As part of the new look for the children’s hardback and paperback editions of the Harry Potter series, Bloomsbury Children’s Books has sent over the new cover for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Back in March we posted the cover for Philosopher’s Stone along with some more information on the project. The full series will be released on 1st September 2014.
Illustrated by award-winning artist Jonny Duddle, the jacket depicts Harry’s battle with the monstrous Basilisk. All seven new editions will be published on 1st September 2014.
Jonny Duddle is best known for his award-winning picture books, including The Pirate Cruncher and The Pirates Next Door (winner of the Waterstones Children’s Prize and shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize). He has a background in the computer games industry and is highly skilled at character development. His work has appeared in Aardman films and Terry Pratchett novels.
It has been revealed today, by The Wrap, that HBO and BBC will be co-producing the tv series based on J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy. We posted way back in December 2012 that the BBC would be producing the series and now have some more details. The episodes will be one hour each with both HBO and BBC airing the three-part mini-series,.
The production, which will air in three one-hour installments, will begin production this summer in South West England, HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo announced Wednesday. The BBC announced plans for an adaptation in 2012, the same year the novel, Rowling’s first post-”Harry Potter” book, was released.
The miniseries is being produced by Bronte Film and Television, the independent production company run by Rowling and Neil Blair, who is executive producing with Paul Trijbits (“Saving Mr. Banks” Golden Globe winner “”Dancing on the Edge”) and Rick Senat.
It is written by Sarah Phelps (“EastEnders,” the BBC’s “Great Expectations” and “The Crimson Field”) produced by Ruth Kenley-Letts (“The Tunnel,” “The Hour”) and directed by Jonny Campbell (“In the Flesh,” “Eric & Ernie”).
The story centers on Pagford, a seemingly idyllic English village with a cobbled market square and ancient abbey. But behind the pretty exterior is a town in conflict between rich and poor, teenagers and parents, husbands and wives, and students and teachers.
Culture 24 reports that one of the illustrators of the Harry Potter books, Clare Melinsky, will be showing her work at some exhibitions in the next few months. Clare is responsible for the “Signature Look” designs for Bloomsbury that were released back in 2010. They also talked with the artist about her Harry Potter designs.
“I had to cover up what was on my desk so even my friends didn’t know what I was working on,” she says, discussing the secrecy which proved the hardest part of the project. “There were many times when I sat up reading the text deep into the night so I could get the illustrations just right. And sometimes I went out in search of places that would give me inspiration.”
Once the covers were out, Melinsky swiftly won new-found admiration from her nephews and nieces, inspired by a local landmark.
“Many people assume that the picture of platform 9¾ in on the back cover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is from Kings Cross. In fact it’s not – it’s the railway station at Dumfries. And the gravestones on The Deathly Hallows are also from reality. I based them on the old graveyard at Morton in Dumfries and Galloway.”
The New England School of Communications is making a live-action version of The Tale of the Three Brothers, one of the stories in J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard and also featured in Deathly Hallows as an animated short. Warner Bros. and Jo have approved the production of this film. The first screening of the finished film will be at 5pm on May 4th, 2014 at the Gracie Theatre at Husson University in Bangor, Maine.
Over the span of 6 shoots, students traveled to locations throughout Maine to bring the tale of the three brothers to life. From the wire suspension bridge in New Portland to historic Leonard’s Mills in Bradley, students worked alongside NESCom instructors through each step of the process.
The school’s website has a page dedicated to the short with additional details and trailer for the short may be watched below.
In a new report from The New York Times, Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara revealed some exciting news about the Fantastic Beasts film(s). There will be three films in the series and according to another report, they are slated to begin production in 2015.
Wherever he learned the skill, his deft touch became clear to Hollywood’s creative community last September. That is when Warner announced that Ms. Rowling had agreed to adapt for the big screen her “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” a 2001 book billed as one of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts textbooks. Three megamovies are planned. The main character will be a “magizoologist” named Newt Scamander. The stories, neither prequels or sequels, will start in New York about seven decades before the arrival of Mr. Potter and his pals.
