Warner Bros have announced today that the LEGO® Harry Potter™: Years 5-7 game will be released later this year.  It will be released for the Xbox 360®, PlayStation®3, PSP^® (PlayStation®Portable), the NGP system, the Wii™ system, the Nintendo DS™ and Nintendo 3DS™ hand-held systems and Windows PC.

“This game is a game of magic! LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 distills the drama and action of Harry Potter‘s magical world, and then gives players the chance to immerse themselves in their favorite characters and environments, where they can discover new adventures and have great fun,” said Lisbeth Valther Pallesen, Executive Vice President, LEGO CED. “TT Games has successfully combined a deep appreciation of the Harry Potter story with signature LEGO humor and superior production capabilities in another fantastic LEGO video game.”

Read the full press release here. Thanks to Mugglenet for the tip!

The International Quidditch Association is in the running to receive a $25,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project to start Quidditch programs in elementary and middle schools worldwide. If they win their program would consist of the following:

Schools apply to be part of the program. We pay for a local college or high school team to partner with them as mentors and come and teach the game to students. We also pay for the equipment so that the school has a permanent set. From there, it’s up to each school on a case-by-case basis whether they want it to be a PE Program or a fully fledged league/team. We know from our experience with working with kids with individual teams that Quidditch inspires increased participation in teams sports (that other, more traditional sports, do not always achieve), which increases physical health, confidence, happiness levels, and social development. We’re really excited to see what this program can do if we win the funding and can implement it on a larger level.

Head over to this page to vote for their idea!

The EA Play Label today announced the official kick-off of the “EA Reporters” competition, in which select fans will win a trip to EA’s UK-based Bright Light™ Studio to meet the development team behind the Harry Potter™ video games, as well as actor Tom Felton!  To enter you must create a short, original video, highlighting your love of the Harry Potter franchise and the video games, and then submit it online.”

Finalists will be selected by an EA™ internal panel, and winners (as voted by the community) will receive the once-in-a-lifetime trip to get a behind the scenes look at their favorite franchise, as well as report on the development of the upcoming game. Originality and creativity are absolutely critical to success.

Details of the competition can be found at www.harrypotter.ea.com/facebook, along with submission instructions.

Thanks to EA for emailing!

ABC Family will be having another Harry Potter weekend where they will show the first five Harry Potter films.  The weekend starts on Thursday with Sorcerer’s Stone at 7:30PM culminating in a marathon of all five films on Sunday.  The whole schedule is as follows:

Thursday, May 19
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at 7:30/6:30c

Friday, May 20
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at 3:30/2:30c
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at 7/6c

Saturday, May 21
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at 9am/8c
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at 12:30/11:30c
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at 4:30/3:30c
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at 7:30/6:30c

Sunday, May 22
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at 7am/6c
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at 10:30am/9:30c
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at 2:30/1:30c
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at 5:30/4:30c
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at 9/8c

The folks at Bloomsbury have emailed this morning telling us that they want YOUR opinion in a new poll.  They are asking fans around the world who their favorite character is, head over to this page to vote!  You can vote for characters such as Neville, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Kreacher, Sirius, Luna, Snape, Fred, George etc. Read the full press release here.

“Over the course of seven bestselling books Harry Potter has met a huge cast of incredible characters. Bloomsbury has drawn up a list of 40 of those characters which can be found on the home page of www.bloomsbury.com/harrypotter where visitors can vote. If a character is missing, then there is also the opportunity to add your favourite. The poll opens on Monday 16th May 2011 and runs until Friday 26^th August 2011. The winning character will be announced on Tuesday 30^th August 2011. The poll will be supported by regular Facebook updates.”

Update: There is a little error in the code that is causing some of the characters to be non-clickable. I’ve emailed Bloomsbury and hopefully they’ll fix it soon so you can vote properly!

In a new interview with Liverpool Echo, Matthew Lewis talks about his play Verdict, the Harry Potter series and more!  Read the full interview at the previous link or in the Matthew-Lewis.com press archive. Some snippets may be read below:

He explains: “I’m really fortunate this final film is the one that I’ve been most heavily involved with and I get to go out on quite a high. Neville gets really beaten and battered but he’s quite resilient and he refuses to back down and there’s some really really nice moments for him this year. I’m just looking forward to the tour and I’m quite excited for the future because Harry Potter has been my main focus for such a long time, so you’re a bit nervous about where you’re going in the future. But I’ve had this job on Verdict and it’s been fun, I’ve enjoyed it, and it’s given me a little bit more confidence that I can actually go out there and do more stuff.”

Thanks Matthew-Lewis.com