Join David Heyman as he discusses the making of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with LA Times entertainment writer and Hero Complex blogger Geoff Boucher. Heyman is the producer behind all the film adaptations of J.K. Rowling’s hugely successful books, in addition to producing such films as and Yes Man.

Monday, July 13, 7:00 p.m.
Apple Store, Third Street Promenade
1248 Third Street Promenade

View a pdf file of the ad, here!  Thanks to WB for emailing!

In a new interview with PEP Dan Radcliffe, David Heyman, Michael Gambon and David Yates talk Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

“For me, the Harry Potter films have always been about a loss of innocence,” says Daniel Radcliffe, the actor behind the title character, who can perhaps no longer be called the boy wizard. “When Harry came into this world, it was all just amazing and brilliant and kind of pure. But as the films have gone on, that’s totally disintegrated, and he’s realizing that the wizarding world has just as many, if not more, challenges than the world he grew up in before.”

There is a new press release online with details for the HBP New York Premiere!

WHEN:
Thursday, July 9, 2009
WHERE:
Ziegfeld Theatre
141 West 54th Street
New York, NY 10019

Crew Arrivals: 4:45 pm
Celebrity Arrivals: 6:00 pm
Screening: 7:00 pm

From the film: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Bonnie Wright, Tom Felton, director David Yates and producers David Heyman and David Barron. Other celebrity guests to be announced shortly.

There is another person you all know attending the premiere, but I don’t know if I can say yet, I need to ask permission 😉

UPDATE: I can say who else is going, ME! I’ll be on the red carpet! woot!

Guardian.co.uk has a new article about Harry Potter that includes a new photo from the Half-Blood Prince filming.  The article shows us a behind the scenes view of Harry Potter filming.  The article has interviews with Dan Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Bonnie Wright, Jim Broadbent, David Yates, David Heyman, and David Barron.  See the photo here in the gallery.

It is indeed fascinating to watch the young cast grow up on screen – have a look at early interviews on YouTube and you’ll notice their feet dangling above the ground – and Yates has also got around the potential problem of being lumbered with an existing cast by giving cameos to older actors with whom he’s previously worked. One of the best things about the Potter films has always been the appearance of national acting treasures such as Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton, David Thewlis and, in The Half-Blood Prince, Jim Broadbent.

I ask Broadbent about his experience of playing Horace Slughorn, Potions Master and head of Slytherin House at Hogwarts, and it seems that he, too, has been bitten by the Harry bug. “It was an extraordinary thing to be part of. The main sets feel so permanent, having been there since the start, which means it’s very easy to get drawn into the world of Hogwarts. It was rather daunting turning up on set with all these young actors; it could so easily have been a nightmare, given that the five films have had such huge success. But the kids turned out to be terrific. There was no brattish behaviour or starry, Fame Academy behaviour; they just get on with it.”

And perhaps this is the key to the success of the films: producers David Heyman and David Barron have created what the latter describes as “our reality”. The young cast have never been allowed to develop attitude. Each new director has had to stay within the perimeters of the world so carefully set up at Leavesden; accordingly, there’s no room for an individual director to take off on a flight of fancy. And the continuity of cast and crew is impressive, too; although Radcliffe initially signed on for the first two films and seriously debated doing three and four, he did finally sign up till the end.

There is a new interview online with David Heyman.

It helps, of course, that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is coming at him now as two films, doubling his pleasure all over the place, but finding the precise line of demarcation “was something we wrestled with. I’m not going to reveal where it is just yet, but there are a couple of places. I initially was not in favor of doing two films. Then I went through the book with Steve Kloves, looking at what you omit, always one of the challenges you make. When Alfonso Cuarón [director of the third film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban] came onboard, one of the shifts we took was to tell the story distinctively from Harry Potter’s point of view—and things that didn’t relate to Harry were put aside because there just wasn’t enough room.

“Once we made that decision, the challenge is to find out where you cut it. I think we’ve made a really interesting choice. It’s acknowledging that actually this is one book, and there are two parts to the story, and I think it will be really exciting.  Actually, there’s almost enough material in here to make three films, but I think that would have probably tipped it over the edge. The book is a very rich canvas.”

Clearly, Heyman is keeping the melancholy at bay. “It hasn’t hit yet because it’s a 248-day schedule, and we’re on Day 67 or 68. There’s 180 to go—and then there’s a year of post—so the horizon looms much closer than ever before, but it’s not yet upon me. I suppose there’ll be mixed feelings. I’ve learned a huge amount. I continue to learn. The material continues to inspire and challenge. Being on this adventure, working on the Potters, has been the gift of all gifts.”

Thanks for the tip TLC!

David Heyman, the producer of the Potter films, recently discussed Harry Potter at a film premiere.

Producer David Heyman was on hand and talked about diversifying his film interests as the end of his Harry Potter era draws near: “This is the last Harry Potter and I want to enjoy it because it has been a unique experience and I’ll never have anything like it in my life again. This is the last journey and I really want to treasure that, so I’m not going to be running off, I want to focus on that. But the end is nigh for Potter, sometime in June 2011, and it will be a mixed feeling because security, this family, this great group I’ve worked with and this material I’ve worked on will be coming to an end. It’s a rather scary prospect of being unemployed, and having to find my next gig looms large. But I’m looking forward to having the time to spend on new projects in a way not interrupted by Potter.”