Today we have some very exciting news about Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter.

We can finally reveal the secret that so many of you have been waiting for. Our Grand Opening event is taking place on the afternoon of Saturday 31st March 2012.

You could be one of the lucky winners to watch the red carpet arrivals from a special viewing area in front of Warner Bros. Studio Tour London.  To enter, visit www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/grandopening

The Harry Potter cast and crew have been invited but none are confirmed at the moment. Magical-Menagerie will be at the event bringing you all the latest!

The competition runs until March 16th and the prize is one (1) pair, out of a possible 250 (two hundred and fifty) pairs, of tickets, for a place at the red carpet for the Grand Opening of Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter. The competition is only open to UK residents who are aged 13 years or over. Any prize winner aged 13 to 17 must bring a parent or legal guardian as their guest. Some more information on the contest is as follows.

Simply follow the link below to ShowFilmFirst for your chance to win a spot next to the red carpet and watch cast, filmmakers and celebrities arrive for the event.  Remember, access to this special viewing area will be strictly by ticket only and will not be accessible to the general public.

For those who don’t get a ticket there is still a chance to be part of the fun. We will be broadcasting the event live on our website so you can watch all the action as it happens.

Don’t forget this is a competition to win a place outside on the red carpet and these spots are strictly by ticket only.

Various Harry Potter stars have doodled on tambourines for Sound It Out! It is a charity that “develop and delivers music based programmes of work across a diversity of communities, ages, ethnicities and genres. Sound It Out works in four key sectors – Wellbeing, Children and Young People, Cohesion and Professional Development, with a focus on working with marginalised individuals and communities.”

They asked stars to tamper with our tambourines to create a tamperine and a few Potter stars participated

Robbie Coltrane
James Phelps
Emma Thompson
Stephen Fry

Their twitter account is @siotamperine. The tambourines will be auctioned on eBay between 16-27th May and exhibited in Birmingham.

Thanks to Sound it Out for emailing!

The Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter Youtube account has released a time-lapse video of the Great Hall being moved to its new location for the Warner Bros. Studio Tour, opening on March 31st!

It’s official! The Pottermore Insider blog has revealed that the highly anticipated website will be opening to the public in April!

We know that the extended wait for those wishing to be part of Pottermore has been frustrating, and we’d like to thank you all for your patience so far. Many of you are interested to know why we extended the original opening date beyond October of last year.

We always knew Pottermore would be incredibly popular, which is why we made the decision to only open to one million Beta users to begin with. We wanted to make sure that we had a really good understanding of how people want to use the site and which bits we’d need to modify before giving more people access.

We gathered some incredibly useful feedback from our Beta users, and it became clear that our original platform wouldn’t be suitable when millions more users came on to the site. So we made a big decision: to move Pottermore to an entirely different platform set up. This ‘invisible’ change has involved a lot of work behind the scenes but it will enable our users to get the best from Pottermore as it grows and develops.

There have definitely been some challenges and the whole Pottermore team has been working really hard to incorporate all the Beta activity and feedback. This means that over the coming weeks and months we’ll be adding exclusive content and many more exciting features (such as sounds) to Pottermore for you to explore, share and discover.

So get ready to join the Pottermore journey – the wait is nearly over.

Wizards, Muggles, critics, Harry Potter fans and audiences of all ages have been charmed by Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience – A Parody by Dan and Jeff. With record-breaking ticket sales, Starvox Entertainment and Potted Productions have announced a final extension of the production, which will now run until Sunday, April 8 (Easter Sunday).

“We have never been part of a show that has had such universal acclaim and enjoyment from audiences of all ages,” said producer Corey Ross. “We could not be more pleased to bring such incredible talent to Toronto and share their magic.” The show has had an overwhelmingly positive critical response, including a four-star review from Richard Ouzounian, theatre critic for the Toronto Star. “Even if you don’t know your wand from a hole in the ground, I guarantee you’ll go positively potty over Potted Potter,” said Ouzounian.

Audiences of all ages have also been enthusiastically raving about the show, some of whom have come back two or three times. Children, especially, have loved the fun and accessible Potter-themed humour. The enthusiasm for the show has been palpable for the stars, Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner as well.

“We’ve been delighted to make our North American premiere in Toronto, and the response from Ontario audiences has been simply amazing,” said Clarkson and Turner. “We thought that our time here was going to be over soon, so it’s great that we are extending until Easter and will have some more time to enjoy Canada and the great Panasonic Theatre audiences!”

Potted Potter was originally booked for a two-week run at the Panasonic Theatre. Due to incredible public response and strong ticket sales, a first extension was announced in December and a second extension in February, for a total nine-week Canadian run.

Don’t miss this last chance to see Potted Potter on stage in Toronto. Tickets are still available for many shows, including special matinee performances during March break. The producers and cast have also created a special “buy three, get one free” offer as a thank-you to the incredibly supportive audience. Theatre-goers can use the code “FAM4” when purchasing tickets to redeem the offer. For tickets and a full schedule, please visit the Mirvish website.

Venue: Panasonic Theatre, 651 Yonge St., Toronto
Dates: Tuesday, February 14 to Sunday, April 8
Prices: $29.95 to $99.75

Tickets are available for purchase now at Mirvish.com and 1.800.461.3333.

Website: www.pottedpotter.com
Twitter: @PottedPotter, #PottedPotterTO
Facebook: Potted Potter

Rupert Grint, Julie Walters and Stephen Fry are featured in a campaign to promote VisitEngland 2012 Holidays at Home, whcih urges British folks to stay home for the holidays and enjoy all that the UK has to offer.

The video description is as follows: “Why go abroad in 2012? In this TV ad, Stephen Fry, Rupert Grint, Michelle Dockery and Julie Walters demonstrate great places to visit in the UK this year.”

You can also see a behind the scenes video here: