Neville really steps up to the plate in Part 2 – have you been looking forward to that?
“Definitely. I spoke to Jo Rowling at the premiere of Harry Potter 5 and she said she’d written some great stuff for Neville in the new book and I was like, ‘I don’t want to hear anything – don’t tell me!’ And I read the book and I was like, ‘Bloody hell’. You don’t know what they’re going to keep in the film but you just think it could be incredible. There was so much in there for me. There was still the typical Neville bumbling around but he’s a bit more adrenalised and reckless and trying to be a hero – there’s a lot of action in here as well. There’s also some really heavy emotional stuff. A few moments when he’s on his own and can stop being this heroic leader for a moment and he just looks very tired and people are dying around him. There’s a scene when he’s carrying a dead child and I hope it’s still in the film because that’s when it hits home that it’s pretty horrible stuff they’re dealing with.”
It must have been good to have that transformation from a bumbler to hero…
“That’s why I think he’s such a great character. As an actor every year I’ve had to come back and add a little bit more depth and there’s something different in it. For me that’s great because it’s kept it fresh over the years rather than playing the same guy.” Was there a moment when you realised how big Harry Potter had become? Oliver: “Because we’re so close to it we don’t see the size. We always knew it was a big production, but at the first premiere there were a lot of people there and it’s just got bigger and bigger and bigger. When we first went in there was a big press in the Odeon in Leicester Square. The last premiere it took over three cinemas and there were about six or seven thousand people.” James: “We were outside for three hours meeting people. It was absolutely hammering it down with rain as well and people had stayed out for all that time. I think they said there were about seven or eight thousand people in Leicester Square at the last premiere. That’s like, ‘Wow, this is big’, but I remember we were out on holiday in Mexico and I was in the sea and this middle-aged lady swam out and asked, ‘Are you in Harry Potter?’ I said ‘Yes’ and she said ‘OK’ and just swam away. That was a bit surreal.”
Thanks to RG.us we have a new interview with Rupert Grint that was on SkyNews. In the interview he talks about a bunch of topics including Ron’s role in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I.
BoxOffice Mojo has been updatingHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I‘s box office progress throughout the weekend. As of today it has pulled in $125,120,000 in the US and $205,000,000 internationally! They report the following:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 drew an estimated $125.1 million on approximately 9,400 screens at 4,125 locations, blowing past the franchise’s last pre-Thanksgiving debut and previous opening weekend gross high, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which earned $102.7 million out of the gate in 2005. New Moon still holds the November record with $142.8 million, while the other pictures ahead of Deathly on the overall chart are The Dark Knight ($158.4 million), Spider-Man 3 ($151.1 million), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest ($135.6 million) and Iron Man 2 ($128.1 million).
In terms of estimated attendance, Deathly Hallows Part 1’s start came in slightly behind the first movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and Goblet of Fire. As a franchise, Harry Potter has grossed nearly $1.84 billion thus far, ranking second to Star Wars’ $1.92 billion (though it greatly trails in attendance). Within ten days, the Harry Potter franchise total should surpass Star Wars.
Included in Deathly Hallows Part 1’s weekend gross was the $24 million it made in its midnight/early Friday opening, which was the third biggest-grossing ever behind Eclipse and New Moon. Anticipation was so high that the Deathly Hallows Part 1’s $61.2 million Friday accounted for 49 percent of the weekend gross, charting as the sixth-largest Friday share of a weekend on record, though it wasn’t as front-loaded as New Moon (51 percent). Deathly Hallows Part 1 also played at a record number of IMAX venues (239), and they contributed an estimated $12.4 million, setting a new opening weekend benchmark for the format.
Distributor Warner Bros.’ exit polling indicated that 57 percent of Deathly Hallows Part 1’s audience was female and 56 percent under 25 years old, which was close to the last movie. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is scheduled to debut on July 15, 2011.
The Huffington Post has a new, very long, interview with Harry Potter producer David Heyman. In the interview he talks about working on the series and the final films as well as the different directors they have had do the films and so much more.
Q: I thought people would say, “Is it too British? Are people going to get it?” Even though Lord of the Rings originated with a British author it went beyond the Britishness of it all but part of the Potter films’ charm is their pure Britishness.
DH: Absolutely, and I think we’ve celebrated that more so as we’ve gone on. We had an American director [Chris Columbus] on the first [Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and second, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]; Mexican [Alfonso Cuarón] on the third [Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban]; and then on the fourth[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, we had one Englishman, Mike Newell; and then on the fifth [Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ], sixth [Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]. and now seeing it through to the end [Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows], we have another Brit at the helm. And that’s great too.
Q: Are you amazed that the series has been so successful or did it seem relatively foolproof?
DH: I didn’t know that we were going to go to the end really until after the fourth film. Once we’d done the fourth film then I felt pretty secure that we’d probably march towards the end. I thought that with the sixth one, there might be a hiccup as it were. And I think the last film will be successful because it’s the last one, but I was a little bit nervous about this one for various reasons.As I’ve said, it was a bit of a tweener, a lot of it is setting up the next film, and one always has doubt – will people pirate it? What’s happened is that I think people have assumed a certain ownership of these characters and these actors; they enjoy watching them grow up before their eyes — our eyes.
Of all the great advantages I have, or we have, over other franchises is that we have Jo Rowling’s books. Certainly other franchises, I mean look at Bond, have to create a new story each time. So, I’m always relieved, a little bit surprised and relieved.
The Harry Potter Japan Facebook has been updated with photos of Rupert Grint, Bonnie Wright, and Evanna Lynch at a fan event that was held in Osaka. View the photos below and remember, you can order your tickets for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I here at Fandango. And, you can read my review of Deathly Hallows: Part I by going to this page, but there are spoilers if you haven’t seen the film yet.
— 
