Tom Felton’s newest film, Against the Sun, has decided to forgo the traditional theaters only release and has gone directly to us, the viewers! Beginning today January 23rd, you can purchase the film on various online viewing platforms as well as select theaters.

In one of the most harrowing true stories of World War II, three US Navy airmen crash land their torpedo bomber in the South Pacific and find themselves on a tiny life raft, surrounded by open ocean. No food. No water. No hope of rescue. Against incredible odds, these three virtual strangers must survive storms, sharks, starvation – and each other – as they try to sail more than a thousand miles to safety.

Watch the film at any of these locations:

• Amazon Instant Video
• iTunes
• Google Play
• YouTube
• VUDU
• PlayStation Store
• XBOX Video
• Various Cable providers: xfinity, Time Warner Cable, Fios, AT&T Uverse, DirectTV and Dish

Behind the Thrills has posted what is believed to be the schedule for Universal Orlando’s Celebration of Harry Potter. It has not been officially released by Universal, so this could be an early draft of a schedule, but the real lineup will most likely be very similar.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30

• A Celebration of Harry Potter Expo (Soundstage 33) 9 am – 5 pm
• Movie in the Park (Music Plaza) 2:30pm – 5:30pm
• A Celebration of Harry Potter Opening Night Event (Music Plaza) 5:30pm – 6pm

SATURDAY, JANUARY 31

• A Celebration of Harry Potter Expo (Soundstage 33) 9am – 5pm
• Behind the Scenes: Harry Potter Film Talent Discussion (Music Plaza) 10am – 11am
• Kids’ Harry Potter Film Trivia (Music Plaza) 11:15am – 11:30am
• Kids’ Dueling Demonstration & Wand Masterclass with Paul Harris (Music Plaza) 11:30am – 12pm
• House Photo Meet-Up — Hufflepuff (Music Plaza) 12:30pm – 12:45pm
• Graphic Design for the Harry Potter™ Films with MinaLima (Music Plaza) 2:30pm – 3:15pm
• Illustration of Harry Potter with Kazu Kibuishi (Music Plaza) 4pm – 4:45pm
• House Photo Meet-Up — Ravenclaw (Music Plaza) 4:45pm – 5pm
• Dueling Demonstration & Wand Masterclass with Paul Harris (Music Plaza) 5:15pm – 6pm

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1

• A Celebration of Harry Potter Expo (Soundstage 33) 9am – 5pm
• Dueling Demonstration & Wand Masterclass with Paul Harris (Music Plaza)10am – 10:45am
• Kids’ Dueling Demonstration & Wand Masterclass with Paul Harris (Music Plaza) 11:30am – 12pm
• House Photo Meet-Up — Slytherin (Music Plaza) 12:30pm – 12:45pm
• Kids’ Dance Like a Beauxbatons & Battle Like a Durmstrang (Music Plaza) 2:30pm – 3pm
• Creating The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Music Plaza) 3:304m – 4:15pm
• House Photo Meet-Up — Gryffindor (Music Plaza) 4:15pm – 4:30pm
• Behind the Scenes: Harry Potter Film Talent Discussion (Music Plaza) 5:00pm – 5:45pm

We will be in attendance at the event and will keep you updated!

Taking place on 18th April 2015 at the ExCel London, MuggleNet Live! 2015: Expo Patronum is a unique fan event being hosted by MuggleNet. With confirmed guest including Warwick Davis, Harry Melling and Chris Rankin, the event will include talent panels from the film series’ cast, signing events and an interactive expo involving leading members of the Potter community. The event will be supporting Lumos, the charity established by J.K. Rowling, in various fundraising activities throughout the day.

MuggleNet Live! 2015: Expo Patronum will be the first event of its kind for the website, bringing fans together to celebrate the Potter series past, present, and future. To be hosted in the Excel Centre Platinum Suites, the event will host guest panels, signings, photo booths, and exciting exhibitions featuring cast and crew. As well as discussing the series, the event will be an opportunity for fans to discover more about the current projects that the talented cast and crew are working on. Special guests currently include Potter actors Warwick Davis (Star Wars, Doctor Who, Willow), Jessie Cave (Pride, Glue), Anna Schafer (Hollyoaks, Glue) and Chris Rankin (Atlantis). More guests and programming details will be announced in the upcoming months.

Commenting on the event, Emerson Spartz, CEO of Spartz Inc. and founder of MuggleNet.com, said: “The MuggleNet Live! convention is situated at the perfect time to reflect on the past and look forward to the future with Harry Potter cast and crew members, and the entire Wizarding World fandom and its wider community.”

