The Universal Studios Orlando Facebook page has posted the third trailer for the Diagon Alley Expansion of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The new 17 second trailer shows footage of Knockturn Alley – meaning it will be included in the expansion – and may be viewed below:

As a quick reminder, one week from today there will be a live webcast hosted by James Phelps, introducing the expansion. This webcast comes right before the Harry Potter Celebration weekend at the theme park which Evanna Lynch and the Phelps twins will be attending. We will be on hand at the event and will report back on the weekends activities.

Bonnie Wright recently appeared on an episode of The Great Sport Relief Bake Off on BBC.  The episode is available for viewing on the BBC iPlayer and via YouTube below for those of us not in the UK.

Sue Perkins hosts the first episode, in which cricketer Michael Vaughan, James Bond and Downton Abbey actress Samantha Bond, Harry Potter actress Bonnie Wright and broadcaster Johnny Vaughan enter the tent. For the signature challenge they must make sandwich biscuits, for the technical challenge a tarte tatin and for the showstopper a 3D novelty cake, which must represent a sporting landmark.

They are baking for Sport Relief to inspire everyone at home to do the same and raise money for those who really need help. Olympic gold-medallist Nicola Adams visits South Africa to meet those who benefit from a local community centre offering young people the chance to get off the streets and learn sports, including boxing. She meets Tony and sees first-hand how Sport Relief money can help give children like him the chance to get off the streets. Your donation really can help change lives.

The nominations for the 2014 Academy Awards have been announced and a few familiar names from the Harry Potter films have been nominated. Prisoner of Azkaban director Alfonso Cuarón has been nominated for Gravity while composers John Williams and Alexandre Desplat are up for best score.

Best Original Score:

• “The Book Thief” John Williams
• “Gravity” Steven Price
• “Her” William Butler and Owen Pallett
• “Philomena” Alexandre Desplat
• “Saving Mr. Banks” Thomas Newman

Best Film Editing:

• “American Hustle” Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten
• “Captain Phillips” Christopher Rouse
• “Dallas Buyers Club” John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa
• “Gravity” Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger
• “12 Years a Slave” Joe Walker

Best Director:

• David O. Russell, American Hustle
• Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
• Alexander Payne, Nebraska
• Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
• Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

In a new interview with Theatre Mania, Harry Potter alum Harry Melling (Dudley) discusses his newest role as Fool in King Lear, currently running in New York.  Last year we reported that the play was in London at the Minerva Theatre.  Tickets for the play, running until February 9th, may be purchased at the BAM Harvey Theater website.

Is this your first time doing Shakespeare professionally?
It is. I’ve done Restoration and a Jacobean [plays], both in quite big houses in the UK, but I’ve only done Shakespeare at drama school. It’s a very new adventure for me.

How did this role come about?
The director [Angus Jackson] saw me in a couple of shows in the UK and then invited me to meet him. Then, there was a second round, with Frank [Langella], and then I met again with Frank, and then it was an offer. It was nice that Angus was familiar with me and my work. It’s quite a usual routine to get a job, as opposed to, he saw me in this and said “Yes, I want you!” It was a three-round process.

What’s more intimidating — a direct offer or a three-round audition process?
It can work both ways. The jobs I’ve been offered straight have been very scary in their own way because you feel like you haven’t proven yourself yet. The rehearsal period is almost more precious because you feel like you’ve got something to prove. At least with going in a few times, they can get a sense of what you want to do with it before hitting rehearsal.

Tell me about your take on the Fool.
I’ve always been fascinated by characters who are extremely dangerous —that are the truth tellers throughout the play. Although they can potentially come across silly, there’s a well of truth that he almost throws like daggers towards Lear, to try and steer him back onto a path of reason. Angus already made a choice by casting him young, which is nice because that allows me to get away with things that perhaps an older Fool wouldn’t. Most important [I didn’t want to] make him into a dancing, juggling, annoying presence on stage.

When the Fool disappears, where does he go?
That’s the big question, isn’t it? My interpretation, at the moment, is he goes off to kill himself. My rather tricky job is to make my last line [incorporate] the future of what’s going to happen to him — just living in one line.

What is it like working with Frank Langella?
It’s been brilliant. He’s a real force, not only on stage, but offstage. How he does it every night, to the degree to which he does, is remarkable.

I understand you’re also doing a show later this year at 59E59 Theaters?
It’s a play I’ve been writing for two years, called Peddling. It’s one person on stage talking. It started out as a story that I experienced when I was eight years old. This door-to-door salesman came around. We said we weren’t buying anything, and he said, “OK, thank you,” walked away, and for the next two hours, threw gravel stones at our house and completely lost it. I’ve always been completely fascinated about how you get to that point. I wondered what happened to him after, where he went to and where he’s been. That whole narrative has been living in my head for over a decade.

Switching gears entirely, what do you think of this planned Harry Potter stage play ?
I think it’s great. I have no idea how it’s going to work, tonally or stylistically, but it will [work] because the narrative is so interesting. I’ll be there, definitely. [pause] I probably won’t be in it, but I’ll definitely be there.

The first clips from After the Dark, starring Bonnie Wright and Freddie Stroma have been released and may be viewed below.  The film, originally called The Philosophers, will be released on February 7, 2014. A short synopsis is as follows: At an international school in Jakarta, a philosophy teacher challenges his class of twenty graduating seniors to choose which ten of them would take shelter underground and reboot the human race in the event of a nuclear apocalypse.

Thanks to SnitchSeeker for the tip.

Broadway World reports that The CW has acquired Labyrinth, a four hour mini-series starring Tom Felton and John Hurt (Ollivander).  The night and time will be announced at a later date, we will update when it is revealed.

Filmedon-location in the medieval town of Carcassonne in southwest France and Cape Town, South Africa, the historical miniseries jumps back and forth between modern and medieval France as it follows the lives of two women who are separated by centuries, but united in their search for the Holy Grail.

In Carcassonne, France, in the year 1209, 17-year-old Alaïs (Jessica Brown-Findlay, “Downton Abbey,” “Misfits”), is given a mysterious book by her father; a book which he claims contains the secret of the true Grail. Although Alaïs cannot understand the book’s strange words and labyrinth symbols, her father instructs her to protect the book no matter what happens to him. Alaïs realizes that her destiny lies in keeping the secret of the labyrinth safe. Eight centuries later, at an archeological dig in the French Pyrenees, a young volunteer named Alice Tanner (Vanessa Kirby, “The Hour,” “Great Expectations”) discovers two skeletons in a forgotten cave. Puzzled by the labyrinth symbol carved into the rock, she realizes she’s disturbed something that was meant to remain hidden. Somehow, a link to a horrific past – Alice’s own past – has been revealed.

Thanks to Feltbeats for the tip!