Imelda Staunton will be the narrator for BBC Two’s upcoming documentary, Harry Potter: A History of Magic. Other Harry Potter cast members will also be appearing in the hour-long documentary, airing this Saturday at 21:00.
The film features readings by actors from the Harry Potter films, including David Thewlis, Evanna Lynch, Warwick Davis, Miriam Margolyes and Mark Williams, while Rowling’s illustrator Jim Kay illuminates her imaginary world.
It is 20 years since JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone first cast its spell on readers across the globe. But Rowling’s fantastical creation wasn’t entirely make-believe.
In the run up to the exhibition Harry Potter: A History of Magic, JK Rowling ventures behind the scenes of the British Library, revealing the real-life counterparts to her fantastical world. From shrieking mandrakes and Elizabethan invisibility spells to the mystery of ancient Chinese oracle bones and the real life search for the Philosopher’s Stone, it is the start of a warm, playful and inventive journey round some of the most magical places in the land – from wizarding wandmakers in the English forest to the beguiling witchcraft of Boscastle, Cornwall.
A trailer for Harry Potter: A History of Magic can be watched below:
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”
Potter alums Michael Gambon and Imelda Staunton are the latest actors added to the Paddington cast. They will be playing Paddington Bear’s Uncle Pastuzo and Aunt Lucy. The film, produced by Potter’s David Heyman, also stars their Harry Potter colleagues Jim Broadbent and Julie Walters. After some recent casting changes, Colin Firth has been replaced by Ben Whishaw as the voice of Paddington.
The film will be released on November 28, 2014 and the world premiere will be held at Odeon Leicester Square on November 23.
Back in March we posted about various Harry Potter stars doodled on tambourines for Sound It Outas part of the Tamperine scheme! Sound it Out is a charity that develops and delivers music based programmes of work across a diversity of communities, ages, ethnicities and genres. They asked celebrities and artists to ‘tamper with’ our tambourines to raise funds for our charity. The tambourines are easy to hang on a wall and can be posted worldwide! 100% proceeds will go to our charity, Sound It Out Community Music. For more details about our work and further ways you can support us, please visit www.sounditout.co.uk and follow the Tamperine scheme at www.twitter.com/siotamperine.
WB has released thirteen new interviews with the cast of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Bill Nighy, Tom Felton, Helena Bonham Carter, Jason Isaacs, Ralph Fiennes, Rhys Ifans, Imelda Staunton, David Yates, David Heyman, and David Barron are interviewed. Watch them all in a playlist below:
Rogue Runner Films have emailed today with two press releases concerning Tom Felton’s new short film White Other. The film also stars another Potter alum, Imelda Staunton (Umbridge). You can watch the trailer for the film, here!
There will be a gala performance of White Other in December of 2010. The director is hopeful a feature film will follow, with shooting to begin in 2012.
In the first press release the director (Dan Hartley, formerly a crew member on the Harry Potter set) talks about filming Harry Potter and casting this new film as a director. The second talks about the short film a bit more and its website.
In creating the website for White Other, Hartley states: “the inherent problem in generating interest in short films is their length. With this website we set out to create a lot of additional content, to give the audience an opportunity to explore the greater world of White Other.” In order to achieve this Hartley worked with a freelance social media consultant and graphic designers Marmalade-on-Toast to develop a creative website that would encourage audience interactivity. This leads visitors through a series of video clips, sound files and news reports, some of which are real and some fictional. If one can follow the trail of clues they are encouraged to become Facebook friends of Felton’s character Ray Marsden, which conceals a code that will enable them to watch the film for free.
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