictional worlds contain more unique references.

In summarizing their findings, the authors state: “Our technique offers a promising start, but its applicability across various content types remains to be thoroughly tested. The presented approach offers a foundation, but further research is needed to refine and extend the methodology for broader unlearning tasks in LLMs.”

Michael Gambon, the Irish-English actor best known for his role as Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore in six of the “Harry Potter” movies, has died, Variety has confirmed. He was 82.

“We are devastated to announce the loss of Sir Michael Gambon,” his family said in a statement. “Beloved husband and father, Michael died peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside, following a bout of pneumonia.”

While it is easier for a character actor, often working in supporting roles, to rack up a large number of credits than it is for lead actors, Gambon was enormously prolific, with over 150 TV or film credits in an era when half that number would be impressive and unusual — and this for a man whose body of stage work was also prodigious.

He played two real kings of England: King Edward VII in “The Lost Prince” (2003) and his son, King George V, in “The King’s Speech” (2010); Winston Churchill in his later years in the 2015 ITV/PBS “Masterpiece” telepic “Churchill’s Secret”; U.S. President Lyndon Johnson in John Frankenheimer’s 2002 HBO telepic “Path to War,” for which he was Emmy-nominated; and a fictional British prime minister in “Ali G Indahouse,” also in 2002. And as Hogwarts headmaster in the “Harry Potter” movies, he presided over the proceedings therein. In 2016, he served as the narrator for the Coen brothers’ paean to golden-age Hollywood, “Hail! Caesar.”

But Gambon was just as likely to play a gangster as an eminence grise: He recurred on David Milch’s HBO horse-racing drama “Luck” in 2011-12 as a powerful adversary of Dustin Hoffman’s mobster Ace Bernstein, but if there is a single film role for which Gambon should be remembered, it is his thunderous, sulfurous foray as the thief of the title — a gangster if ever there was one — in Peter Greenaway’s 1999 “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.” This role, after decades of appearing in movies, is what really brought him to the attention of the film world. Roger Ebert declared: “The thief’s thuggish personality stands astride the movie and browbeats the others into submission. He is a loud, large, reprehensible criminal, played by Michael Gambon as the kind of bully you can only look at in wonder, that God does not strike him dead.”

Playing another excellent gangster in Matthew Vaughn’s 2005 British crime film “Layer Cake,” Gambon was handed one of the best lines: “England. Typical. Even drug dealers don’t work weekends.” (Ebert said that Eddie Temple, Gambon’s character, is “the kind of man whose soul has warts on its scars.”)

But Gambon could equally well play upper crust, as in Robert Altman’s 2001 film “Gosford Park” or the 2008 rendition of “Brideshead Revisited.”

And he played an excellent villain in Michael Mann’s whistleblower film “The Insider,” in which the actor portrayed the head of a tobacco company.

Gambon took over the role of Albus Dumbledore after the death of Richard Harris, who had played the role in the first two films. Gambon admitted that he had never read the “Harry Potter” books, and he told the U.K.’s the Independent, “I’d never seen any of the previous films, but working on the series was huge fun — and for lots of dosh.”

> We are incredibly saddened to hear of the passing of Sir Michael Gambon. He brought immeasurable joy to Harry Potter fans from all over the world with his humour, kindness and grace. We will forever hold his memory in our hearts. pic.twitter.com/1CoTF3zeTo > — Harry Potter (@harrypotter) September 28, 2023

Gambon was also among the stars of the 2015 BBC/HBO miniseries based on J.K. Rowling’s novel “The Casual Vacancy.”

In addition to his nomination for outstanding lead actor in a miniseries or movie for “Path to War” in 2002, Gambon was Emmy-nominated for supporting actor in a miniseries or movie for playing Mr. Woodhouse in the 2009 adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Emma” that starred Romola Garai in the title role.

The actor won four BAFTA TV Awards for best actor, first for his career-changing role in 1986’s “The Singing Detective,” next for 1999’s “Wives and Daughters,” then for 2000’s exquisite telepic “Longitude” and then the following year for “Perfect Strangers.”

His TV career also included starring as the legendary French police inspector in the Granada Television series “Maigret,” which aired on PBS in early 1990s, and more recently included starring, in 2015, in the Scandinavian series “Fortittude,” airing in the U.S. on Pivot.

Gambon made his movie debut in “Othello,” starring Laurence Olivier, in 1965. While his craggy appearance as an older man may make it hard to believe, he played romantic leads in film and TV for a time. He was, for example, the swashbuckling Gavin Ker in BBC series “The Borderers” in the early 1970s. And, in 1970, Gambon was asked by James Bond producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli to audition for the role of 007 to replace George Lazenby.

Gambon’s first role in a film where Americans might have noticed him was as the zookeeper who helps Ben Kingsley and Glenda Jackson abscond with the sea turtles in 1985’s delightful, eccentric romance “Turtle Diary.”

After decades in British television, the actor starred in Dennis Potter’s extraordinary 1986 musical mystery miniseries “The Singing Detective,” drawing a BAFTA TV Award for best actor. The series later aired on PBS and won a Peabody Award.

In his long and illustrious stage career, he was, in addition to Shakespeare, most associated with the works of Alan Ayckbourn (including the “Norman Conquests” trilogy) and Harold Pinter.

In 2004, Gambon starred with Annette Bening in Istvan Szabo’s “Being Julia,” playing the theater impresario who taught Bening’s Julia much of what she knows.

He won three Laurence Olivier Awards (the highest honors in British theater, equivalent to a Tony): in 1986, for best comedy performance, for Ayckbourn’s “A Chorus of Disapproval”; in 1988, for best actor, for Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge”; and in 1990, for comedy performance, for Ayckbourn’s “Man of the Moment.” He was also nominated for best actor a further 10 times.

Despite a long career on the stage in the U.K., Gambon appeared on Broadway only once, starring in David Hare’s play “Skylight” in 1996 and drawing a Tony nomination for best actor.

Michael John Gambon was born in Cabra, Dublin, Ireland. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from the ages of 18 to 21, all the while apprenticing as a toolmaker (and forever maintaining a fascination with machines big and small, collecting antique guns, clocks and watches as well as classic cars).

Gambon made his professional stage debut in the Gate Theatre Dublin’s 1962 production of Othello; he was 24, and toured with the Gate before catching the attention of Laurence Olivier, who brought him into the newly formed National Theatre Company. In 1967, Gambon departed to join the Birmingham Repertory Company, where he had the chance to take on the starring roles in the Shakespearean canon, his favorite of which was the title role in “Othello,” though he also essayed “Macbeth” and “Coriolanus.” In his early 40s, he impressed critics and audiences with his take on the title role in “King Lear” at Stratford.

Impressed by the young actor, Ralph Richardson once dubbed him the Great Gambon; decades later, in July 2012, the BBC included Gambon on its list of the top 10 British character actors.

In 2004, he played Sir John Falstaff in Nicholas Hytner’s National Theatre production of “Henry IV,” Parts 1 and 2, fulfilling a lifelong ambition.

In addition to the three Olivier Awards he won, Gambon’s additional 10 nominations, all for best actor, were for Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal” in 1979; Bertolt Brecht’s “The Life of Galileo” in 1980; Christopher Hampton’s “Tales From Hollywood” in 1983; David Hare’s “Skylight” in 1997; Stephen Churchett’s historical drama “Tom and Clem” in 1998; Yasmina Reza’s “The Unexpected Man” in 1999; Pinter’s “The Caretaker” in 2001; Caryl Churchill’s “A Number” in 2003; Beckett’s “Endgame” in 2005; and Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” in 2009.

In February 2015, at the age of 74, Gambon announced that he was retiring from stage acting because memory loss was making it increasingly difficult for him to remember his lines. He had, for several years before that, relied on an earpiece through which he could be prompted if he forgot his lines. A few years earlier he had been rushed to a hospital over the panic attacks caused by forgetting his lines.

Gambon was loath to reveal details of his private life. He married Anne Miller in 1962 and had a child, Fergus, in 1964. Fergus, schooled in part by his father, appeared as an expert on the BBC version of “Antiques Roadshow.”

In 2002, Gambon moved out of the home he shared with his wife in Kent and soon introduced Philippa Hart as his girlfriend. In addition to son Fergus, he is survived by Hart and two young sons by her, Michael, born in 2007, and William in 2009.

I didn't read the books.

Prisoner of Azkaban— and to a lesser extent Chamber of Secrets and Goblet of Fire— had a necessary mix of whimsy, humor, color, and charm, and also seriousness/darkness. The series should have stayed that way.

