This morning Warner Bros. have emailed a few photos from the unavailing of “Hogwarts in the Snow” at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter.  Visitors can enjoy the magical festive feature at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London from Friday 15th of November. Also inside the Tour, visitors can explore stunning original sets including the iconic Great Hall, the Gryffindor common room and the Weasley kitchen from The Burrow – all of which have been dressed especially for Christmas using festive props from the Harry Potter series. See the photos of a snow-covered Hogwarts Castle in our gallery and read the press release below:

Today, Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter unveils the most magical snowfall of the season, the breathtaking Hogwarts castle model covered in a blanket of snow.  From Friday 15^th November 2013, visitors will get the chance to see the castle as it has never been seen before, with its iconic festive look recreated for the first time.

The artificial snow used on the Hogwarts castle model throughout the Harry Potter film series was actually dendritic salt. It was chosen because it clumps like snow and even squeaks when walked on.  During filming, a member of the crew would have climbed aboard a cherry picker and put salt on the model by hand with a sieve – like dusting sugar onto a cake.  The same process has been used at the Studio Tour this November and samples of the different types of salt used will also be on display.

Model Effects Supervisor, Jose Granell commented: “It’s great to be back at the Studio Tour and to be snowing the Hogwarts model.  We’ve spent a week sprinkling the snow on by hand and the finished effect is really beautiful.  It looks exactly like it did when we were filming the Harry Potter film series and it’s something very magical to enjoy this Christmas.”

Some of the intricately-detailed sets showcased at the attraction have been given a festive makeover using the actual decorations and food props seen in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.  Eight Christmas trees will line the Great Hall, along with festoons of holly, mistletoe and golden wreaths.  Two long dining tables will be dressed as they were for seasonal feasts with prop versions of turkeys, hams, fruit, vegetables, plum puddings and snow cakes.  The food featured in the feasts throughout the early films was real; however, the Set Decoration Department later used artificial food created from powder and resin.

Visitors will see the hand-knitted jumpers that Molly Weasley gave Ron and Harry for Christmas in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.  Other costumes on display will include the first Christmas present Harry received at Hogwarts – his Invisibility Cloak – and the dress Luna Lovegood wore to the Slug Club Christmas party in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Hogwarts in the Snow will run from Friday 15^th November to Monday 6^th January and all extra activities are included in the ticket price.

Additionally, WB sent over a ton of facts about the holiday themed tour:

Hogwarts castle model

• This is the first time that the breathtaking Hogwarts castle model has been covered in a blanket of snow, since the filming of the Harry Potter series, which took place here at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden
• The Hogwarts castle model is the jewel in the crown of the art department; the intricately-detailed model was constructed for the first film Harry Potter and the

Philosopher’s Stone

• The film scripts required sweeping shots of the stunning castle, so to create those the films’ artists built this 1:24 scale model based on Production Designer Stuart Craig’s initial sketches and filmed it against a green screen
• It took seven months and a team of 40 to build it from scratch
• The detail is exceptional. Even the smallest things are three-dimensional – like miniature owls, tiny door hinges and little torches small enough to fit on the head of a pin
• It would have taken one person 74 years to build the breathtaking model

Artificial Snow

• The artificial snow used on the Hogwarts castle model throughout the Harry Potter film series was actually dendritic salt
• Dendritic salt is made up of star-shaped crystals that allow it to fall and lie like snow. It’s so convincing, it even squeaks like freshly fallen snow if you step on a new layer of it!
• To create the authentic snowed look, a member of the crew would have to climb aboard a cherry picker and put salt on the model by hand with a sieve – like dusting sugar onto a cake
• It took roughly a week to cover the 1:24 scale model of Hogwarts during filming, although the Studio Tour has done it in three days for the Hogwarts in the Snow feature

Great Hall dressing:

• Some of the other intricately-detailed sets showcased at the attraction have also been given a festive makeover, using the actual decorations and food props seen in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
• Eight Christmas trees line the Great Hall, along with festoons of holly, mistletoe and golden wreaths. In the film, these decorations are levitated onto the trees by Professor Flitwick, played by Warwick Davis
• Two long dining tables have been dressed as they were for seasonal feasts with prop versions of turkeys, hams, fruit, vegetables, plum puddings and snow cakes. The food featured in the feasts throughout the early films was real; however, the Set Decoration Department later used artificial food created from powder and resin, as seen here

Elsewhere throughout the Tour

• The Gryffindor common room, boys’ dormitory and Weasley kitchen have also undergone a seasonal transformation
• Visitors can see the hand-knitted jumpers that Molly Weasley gave Ron and Harry for Christmas in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
• Other costumes on display will include the first Christmas present Harry received at Hogwarts – his Invisibility Cloak – and the dress Luna Lovegood wore to the Slug Club Christmas party in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Evanna Lynch, who played Luna, created the jewellery she wore with the costume and many of the other accessories she wore while filming
• On Diagon Alley, visitors can also discover secrets behind the footprints in the snow, which were filmed for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and appear when Harry sneaks into Hogsmeade under his Invisibility Cloak

In a new interview with The Seattle Times, Daniel Radcliffe discusses his recently released film, Kill Your Darlings as well as some of his upcoming roles. Some snippets may be read below.