This is far from all the exciting features of the convention. More guests and activities will be announced in the coming weeks so be sure to keep up with the Expo on Facebook, Twitter and their website! This Sunday at 7pm GMT the staff will be hosting a Google Hangouts session to answer any questions fans have about the event.

Tickets for the event are on sale and can be purchased here: http://live.mugglenet.com/tickets

The teaser trailer for Evanna Lynch’s Dynamite: A Cautionary Tale has been released. In order to complete post production, the creators need to raise $50,000 to cover costs and have set up an IndieGoGo page for donations.  Your contributions will help with the editing process, hiring of a sound editor, develop the soundtrack and securing music, original score, visual effects, title sequence creation, a dialogue script, festival submissions, a publicist, and more! A synopsis of the film is as follows:

Based on a true story, Max Bornstein had the wit, looks, and charm that would carry him beyond the typical man’s troubles. Yet, the typical man’s troubles were the least of Max’s worries: He was a full-time dope fiend and a part-time father working within the underground, highly illegal pornography industry.

Even in the wake of a federal investigation, Max’s truest worry was his wife and two young children: A family kept in the dark about Max’s reality and the walls of it caving in around him.

Trailer not suitable for younger viewers.

It was rumored last year that Emma Watson would be starring in the musical La La Land, written by Damien Chazelle and also starring Miles Teller.  It seems that the news has been confirmed by The Telegraph and Page Six. Emma will reportedly be playing Mia, an aspiring actress trying to make it in the competitive world of Los Angeles. This has not been completely confirmed as of yet.

Of the project, Chazelle says: “I’ve been trying to get off the ground since I lived in LA, in the past five or six years. I wrote the script about four years ago, and I worked with the same guy who did the music on Whiplash. We wrote it four years ago and we were just trying to convince someone to do an original, MGM-style musical, because I don’t think there are enough.”

Justin Hurwitz, Chazelle’s collaborator said:

“Most current musicals are based on stage musicals (like Chicago) or other properties, so it’s really cool Lionsgate are letting us do a totally original musical. Even the few other original musicals made today have diegetic justification for the music, like Once. Now I love Once, but the music is all on screen, as opposed to older musicals where orchestra just swells up behind the actor. Or take the film Enchanted from a few years ago, which I thought was great, but it had a high concept to justify the music – she was a storybook character. There hasn’t been a movie in a while where the music just swells up for no reason other than that the characters are moved and want to break into song.”

A little more information on the film, as seen in The Telegraph:

The film will have eclectic influences. Hurwitz started playing piano at the age of six and is influenced by people as diverse as French musician Michel Legrand and Charlie Chaplin. […] Jazz is a common love for director, composer and main star Tiller. They believe in their films that they have been able to show how much precision goes into jazz, a musical form sometimes considered to be “loose” because of the improvisation involved. But La La Land isn’t a film centered solely on jazz. The creators are taking their style from iconic Hollywood musical films such as Singin’ In The Rain, [A] Star is Born, Gentleman Prefer Blondes and Meet Me in St Louis, as well as French New Wave and Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

According to the article, ‘filming is expected to begin in March and Chazelle says they will pre-record the songs in the style of the old Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies for MGM. As a fan of Harry Potter, Chazelle admits he is looking forward to working with Watson and on a project with a comic touch’

A few Harry Potter alumni have been nominated for the 2015 National Film Awards. You can vote for your favorites at this link.

Best Actor
Ben Affleck for “Gone Girl”
André Benjamin for “Jimi: All Is By My Side”
David Oyelowo for “Selma”
James Buckley for “The Inbetweeners 2”
Benedict Cumberbatch for “The Imitation Game”
Tom Felton for “Belle”
Simon Bird for “The Inbetweeners 2”
Jack O’ Connell for “71”
Brendan Gleeson for “Calvary”
Asa Butterfield for “X +Y”
Andrew Scott for “Pride”

Best Actress
Shailene Woodley for “The Fault in Our Stars”
Gugu Mbatha-Raw for “Beyond the Lights”
Quvenzhané Wallis for “Annie”
Sameena Jabeen Ahmed for “Catch Me Daddy”
Cheng Pei Pei for “Lifting”
Alicia Vikander for “Testament of Youth”
Keira Knightley for “Imitation Game”
Imelda Stauton for “Pride”
Dorothy Atkinson for “Mr Turner”
Thandi Newton for “Half of a Yellow Sun”