But then first they sucked out the literal color, then the literal light, then the happiness out of the movies. By the time I saw the earliest part of Deathly Hollows, I just stopped caring. Every moment became joyless and hard to watch.

If there's no more discovery of the whimsy of the wizarding world, no more wonderment, no more seeing characters be just plain likeable, why do I care anymore? The series slowly became about friends being jealous and petty, people being double-agents, and about death and loss.

I had to read a summary of the events of Deathly Hollows, because I couldn't subject myself to 4 more hours of misery after the latter two-thirds of Half-Blood Prince. Now I'm just going to enjoy the full LEGO Harry Potter collection game.

LINK (archive.ph)

***

AI may be a buzzword on Wall Street, but on the West Coast it’s at the center of Hollywood’s biggest labor dispute in more than 50 years. Among those warning about the technology’s potential to cause harm is British actor and author Stephen Fry, who told an audience at the CogX Festival in London on Thursday about his personal experience of having his identity digitally cloned without his permission.

“I’m a proud member of [actors’ union SAG-AFTRA], as you know we’ve been on strike for three months now. And one of the burning issues is AI,” he said.

Actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, which has around 160,000 members, went on strike last month over pay, working conditions, and concerns related to the use of AI in the film industry. It joined the Writers Guild of America—a union representing thousands of Hollywood writers—which went on strike in early May, marking the industry’s biggest shutdown in more than six decades.

A key sticking point for actors on strike is the possibility that studios could use AI to make digitally replicate their image without compensating them fairly for using their likeness.

Speaking at a news conference as the strike was announced, union president Fran Drescher said AI “poses an existential threat” to creative industries, and said actors needed protection from having “their identity and talent exploited without consent and pay.”

During his speech at CogX Festival on Thursday, Fry played a clip to the audience of an AI system mimicking his voice to narrate a historical documentary.

“I said not one word of that—it was a machine. Yes, it shocked me,” he said. “They used my reading of the seven volumes of the Harry Potter books, and from that dataset an AI of my voice was created and it made that new narration.”

Fry—who has appeared in movies including Gosford Park, V for Vendetta, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy—is the narrator of the British Harry Potter audiobooks, while actor Jim Dale narrated the American version of the series.

“What you heard was not the result of a mash up, this is from a flexible artificial voice, where the words are modulated to fit the meaning of each sentence,” Fry told the audience at CogX Festival on Thursday.

“It could therefore have me read anything from a call to storm parliament to hard porn, all without my knowledge and without my permission. And this, what you just heard, was done without my knowledge. So I heard about this, I sent it to my agents on both sides of the Atlantic, and they went ballistic—they had no idea such a thing was possible.”

Fry added that when he discovered his voice was being used in projects without his consent, he saw it as just the beginning of an emerging threat to creative talent, warning his angry agents: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” “This is audio,” he said he told them. “It won’t be long until full deepfake videos are just as convincing.”

As AI technology has advanced, doctored footage of celebrities and world leaders—known as deepfakes—has been circulating with increasing frequency, prompting warnings from experts about artificial intelligence risks. Fry warned on Thursday that those technologies only had further to go.

“We have to think about [AI] like the first automobile: impressive but not the finished article,” he said, noting that when cars were invented no one could have envisioned how widespread they are today.

“Tech is not a noun, it is a verb, it is always moving,” he said. “What we have now is not what will be. When it comes to AI models, what we have now will advance at a faster rate than any technology we have ever seen. One thing we can all agree on: it’s a f***ing weird time to be alive.”

Not the first

Fry isn’t the only famous actor to publicly vocalize their concerns about AI and its place in the film industry.

At a U.K. rally held in support of the SAG-AFTRA strike over the summer, Emmy-winning Succession star Brian Cox shared an anecdote about a friend in the industry who had been told “in no uncertain terms” that a studio would keep his image and do what they liked with it.

“That is a completely unacceptable position,” Cox said. “And that is the position that we should be really fighting against, because that is the worst aspect. The wages are one thing, but the worst aspect is the whole idea of AI and what AI can do to us.”

Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey told Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff during a panel event at this year’s Dreamforce conference that he had concerns about the rise of AI in Hollywood.

“We have a real chance, if we are irresponsible, of cannibalizing ourselves and creating this digital god that we’ll bow to, and we’ll all of a sudden become tools of this tool,” he said.

Meanwhile, Star Trek and Mission Impossible star Simon Pegg has called AI “worrying” for actors.

“We’re looking at being replaced in some ways,” he said at the rally in London in July. “We have to be compensated and we have to have some say in how [our image is] used. I don’t want to turn up in an advert for something I disagree with… I want to be able to hang on to my image, and voice, and know where it’s going.”

A spokesperson for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the entertainment industry’s official collective bargaining representative, was not available for comment when contacted by Fortune.

Hogwarts Legacy fans can finally play a mode they've been asking for since the game launched last year, and it's all thanks to the hard work of one dedicated gamer.

Hogwarts Legacy has generated well over $1 billion since launching back in February, and we still have the Nintendo Switch launch to come. Rumours abound that Avalanche Software is working on its next project, which is almost certainly Hogwarts Legacy 2.

The good news is that you can now enjoy New Game Plus in Hogwarts Legacy! The bad news? It's not an official download. Still, PC gamers looking for an excuse to replay the magical sim as the nights draw in should definitely check this out.

The Hogwarts Legacy Simulate New Game Plus Save mod does exactly what it says: it starts you in a new game with a bunch of items and progression, similar to how it would go down in an official New Game Plus mode.

The only catch is that you obviously won't start a new game with all the gear and upgrades you earned, as the modder can only simulate their own save. Still, if you fancy starting from scratch with a crap-ton of gear, gold, and all spells unlocked, then you should definitely go ahead and check this mod out.

Hopefully Avalanche Software give us the real thing somewhere down the line, but this will do until then.

screenrant: Now, with the Harry Potter TV show's release date nowhere in sight, Heyman provides an update to Total Film (via GamesRadar) regarding the status of the series and what audiences can expect. While it doesn't sound like the show will be coming anytime soon, the producer does tease that this new format will allow for a more faithful adaptation. Check out Heyman's full comment below:

> "[On Harry Potter] It’s early days. We haven’t even hired a writer to begin writing. It’s a bit early. But hopefully [it will be] something that’s very special, and gives us an opportunity to see the books, and to enjoy a series which explores the books more deeply."

***

It is expected that the Harry Potter TV series will premiere on Max (formerly HBO Max) sometime between 2025 to 2026.

David Heyman Gives Update on “Harry Potter” TV Show While David Yates Comments on “Fantastic Beasts” by Catherine Lai · Published September 13, 2023 · Updated September 14, 2023

We last heard about the planned Harry Potter TV show back in April when it was announced, and it’s been radio silence since then. But in the September 2023 issue of Total Film, David Heyman, producer of the Harry Potter films, speaks about the current status of the Max show, revealing that not much has changed in the last few months and writing has not yet begun:

It’s early days. We haven’t even hired a writer to begin writing. It’s a bit early. But hopefully [it will be] something that’s very special, and gives us an opportunity to see the books, and to enjoy a series which explores the books more deeply.

This isn’t surprising given the current Hollywood writers’ strike, which began just three weeks after the series was announced.

However, it is interesting to note that it seems Heyman is now officially on board. Last we heard, he was just “in talks” to be an executive producer.

***

David Yates on if he could return to directing in the ‘Harry Potter’ Universe: “Never say never” #TIFF23 pic.twitter.com/CniZcTnfkl

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) September 11, 2023

This certainly sounds like, as many fans have been suspecting, we aren’t getting a fourth or fifth film as previously promised. Warner Bros., of course, has not made any official announcements. However, it’s nice to see David Yates keeping the door open for potentially directing for the TV show or other future Wizarding World projects.

And it really irks me a lot.

Update: Man, I have gotten tons of great responses here and a lot of activity. The comments section turned out way better than Reddit. Thank you all! <3

• Jamie Christopher worked on all eight Harry Potter films
• Christopher began his career in TV and movies as a production runner... He continued to climb the later throughout the 90s, landing second assistant director gigs on films like The Fifth Element and The Mummy.
• The British first assistant director worked on all eight of the movies inspired by J.K. Rowling's bestselling children's novels, as well as multiple Star Wars and Marvel films. It's understood that Christopher, who was born in Barnet, passed away of heart complications in Los Angeles. He is survived by his wife Carly and four children, Stella, Teddy, Phoebe and Killeon. *** https://variety.com/2023/film/people-news/jamie-christopher-dead-assistant-director-for-marvel-rian-johnson-harry-potter-1235708984/

Jamie Christopher, assistant director on Marvel films including “Guardians of the Galaxy” and the entire Harry Potter franchise, died Tuesday in Los Angeles from heart complications. He was 52.

