Today we have some photos of our favorite purple bus, the Knight Bus arriving at Leavesden Studios.  As we posted yesterday it is there for Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter, which opens on March 31st. View all eleven photos in our gallery!

Thanks Hogwarts Radio.

John Hurt, who we all know as Mr Ollivander in the Harry Potter films, will be receiving this year’s Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema at the BAFTA awards! Hurt says of the award, “I know that film means a great deal to me but I had no idea that I meant so much to film. I feel very honoured.” They Harry Potter series took home the same award last year.

Universally acclaimed for his acting talent, Hurt’s vast range of distinguished performances has shaped an impressive career spanning six decades. He has starred in a variety of remarkable film roles working alongside some of the most important figures in the industry including Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton and Steven Spielberg. The legendary characters he has portrayed include Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Rich in A Man For All Seasons – a film which won seven BAFTA Awards and six Academy Awards – and Max in Midnight Express, for which he won the BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Supporting Actor.

John Hurt also won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Actor in 1976 for The Naked Civil Servant, which was followed by a British Academy Film Award for Best Actor for his outstanding performance in The Elephant Man in 1981.

Throughout an impressive career he has received a further four BAFTA nominations (one for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Alien) and two Academy Award nominations. His most recent film roles have seen him starring as Ollivander in the Harry Potter series and Control in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – both films are BAFTA-nominated this year.

Tim Corrie, Chairman of BAFTA, said: “John Hurt is an actor it is both exciting and fascinating to watch. He has extraordinary screen presence and brings utter conviction to every role he undertakes. He is one of a kind, an iconic figure, and BAFTA is delighted to take this opportunity to honour his outstanding contribution to cinema.”

The award will be given out on February 12th, during the BAFTA awards ceremony.

Today we have some very exciting news from Warner Bros. regarding Warner Bros. Studio Tour London: The Making of Harry Potter. The tour opens in 63 days and you can purchase your tickets here! Stay tuned to Magical-Menagerie for all the latest news on this exciting new attraction! Will you be going when the tour first opens?

The iconic, triple decker Knight Bus today rolls into Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter, which opens 31^st March 2012. Taking its place among the many authentic sets, props and costumes from the eight Harry Potter films, the Knight Bus debuted in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban™ and was one of the most complicated pieces to create in the production.

John Richardson, Special Effects Supervisor, said: ”The Knight Bus was not a CGI Creation as many people thought but in fact a real-life working bus. It was constructed by cutting up two iconic Routemaster buses, reworking the structure and bolting it all back together to provide one bus with three decks. One interesting challenge that arose during the shooting of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was that we could not drive the vehicle across London due to the number of low bridges in and around the capital.  This meant that we had to transport the bus in two pieces between locations and put it back together as required for filming.”

The nominations for the 84th Annual Academy Awards have been announced and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II is up for a few awards.

Art Direction

• “The Artist”
  Production Design: Laurence Bennett; Set Decoration: Robert Gould
• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″ 
  Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
• “Hugo”
  Production Design: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
• “Midnight in Paris”
  Production Design: Anne Seibel; Set Decoration: Hélène Dubreuil
• “War Horse”
  Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales

Makeup

• “Albert Nobbs”
  Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle
• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″
  Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
• “The Iron Lady”
  Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

Kenneth Branagh and Gary Oldman are also up for awards:

Actor in a Leading Role

• Demián Bichir in “A Better Life”
• George Clooney in “The Descendants”
• Jean Dujardin in “The Artist”
• Gary Oldman in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
• Brad Pitt in “Moneyball”

Actor in a Supporting Role

• Kenneth Branagh in “My Week with Marilyn”
• Jonah Hill in “Moneyball”
• Nick Nolte in “Warrior”
• Christopher Plummer in “Beginners”
• Max von Sydow in “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”

Jessie Cave (Lavender Brown) has released yet another short film on her website, PinDippy.  This video is called Spy Girl and features Katie Leung, who we all know as Cho Chang from the Potter films.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is up for the annual CinemaCon Fan Choice Award! Make sure to vote to make Harry Potter the winner. The full list of nominees is as follows:

• Bridesmaids
• Captain America: The First Avenger
• Cars 2
• Fast Five
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
• Kung Fu Panda 2
• Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
• The Hangover Part II
• The Help
• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1
• Thor
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon

All voters will be automatically entered for a chance to win a trip for two to the CinemaCon Convention to see the awards show live in Las Vegas.

Thanks to Fandango for mailing!