When writing the first volume of The Adventures of a Young Wizard, J.K. Rowling certainly didn’t think “The Boy Who Survived” would become a pop culture legend first in the book and then on the big screen.
It’s hard to believe that November 4th marks 20 years since the world premiere of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.” The presented work of JK Rowling began the great adventure of Harry Potter, which many young viewers wanted to follow, secretly believing that they would receive a letter from Albus Dumbledore, who would invite him to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
While writing the first volume of The Adventures of a Young Wizard (rewriting words from coffee shop notes into an old typewriter at the time), Rowling certainly didn’t envision that “The Boy Who Survived” would become a pop-culture legend first in a book and then on the big screen. “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” shortly after its premiere took second place in the list of the highest-grossing films in cinema history, second only to James Cameron’s “Titanic”. To date, it has generated worldwide revenues of close to $1 billion.
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Who will play in “Harry Potter”?
The role of the writer in the production of the first part of The Adventures of Potter was significant. When it sold the rights to the show to Warner Bros. In 1999, she insisted that the cast be “British only” to preserve the cultural integrity of the two works. Directing was entrusted to Chris Columbus, known from the family series of films about Kevin (“Kevin is lonely”, “Kevin is alone in New York”), despite the choice of such celebrities as Steven Spielberg, Jonathan Deem and Terry Gilliam.
Turns out the first role (by the writer herself) is Hogwarts game guard Rubeus Hagrid; He was played by comedian Robbie Coltrane, who is a big fan of Rowling’s book. The author’s next choices are excellent Alan Rickman as Professor. Snape and Maggie Smith as Professor. McGonagall. J.K. Rowling was offered the role of Harry Potter’s mother, but she declined.
The most difficult thing was choosing the three main characters. The role of Hermione Granger from an early age was involved in the school plays of Emma Watson, whose name was given to the agents by an acting teacher from Oxford. The red-haired Ron plays Rupert Grint, auditioned thanks to the original video: he recorded his motivation for the role. Daniel Radcliffe (future Harry Potter) was not involved in the casting process. The director and screenwriter accidentally met his father Alan in the theater, where he met his wife and son. Despite the reluctance of their parents (they were afraid of media attention), the creators were able to immediately meet the young actor who made a huge impression on them.
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A world of magic and magic on your screen
Rowling, who worked with the creators on casting, scriptwriting, and set design selection, created a map of the magical world to make it easy to find the right places to shoot. The whole thing was permeating the character of the book that was published three years ago.
Filming for the film began on October 2, 2000 and continued until July of the following year. Despite initial protests from local residents, Alnwick Castle and Gloucester Cathedral remained the main headquarters of the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The shooting was also carried out in another cathedral – Durham, and in many British schools, including. Oxford Divinity School or Harrow School. The famous “Great Hall” of Hogwarts was actually located in the majestic Christ Church College in Oxford.
The most famous place of work for people from outside the UK was certainly the main railway station in London – King’s Cross, where scenes with platform 9 and ¾ of the invisible “Muggles” were filmed. For the purposes of the film, some venues were created in the studio. This includes Harry’s dungeon down the stairs, the Dursleys’ lair, the Leaky Cauldron, the Olivander store, or Hagrid’s cottage, which was located in Black Park in Buckinghamshire.
Stuart Craig’s stage design and costume design by Giudiani Makovsky earned two Academy Award nominations in 2001. The third is John Williams’ excellent music, reflecting the magical and mysterious atmosphere of the film. Today, the 90-year-old composer is one of the record-holders for the Oscars in this field – he has 52 nominations and five figurines.
There are also some interesting things related to the “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” production plan. For example, for six months, owls were specially trained to bring letters home to the Dursleys in one of the film’s first scenes. There is another rumor that Emma Watson was in the character of Hermione Granger so much that in one of the lesson scenes she actually made notes on the manuscripts.
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Be like Harry Potter
Almost everyone has seen the first Harry Potter movie. The remaining parts, filmed until 2011, served only to deepen the fascination with the universe that Rowling invented. After the great success of both mods, computer and console games were created, which were also very popular.
In 2001, the first set of Lego bricks with Harry Potter also appeared. In turn, a year after completing the last movie in the series, Warner Bros. He created a theme park called “Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter” which, according to TripAdvisor, has been the world’s highest-grossing attraction since the tour opened. In addition, on the initiative of the writer herself, the constantly developing site pottermore.com was created, where everyone can interactively explore the wizarding world. Young lovers can also feel the atmosphere of magic “in real life”, in Polish castles and palaces, go to summer camps or winter camps with the company Quatronum, which organizes such excursions under the name “School of Wizards”.
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never ending story
Beyond the vast and wonderful world of fantasy, Harry Potter carries an equally great message. The title character, which many of us can (and still can) get to know, has become a friend, with courage and the ability to make difficult decisions, he has proven more than once that what matters in life are primarily values such as love and friendship, and that they are able to overcome evil.
Today, the next generation is being bred in Rowling’s world. This is due to the new Fantastic Beasts series of films about witches before Harry appeared. In the third part, the series, which was launched in 2016, will reveal the secrets of Hogwarts director Albus Dumbledore. The film is scheduled to appear next spring.
It appears that the film’s potential for the Harry Potter story has been fully exploited. However, it turns out that we’ll most likely see the series, too. In January of this year, The Hollywood Reporter announced that preliminary talks about the series are underway Live action or direct event About the adventures of Potter on the new HBO Max platform. The wizarding world continues to expand. Who knows where it will lead us this time.
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