Stephen Fry (narrater of the UK audiobooks) was given the Special Recognition prize at the National Television awards. Daniel Radcliffe contributed to a tribute video that was played during the ceremony. You can watch it below:
Dan had this to say:
1:18 – He’s a director, he’s an actor, he’s a writer, I’ve probably missed things out
1:50 – I love, love, love A Bit of Fry and Laurie.
2:30 – I do think Stephen is an absolutely perfect Jeeves, and I would want him to be my Jeeves in real life. He’d be rather wonderful.
2:50 – There’s something about him which is warm. Just having him on television makes life brighter for everyone.
3:20 – I do think the program QI is one of the greatest educators in the country. I don’t think you can watch that show and not smile.
4:45 – I’ve got a very good friend who, every night, after coming home from university goes to sleep listening to Stephen read the Harry Potter books on tape because he just does it so wonderfully.
5:46 – Once you are in a position where people will watch something because of you, you have to become even more selective about what you do. Like drawing attention to bipolarism.
7:18 – I think that he’s one of the most important people in the country. He’s one of the reasons we are great. Just occasionally, our country produces people like him.
Univeral Studios Orlando and USA Today have announced that they have partnered to create a new augmented reality experience that you will be able to experience if you have a computer, webcam and the paper.
With just a computer, webcam and the newspaper, you can make this one-of-a-kind theme park experience appear before your eyes.
Augmented Reality blends real-life environments with computer animation allowing you to explore things in a completely new way. For the first time, guests can explore The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in a unique way – before experiencing it firsthand.
By rotating the map, you can take a closer look at this 20-acre magnificently themed environment from all sides and angles. Hogwarts castle will appear before your eyes. Hold the map closer to your webcam and explore Hogsmeade and see the Hogwarts Express. Blow on your computer’s microphone and the banners on the map will wave.
This will be available on Thursday, January 28th in the USA Today newspaper!
As I posted 2 weeks ago, Half-Blood Prince was long-listed for a few categories in the BAFTA Awards (Make-Up & Hair, Special Visual Effects, Sound, Costume Design, Production Design, Cinematography). The full list of nominees is now online and Half-Blood Prince has been nominated in the following (the movies next to the title are what the film is up against and in parenthesis is who in the HBP crew would receive the award):
Production Design (Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan) – Avatar, District 9, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Inglourious Basterds
Special Visual Effects (John Richardson, Tim Burke, Tim Alexander, Nicolas Aithadi) – Avatar, District 9, The Hurt Locker, Star Trek
Sadly, Alan Rickman did not get nominated for Supporting Actor (he was long-listed)
The ceremony will be at the Royal Opera House in London, England on February 21st.