Christopher began his AD career in 1992 as third AD on David Fincher’s 1992 film “Alien 3.” In 1997, he was the second unit first AD on Luc Besson’s cult classic sci-fi film “The Fifth Element” starring Bruce Wilis, Gary Oldman and Milla Jovovich, and two years later joined Stephen Sommers as second AD on “The Mummy.”

Soon after, Christopher joined production for the first installment of the Harry Potter franchise, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” where he served as the second unit’s first AD. He reprised this role through the first five editions of the series until he became first AD on “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” and remained in that role until the eighth film was released in 2011.

Christopher is survived by his wife Carly and four children, Stella, Teddy, Phoebe and Killeon.

Adam Starkey 2–3 minutes *** Barbie has become the highest-grossing movie in Warner Bros. history.

Greta Gerwig’s fantasy comedy passed the $1.342billion mark at the global box office on Monday (August 28), beating Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – Part 2 to become the company’s highest-grossing film ever, not adjusted for inflation.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Barbie is set to become only the 13th movie in history to cross the $600million mark at the US box office later this week. As of Sunday, the film has grossed over $592.8million in the US, and $745.5million in the rest of the world.

The film is also set to beat The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.36billion) as the highest-grossing film of 2023 globally in the coming days. When it crosses the milestone, Barbie will become the 15th highest-grossing film of all time.

In a statement to mark the record, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-CEOs, Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, said: “Reaching this outstanding achievement is a reminder of the power of moviegoers – from countries in every corner of the globe – coming together to further the celebration of an iconic character that has entertained us for so many decades.”

Barbie previously surpassed Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight to become the highest-earning film in Warner Bros. history in the US. Since it was released in July, the film has also become the highest-grossing live-action movie solely directed by a woman.

Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, Barbie released on the same day as Nolan’s latest film Oppenheimer, creating the “Barbenheimer” phenomena which boosted the success of both films at the box office.

In a four-star review, NME wrote: “What follows is a nuanced, rose-tinted comedy adventure, set to a stonking pop soundtrack featuring Lizzo and Billie Eilish, that somehow lives up to the immense hype. To borrow a pun from Ken’s coolest jacket (out of a long lineup), Barbie is more than ‘kenough’.”

extract Cut down to relevant interesting parts.

David Tennant appears in one Harry Potter film and though his part isn't big, his character is crucial to the story. Tennant is a prolific stage, television, and film actor who has appeared in numerous franchises as well as smaller roles across the course of his career. In the same year as Harry Potter, Tennant played the 10th Doctor in Doctor Who. These two massive franchises paved the way for Tennant’s career path. Since then, he has appeared in notable series like How to Train Your Dragon as Spitelout, the Star Wars franchise as Huyang, Broadchurch as Detective Alec Hardy, and Jessica Jones as Kilgrave, among many other roles.

The end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire reveals that Mad-Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson) has actually been Barty Crouch Jr. the entire film; having disguised himself with Polyjuice Potion. Barty Crouch Jr. is revealed to be the secret puppetmaster behind many of the calamities and victories that happened to Harry. It’s not obvious that Mad-Eye was an imposter but David Tennant improvised by licking his lips throughout the film, a trait Gleeson decided to mimic, signaling one of the small ways keen-eyed viewers could figure out the twist.

In an AMA on Reddit in 2020, Tennant promoted his podcast “David Tennant Does a Podcast With…” and answered fan questions. In response to one question about his time on Harry Potter, Tennant replied,

>"I wasn’t on Harry Potter for all that long. I think I did 10 days or so over a year, so I always felt a bit like a visitor. But it was great to be part of something so extraordinary. They only gave me a little chair though, so when everyone was sat around Maggie Smith and Michael Gambon and Alan Rickman and Daniel Radcliffe all towered over me in these fancy cast chairs. Still a pleasure to be there though."

It’s not a surprise that David Tennant did not feel completely at home on the Harry Potter set. He only had a small role and was coming into a film with actors who had known each other and worked together for years. The rest of the AMA focused on Doctor Who and Broadchurch. So like many of his fans, the time David Tennant spent on Harry Potter was memorable, though it wasn't as significant as the rest of his career.