He came to Toronto with three varied films: the romantic comedy “The F Word,” the horror fantasy “Horns,” and the drama “Kill Your Darlings,” in which Radcliffe plays the young Allen Ginsberg. “I’m really proud that they’re all so different — they show such different sides of what I can do,” he said.

“We [director John Krokidas of Kill Your Darlings] worked on accent stuff, physicality, his backstory and his life in general. John also taught me things I’d never been taught before, like how to break down a script. I think everyone else just assumed that I knew how to do that! He gave me a way of working that I’ve never had before, so I’m very grateful.”Radcliffe arrived in Toronto fresh from a busy working summer, performing in the play “The Cripple of Inishmaan” by night and filming the second season of the TV miniseries “A Young Doctor’s Notebook” by day. The show, which aired in the U.S. last month on the Ovation channel, is set in 1917 in a hospital in Russia, with Radcliffe and Jon Hamm playing the same doctor at different ages. “There’s nothing else like it on television. It’s very gory, and very funny,” said Radcliffe, who acknowledges that the casting may raise a few eyebrows. “It’s not obvious, but when you see us next to each other it kind of works.”

Next up: playing Igor in Paul McGuigan’s “Frankenstein” opposite James McAvoy later this year (he’s “pleasantly nervous” about working with McAvoy, an actor Radcliffe has long admired). He’d love to do another musical someday — “a fantastically fun thing to do; it’s the only job I’m not doing anymore that I still miss” — and more stage work, and is in talks for several film projects that can’t yet be named. It’s a busy schedule for a young actor excited about the possibilities of his craft, far beyond Hogwarts.

“I want to prove to people that I’m an actor and not just a character,” he said. “I think I’m starting on my way to doing that.”

Rupert Grint was recently a guest on The Andrew Marr show and the episode is now available for viewing on BBC’s website. Thanks to Rupert-Grint.us you can watch Rupert’s segment below. In the interview he talks about his new stage play, Mojo and what it’s like being on stage.

Rupert Grint on the Andrew Marr Show. by RupertGrintMedia

Bonnie Wright’s short film, Separate We Come, Separate We Go, is now available for viewing on Vimeo. The 12 minute film is Bonnie’s directorial debut and was created as part of London’s University of the Arts Graduate Film project.  David Thewlis, known to Potter fans as Remus Lupin, stars in the film. A synopsis of the film is as follows:

Separate We Come, Separate We Go is a story of a 10-year old girl who lives with her single mother in a bleak town called Lydd, East Sussex. After another of her mother’s episodes, she decides to walk to the coast near her home. We follow this journey to Dungeness, where she meets an eccentric man. He becomes the friend she never had; they talk about life and spontaneity.

Last night J.K. Rowling held a fundraising event for her charity, Lumos, at the Harry Potter Studio Tour where a bunch of Harry Potter cast and crew attended. Emma Watson, Evanna Lynch, Warwick Davis, Alan Rickman and David Heyman all showed their support for the author.  Photos of the stars at the event may be viewed over at SnithSeeker.  Sky News interviewed Rowling at the event where she discussed the charity as well as the success of Harry Potter.

“As far back as 2000 I knew I would never top Harry Potter. I knew that before the series ended. If you’ve had the kind of success that you never expected you can think ‘oh no, how dreadful I’ll never ever top that’, or you can say ‘how incredibly marvellous and liberating that I made money beyond my wildest dreams and that I can affect issues I really care about’.”

Of the charity’s mission, which states “No child should be denied a family life because they are poor, disabled or from an ethnic minority. Lumos works to support the 8 million children in institutions worldwide to regain their right to a family life and to end the institutionalisation of children,” Rowling says:

“There are eight million children globally being raised in institutions and everything we know about institutionalisation tells us it is harmful to children’s physical and mental health. Drug taking and suicide are more likely and a lot of these children may be trafficked or end up in the sex trade. To take a child from their family we know must be damaging, it’s the worst thing you can do to a child.”

She added: “These themes are in the Harry Potter books. Voldemort […] was himself raised in an institution so, spookily, it was something I was very much thinking about. But we’ve started where the situation is particularly acute in Eastern Europe where there has been a cultural acceptance of institutionalisation that thankfully in the UK we’ve really overcome.”

A new trailer for Rupert Grint’s film Charlie Countryman has been released online and may be watched below. The film will be released in the US on November 15 and also stars Shia LaBeouf and Evan Rachel Wood. The trailer below contains foul language, violence, and strong adult themes so parents should use caution.

Thanks to SnitchSeeker for the tip.

A slightly less inappropriate trailer may be watched below: