A new behind the scenes video for Seth Rogen’s film This is the End has been released and there are numerous clips with Emma Watson. Emma plays a different version of herself in the film about, what else, the end of the world.  The film stars many other celebrities playing themselves such as James Franco, Rhianna, Jonah Hill and more.  It is set for release on June 12th in the USA.

Emma Watson is currently attending the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of her new film, The Bling Ring and has been doing various interviews. One of the first to appear online is from AlloCiné where she talks about her character Nikki. The site’s Twitter has also revealed that Emma will be filming Guillermo del Toro’s Beauty and the Beast next year!

Thanks to SnitchSeeker for the tip!

Evanna Lynch, well known for her role as Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films, will be taking the role of Bess, Harry Houdini’s wife and stage assistant in the new play Houdini. Houdini is a dramatic, darkly comic new play about two of the greatest performers the world has ever known – the Houdini Brothers: stuntmen, illusionists, magicians – will premiere at Stoke on Trent Repertory Theatre on September 9^th before touring the UK throughout September and October.  Featuring a dynamic script, sharply drawn characters and breathtaking live stunts, ‘Houdini’ was written by BAFTA award-winning actor (‘Risen’) and filmmaker Stuart Brennan who also stars as Theo Weiss.

TOUR DATES:

From May 6^th – tickets for Stoke on Trent can be obtained from Cafe Divine, 493-495 Hartshill Road, Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 6AA – Cafe Divine will also have an exhibition of the concept artwork from the WETA Workshop (see above) Tickets are priced from £15 to £20 and can be purchased by calling 020 7378 7840, online www.houdinitheplay.com or directly from Cafe Divine

The Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter Facebook page has posted a new video featuring Julie Tottman, the Head Animal Trainer for the Harry Potter film series. This video is part of the lead up to Animal Actors week where visitors can discover firsthand how scenes for Umbridge’s moving kitten plates were filmed as the Studio Tour recreates a green screen set complete with live kittens.  Each week fans will get a new update on the training of the adorable kittens, which you meet in the video below!

Animal Actors week begins on May 25th and continues until June 2nd. More information on the week’s activities may be seen in our original post from last month.

During filming, 40 kittens were brought to the studio to be filmed in front of a green screen for Dolores Umbridge’s porcelain kitten plates, which can be found at the Studio Tour in Umbridge’s Ministry of Magic office. We will be recreating this process during Animal Actors Week; watch this video to meet our very own Twitter Litter and help us name them by tweeting your suggestions to @wbstudiotour using #AnimalActors

The LA Times is reporting today that Daniel Radcliffe’s television series A Young Doctor’s Notebook will be airing on US television station Ovation this Summer. The show also stars Mad Men‘s Jon Ham as the older version of Daniel’s character as well as the narrator. The mini-series is four episodes long and follows a new doctor (Daniel) as he undertakes his first job at a hospital in rural Russia during the revolution.

From the press release:

A Young Doctor’s Notebook (4 x ½-hr)
Produced by the BBC and premiering in the US exclusively on Ovation, this scripted series stars Jon Hamm (Mad Men, 30 Rock) and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter, The Woman in Black).  Based on the book by Mikhail Bulgakov, A Young Doctor’s Notebook is the darkly humorous account of the experiences of a newly graduated young doctor who lands a post at a small hospital in a remote village during the Russian Revolution. The story is told through the eyes of the doctor’s older, opiate-addicted self (Hamm) as he narrates the action from his own notebooks. The series premieres this summer, only on Ovation.

We’ve been posting rumors on a possible expansion of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida for months and today Universal has finally made it official! A new high resolution photo, as well as a press alert, have been released.  More will be posted as news develops!

THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES: THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER – DIAGON ALLEY IS COMING TO UNIVERSAL ORLANDO RESORT.

Building on the global phenomenon that is The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Universal Orlando Resort and Warner Bros. Entertainment today announced an expansion of historic proportion with the entirely new themed environment, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley.

Scheduled to open in 2014, the world’s first centrally themed, multi-park experience expands The Wizarding World of Harry Potter across both Universal Orlando theme parks and allows Universal’s creative team to bring an unparalleled vision to this unique project. The new area will bring to life some of the experiences and places found in and around London in the Harry Potter books and films, offering brand-new adventures for fans and theme park guests from around the world.

Diagon Alley and ‘London’ will be located within the Universal Studios Florida theme park, which is adjacent to Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park, where guests now experience Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. The new area within Universal Studios will be just as expansive, immersive and authentic as the existing themed environment.”

The Huffington Post also has some more details on the expansion from Mark Woodbury, president of Universal Creative:

“Given the strong response that we got from our Guests as well as from Harry Potter fans, we knew that we had done something truly special in bringing to life this great body of fiction with such a high level of detail and authenticity,” Woodbury explained. “But even so, we knew that there were other great Harry Potter-related tales to tell. That there were stories, characters and experiences that we just hadn’t been able to fit into Hogsmeade & Hogwarts Castle.”

“So we then began to wonder: Given that we had these two great theme parks sitting right next to each other, could we maybe turn that to our storytelling advantage?,” Mark continued. “By placing Diagon Alley & London at Universal Studios Florida and Hogsmeade & Hogwarts at Islands of Adventure, could we maybe use the distance between these two theme parks as a way to echo the natural geographic separation that the readers find between Hogwarts & Diagon Alley in J.K. Rowling’s own stories?”

[...]“Those meetings [with Jo] are fascinating and wonderful opportunities to have, to be able to talk and collaborate directly with J K Rowling and the Warner Bros. film-makers. This was a big idea. And everybody immediately saw that when we initially laid it all out. And the fact that we wanted to continue to tell the Harry Potter story, the places that we had chosen to develop — Diagon Alley & London & Gringotts & Hogwarts Express — were really big ideas and bold moves, I think that the ambition behind that was very much appreciated,” Mark stated.

[...]

“As we went into this project, the folks at Universal Orlando & Warner Bros. Entertainment set the bar very high and we weren’t about to compromise. We knew that London & Diagon Alley & the Hogwarts Express had to be equal to and better than Hogsmeade & Hogwarts Castle in every way and at every level. And that’s exactly how we approached this expansion project right from the get-go,” Mark said.

“Our goal here is to fully immerse people into the Harry Potter stories. So the architecture plays a big role in that. And starting with the London area, which is totally authentic and recreates & captures the essence of the iconographic parts of the fiction in that space, we went big,” Woodbury continued. “And then we find our way into Diagon Alley in much the same way you do in the books and movies. And that’s a totally different environment that gives Guests an even deeper immersion into the world of Harry Potter. And those buildings are big as well. Four and five stories-tall in some places.”

[...]

“After teasing people with that static version of the Hogwarts Express in Hogsmeade, we’re now going to give them the opportunity to climb aboard that train and go on an actual journey. And we’re not going to do the usual theme park thing, where you get on an attraction that promises to take you on a journey, but then when you exit your ride vehicle, you’re actually back in the exact same spot where you began that ride,” Mark enthused. “After people climb aboard the Hogwarts Express at Universal Orlando Resort next year, as they exit that train, they’re going to find themselves in an entirely different environment, in a completely different place. Whether they’ve journeyed from London to Hogsmeade or visa versa. And we’ve made sure that even your train trip aboard the Hogwarts Express will be part of the ambitious immersive storytelling experience that we’re trying to create for our Guests with this Potter expansion.”