The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Warner Bros. is planning on opening a SECOND Harry Potter theme park at Universal Studios LA.  According to the Journal, an official statement is due be released in the coming days, so stay tuned! The article states:

The new “Harry Potter” addition in the Los Angeles park, Universal Studios Hollywood, will likely resemble the one in Florida, these people say, which includes a Hogwarts Castle, roller coasters, and several Potter-themed restaurants including the Hog’s Head tavern, which serves butterbeer, as in the books.

If the new section succeeds, more “Potter” attractions could open in other parts of the world where Universal has theme parks, including Japan, Singapore, and Spain, say people close to Universal.

Numerous sources are reporting that Daniel Radcliffe will be playing gay poet Allen Ginsberg in Kill Your Darlings, a thriller directed by John Krokidas.

A thriller based on actual events, Kill Your Darlings revolves around the relationship between Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Lucien Carr. Carr, for his part, is credited for connecting Ginsberg, Kerouac and William S Burroughs but, most notoriously, served time for the 1944 murder of his lover David Kammerer.

This is only a rumor as of yet, if anything is confirmed I will post.

Since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II is releasing in the UK on December 2nd, on Blu-ray Triple Play, DVD and Digital Download, Warner Bros have sent over another new behind the scenes clip. This one is titled ‘Harry’s Return to Hogwarts’ and shows the making of the Great Hall scene in which Harry reveals himself to Snape.

You can pre-order the film in the UK by using the following links:

• Deathly Hallows 1-disc DVD
• Deathly Hallows 3-disc 3D Blu-ray
• Deathly Hallows 3-disc Blu-ray triple play
• Deathly Hallows 2-disc DVD
• The Complete 8-Film Collection DVD
• The Complete 8-Film Collection Blu-ray
• The Complete 8-Film Collection BD limited edition

If you are in the USA and still haven’t purchased, you can order your copy here:

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (Blu-ray+DVD+UltraViolet Digital Copy Combo Pack)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (DVD)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Limited Edition, Numbered Gift Set: Blu-ray+DVD+Digital Combo Pack with Exclusive 48 page Photo Album
• WB’s Exclusive Gift Sets for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II

ComingSoon has posted an article that contains interviews with David Heyman, David Yates and Daniel Radcliffe discussing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II’s chances at winning an Oscar. Some snippets may be read below.

“The film was so brilliantly received–we were probably one of the best reviewed movies of the year by a long way–and for a big, popular commercial film to get that great a response is really encouraging and heartening and I think it gives us all a bit of confidence for the Oscar campaign,” he told us. […] Yates continued to tell us why he thinks the last film was special. “It’s the last film in the series and we all put so much into it and Stuart Craig and the visual FX, Tim Burke did all the visual FX, and I think Dan, it’s probably the best performance in the whole run of the eight films, and Emma and Rupert did really well. I think David Heyman’s achievement, 8 films across 11 years is an extraordinary journey, and to manage it all so brilliantly.”

“I think it’s a great film,” Radcliffe told to us in a brief interview. “It’s stirring, it’s epic, it pulls a lot of loose ends together, which is not an easy thing to do when a story still had to go at such a pace, but it’s the advantage of splitting it. It meant we took all that time in film 1 setting up film 2, so when we got into film 2, it could just be that non-stop ride. I haven’t watched it since the premieres but I’ve never liked a ‘Harry Potter’ film as much as I liked this one. Part 2 is the one I’m proudest of.”

Heyman feels mutually about his director. “I think David really pushed the envelope. One of the things I’m very proud of is that we were always pushing to make each film better than the last, and I think that David with four films never tired of that, and Stuart Craig (production designer) and Jany Temine (costume) and Tim Burke, all of whom worked on many films—Stuart on 9, Jany on 3, the make-up people on 8, Nick Dudman (special make-up FX) on 8, Alexandre on 2. It’s a real family, but nobody ever settled. I think Alexandre’s score on Part 2 is a much stronger score than Part 1, because I think he felt safe and he pushed and he let go, and I think he was sort of nervous. I look at David Yates’ first film, the fifth, which I think is a fantastic film, but it’s quite tight.”

The Hollywood Reporter also has an article on Harry Potter’s chances at taking home the coveted award. One exciting tidbit is as follows:

Comments one prominent Academy member, who asked not to be named though he has no connection to the film: “It may not exactly be my kind of film — I’m hardly a Potter aficionado — but I think it should win. In a marketplace where the movies’ connection to audiences is more tenuous than ever, the adulation and enduring love that a generation has for this series stands apart. It’s powerful. For us as an industry not to give it that level of honor is injurious. It’s not embracing what there is about the art form that truly endures.”

WB sent SS an exclusive video clip that goes behind the scenes in the making of the Gringott’s Goblins. This clip can also be seen on the Deathly Hallows: Part II DVD/BluRay which came out in the USA 2 weeks ago and will be out in the UK this Friday.
If you don’t have the DVD/BluRay yet and live in the US then today is a great day to buy it, the WB Shop is having great Cyber Monday deals!

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (Blu-ray+DVD+UltraViolet Digital Copy Combo Pack)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (DVD)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Limited Edition, Numbered Gift Set: Blu-ray+DVD+Digital Combo Pack with Exclusive 48 page Photo Album
• WB’s Exclusive Gift Sets for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II

Magical-Menagerie was in attendance at tonight’s Children’s BAFTA Awards where Harry Potter took home TWO awards; Best Feature Film and the Kid’s Vote for Best Film.  Our correspondent, Patrick, has written a report and also sent over some photos which you can view in the gallery!

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Tonight the stars of British Film and Television aligned at the London Hilton, for the 2011 Children’s BAFTA’s. The guest list was full of names of actors both young and old whose work over the past year was being acknowledged, but there was one particular name that brought me to the gleaming marbled halls of the Hilton, that name ‘Harry Potter’.

Nominated in the best Feature Category, this year marked the last chance for the film series to be selected for a Children’s BAFTA and with both Parts One and Two of the Deathly Hallows being nominated the odds were definitely in Harry’s favour. Flying the flag solo for Team Potter was Warwick Davis; the current star of the sitcom ‘Life’s Too Short’, a joint production between himself and the comedic team of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, but the man whom all know as both Professor Flitwick, and the treacherous Gringotts Goblin Griphook.

Once on the red carpet the flashbulbs were ablaze as Warwick and his wife, Samantha posed for the camera’s and waved for the fans. After a few words with some television newsreaders, Warwick headed over to the Harry Potter section of the press gathering, and Magical Menagerie was his first port of call.

Patrick: Currently in ‘Life’s Too Short’, your character is quite nostalgic, do you think that in couple of years you will nostalgic about the Harry Potter Days?
Warwick: Oh absolutely, I think I already am in a way, because we filmed the first one ten years ago. I am looking back with great affection, and fondness, and pride. Certainly when you have nominations and awards such as this, it’s nice but I already have a sense of pride and fondness because, I say I was one a chosen few but they really were many hundreds of actors in the films, it was still a rather unique sort of project.

Patrick: Also in ‘Life’s Too Short’, you had another run in with Miss Helena Bonham Carter, how was that? Different situation to the last time you met?
Warwick: Absolutely! It was lovely to work with Helena again! We worked extensively on Deathly Hallows Part Two, when she played Hermione-Bellatrix and me as Griphook, so we spent a lot of time getting to know one another, and it was really great to have in for ‘Life’s Too Short’ and she will be playing a very unique version of herself because she is nothing like that in reality, she is really a very charming and pleasant person.

With action of the red carpet wrapped up, it was into the Press Room to watch the show, waiting anxiously to find out whether ‘The Deathly Hallows’ was going to take out the gong for best feature. Very early on it proved to be Harry’s night as the film took out the ‘BAFTA’s Kid Vote Award’ being an award decided on by the voting public, for best film. Then it was time for the winner of the Best Feature, and once again Warwick was called back to the stage to accept the award on behalf of director David Yates and producers David Heyman, David Barron, and Author J.K. Rowling.

Back in the press room, Warwick explained how this awards as well as the countless others the film franchise has received are really all testaments to the fans, and that he couldn’t wait till the whole world would get the chance to head to Leavensden and experience the set “Just as we left them” as a part of the Warners Brother’s Harry Potter Studio Tour.

So with the night all wrapped up, Harry Potter had once again taken home awards that were physical reminders of the fact that the films will leave just as much as a lasting impression on the British and International film industries, as much as the books have on our hearts. And the questions that are now left are, what will it win at the standard BAFTA’s? And could there be an Oscar in Harry Potter’s Future?

Patrick Hudson from Magical-Menagerie .com

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A huge thank you to Patrick who attended the award show on the site’s behalf!