Convincing the famously independent Ms. Rowling to dive back into film was a coup. “When I say he made ‘Fantastic Beasts’ happen, it isn’t P.R.-speak but the literal truth,” Ms. Rowling said in response to emailed questions. “We had one dinner, a follow-up telephone call, and then I got out the rough draft that I’d thought was going to be an interesting bit of memorabilia for my kids and started rewriting!”
There are 5 new auctions that may be of interest to Harry Potter fans on the Nate D. Sanders Fine Autographs and Memorabilia Monthly Auctions website. The following items are up for auction:
1. Original Artwork for the Cover of “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” — Illustration by Cliff Wright Depicts the Charming & Memorable Flying Car Scene
Original ink, pencil and watercolor artwork for the 1998 release of J.K. Rowling’s second book in the groundbreaking series, ”Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” Illustration is by British artist Cliff Wright, whom J.K. Rowling tapped to illustrate most of her Harry Potter characters, including Hedwig the Owl and Harry Potter himself, both displayed here in this watercolor. Unsigned illustration, which appears on the book’s cover, depicts the memorable scene in the book when Ron Weasley steals his father’s Ford Anglia to escort Harry back to Hogwarts. Wright charmingly brings each character to life in the illustration – Potter is depicted in his signature glasses and red pullover, and Ron is depicted with flaming red hair and freckles. Both Harry and Ron are pictured grinning at their flying car feat, while Potter’s famed owl, Hedwig, is perched in the back seat. Illustration is glazed, mounted and framed to an overall size of 22.5” x 19”, with two annotations written along top reading: ”please return Aw [artwork] to: / (undamaged)” and ”For: Harry Potter shop display / To: Rosamund Walker — Bloomsbury”. Bloomsbury then superimposed this illustration with a background landscape also done by Wright to create the finished cover design. Near fine.
2. Original Artwork for the Cover of “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” — Depicting Harry Riding the Mythical Creature, Buckbeak, Under the Moonlight — Signed by Artist Cliff Wright
Imaginative ink and watercolor cover art for the original 1999 Bloomsbury edition of J.K. Rowling’s third book, ”Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban,” in the series that forever changed children’s literature. This third draft ”rough” – nearing the final design – is signed by British artist Cliff Wright, who first brought many of Rowling’s concepts and characters to life for the series. Watercolor and ink drawing depicts Harry on the legendary Hippogriff beast, endearingly called Buckbeak. Here, Wright depicts the climactic scene in the book when Harry Potter and Hermione Granger go back in time, flying on Buckbeak through the night’s sky to save Sirius Black from a tower where he is imprisoned, sending him away to freedom on Buckbeak’s back. Of illustrating the Harry Potter series, Wright has said, ”…a passage from the book was suggested and I began to draw ideas working closely with the publisher. So as to retain as much vitality as possible in the final watercolour painting I only produce small-scale quick pencil/pen sketches as roughs. Time is spent on character and composition but not yet on execution, so my roughs are very simple.” This draft shows maturation in the draft process, with colors and design almost entirely fleshed out. Illustration measures 5.5” x 5” on a standard-sized sheet of paper and is signed ”Cliff Wright” at lower right, with additional handwritten comments in margins noting, ”trainers” and ”Emma / Changes as requested. Cliff”. Near fine condition.
3. Rare Deluxe First U.K. Edition & First Printing “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”
Prized deluxe U.K. first edition of ”Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” Bloomsbury Publishing: London: 1999. The second novel in J.K. Rowling’s series continues the story of boy wizard Harry Potter and his friends. Runs 251pp. and measures 6.25” x 9.5”. Bound in pictorial blue cloth boards with gilt lettering. All edges gilt. Light bumping to board and spine corners, else fine. A beautifully bound tome from the best selling book series of all time.
4. “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” — First American Edition, First Printing
5. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” — First American Edition, First Printing
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