The trailer for Tom Felton, and Miranda Richardson’s, new film Belle, has been released on the iTunes website. They also have an updated synopsis of the film:

Belle is inspired by the true story of Dido Elizebeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the illegitimate mixed race daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral. Raised by her aristocratic great-uncle Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson) and his wife (Emily Watson), Belle’s lineage affords her certain privileges, yet the color of her skin prevents her from fully participating in the traditions of her social standing. Left to wonder if she will ever find love, Belle falls for an idealistic young vicar’s son bent on change who, with her help, shapes Lord Mansfield’s role as Lord Chief Justice to end slavery in England.

Thanks to SnitchSeeker who found an embeddable version of the trailer:

In a new interview with Hollywood Outbreak Rita Skeeter actress Miranda Richardson talks about the Harry Potter series and its popularity.  Head over to this page to listen to the audio, I have written out a transcript that you may read below:

“I shouldn’t be surprised by now I suppose, but I am constantly surprised.  I do think it’s great from a kids’ point of view because they are engaging in storytelling and character, and also books as well as film. My point is that she got them back reading, she’s not the only author that’s about reading, Phillip Pulman is another one, it doesn’t matter which way round they come to it, if they see the movies I think the kids still want to read the books or vice versa. You know they’ve read the books and want to see if the movies live up to the books and they want to be those people, have those qualities. There’s no harmful stuff in there, I don’t think.” 

As many of you know, the BAFTA Awards were held today and the Harry Potter series received the award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema, it was presented by Stephen Fry and there was a montage accompanying them accepting the award.  Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, JK Rowling, David Yates, David Heyman, Helena Bonham Carter, Bonnie Wright, Jamie Campbell Bower, Miranda Richardson and director Mike Newell were at the awards ceremony.  Hopefully there will be a video of the cast and crew accepting the award online soon.  Emma Watson also presented the Rising Star Award.  A lot of videos are beginning to appear online so here is the first roundup. You can also watch a video of Rupert here that has embedding disabled.

The nominations for the 2011 Orange British Academy Film Awards have been announced and there are a bunch of Potter related nominations.  The nominations are as follows:

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
AMY ADAMS – The Fighter
HELENA BONHAM CARTER – The King’s Speech
BARBARA HERSHEY – Black Swan
LESLEY MANVILLE – Another Year
MIRANDA RICHARDSON – Made in Dagenham

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
ALICE IN WONDERLAND – Nominees TBC
BLACK SWAN – Dan Schrecker
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 – Tim Burke, John Richardson, Nicolas Ait’Hadi, Christian Manz
INCEPTION – Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Peter Bebb
TOY STORY 3 – Nominees TBC

MAKE UP & HAIR
ALICE IN WONDERLAND – Nominees TBC
BLACK SWAN – Judy Chin, Geordie Sheffer
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 – Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin
THE KING’S SPEECH – Frances Hannon
MADE IN DAGENHAM – Lizzie Yianni Georgiou

ORIGINAL MUSIC
127 HOURS – AR Rahman
ALICE IN WONDERLAND – Danny Elfman
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON – John Powell
INCEPTION – Hans Zimmer
THE KING’S SPEECH – Alexandre Desplat

The awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, February 13 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London.

Warner Bros. has released a list of cast for Deathly Hallows Part I and Mugglenet has let us know of a new person confirmed on that list! Miranda Richardson will be returning as Rita Skeeter in the film!  Who else is excited about this?

You can see other confirmed cast members (for both parts) on our Deathly Hallows page.

UPDATE: Thanks to SS we have a photo of the mini cast list and more actors have been confirmed! Such as:

• Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonagall
• Ciarán Hinds as Aberforth Dumbledore

TLC is reporting that there is a rumor going around that Miranda Richardson is in negotiations to reprise her role as Rita Skeeter in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. They spoke directly to representatives for Miranda today, and were told “no comment.”

More on this as it comes! But remember this is just a rumor and not at all confirmed!