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The fifth installment of the Harry Potter series begins bleakly for Harry. There is a grim house, an even grimmer new house elf, and the unhappy knowledge that somewhere out there Lord Voldemort has returned. But despite this gloom, Harry will discover help in ihs fight against Voldemort and his followers: The Order of the Phoenix, a band of wizards dedicating to thwarting Voldemort's plans. Harry will find new friends and allies, as well as new foes, a new Defense against the Dark Arts Teacher, plus a giant surprise from an unexpected source. There will be new creatures, new establishments, new faces, and Harry's biggest confrontation to date.
The book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is the longest of the six Harry Potter novels, with 870 pages in the U.S. edition. It was eagerly greeted by fans who had to wait several years after the publication of Goblet of Fire. Millions of copied sold at initial release on July 21, 2003. In England alone, the sales of the book shattered all previously held records, selling some 1,679,753 copies, or as The Scotsman noted, "one copy for every 35 people in these islands." In the US, 5 million sold in the first 24 hours alone. The book features a much angrier Harry than before, in addition to perhaps the most devious of all of Defense Against the Dark Arts professors. It was however, the end of the novel that generated the most reactions from Potter fans world wide. With the end-of-story revelations and the death of a beloved character, the impact and urgency of the novels grew more apparent.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released in paperback on July 10th in the United Kingdom, and on August 10th in the USA. It was nominated for British Book of the Year in 2003 and recognized by the WH Smith People's Choice Book Awards, Fiction category, in 2003. The film adaptation of OotP begins in production in early 2006, and will be released into theaters world wide in 2007
(with thanks to www.the-leaky-cauldron.org)
Rowling says she has never been tempted to kill Harry before now
Author JK Rowling has said two characters will die in the seventh and final Harry Potter book, but she has been careful not to reveal which ones.
She told the Richard and Judy show that she had long known how the series would end, because she had written the last chapter "in something like 1990".
"One character got a reprieve, but I have to say two die that I didn't intend to die," she said.
She refused to elaborate, as "I don't want the hate mail or anything else".
Rowling said she could understand why authors might want to finish off their main characters in order to ensure they could never be resurrected.
She would not say if this would be the case with Harry.
However, she admitted she had "never been tempted to kill him off before the final because I've always planned seven books, and I want to finish on seven books".
'Arrogant'
This approach had meant she had been "lambasted" by several people, she said."I think they thought it was very arrogant of me to write the end of my seven books series when I didn't have a publisher and no-one had heard of me."The author also told the Channel 4 programme she didn't expect to create a character more successful than the teenage wizard."I don't think I'm ever going to have anything like Harry again. You just get one like Harry."
On Sunday, Rowling attended the Queen's 80th birthday party at Buckingham Palace, and said she was "doing well" with the final book.However, she did not confirm a publication date.
(bbc.co.uk)
Warner Bros. announced on November 19, 2005 that David Yates would helm the fifth film in the hugely successful Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Yates was involved extensively in television dramas for the BBC prior to his work on Phoenix, but he had never directed a motion picture before. A month after his hiring, Yates said, "I was really thrilled, and excited by the prospect. It's the kind of scale of film I've wanted to make since I was 14....I’m really looking forward to it, and am working my way through all of the books, and starting to get a bit addicted to the world which is fantastic and wonderfully realised." Producer David Heyman was similarly excited: "I am thrilled that David Yates is going to direct 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.' Not only does he have tremendous passion for the world of Harry Potter, but he is a great director with a keen visual sense who fills every frame with humanity and compassion for his characters."
From December 2003 to November 2004, a number of rumors about the director for HP5 made their way around the Internet; more information on each one can be found at the "Search for a Director" page. Less than a week later, Michael Goldenberg signed on as the scriptwriter for the movie, making Phoenix the first in the Harry Potter series to be written by someone other than Steve Kloves.
Pre-production on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix began on February 19, 2005, but actual filming did not begin until Monday, February 6, 2006, two and a half months after Goblet of Fire was released in cinemas worldwide and almost an entire year after filming on the fourth movie wrapped.
By May 2005, Yates had spent a considerable amount of time planning the movie out, and he revealed in an interview with The Independent that he was hoping to shoot a sequence in the movie on the Thames River. He then said a month later that he had "been in a whirl of meetings" with Warner Bros. executives about the film and was "having a fantastic time just as we're starting out." Around the same time, Producer David Heyman said that he was considering filming parts of Order of the Phoenix outside the UK: "We are exploring all options to determine the best place in the world to make the film. We are looking at the UK and other places all over the world."
On May 4, 2005, Daniel Radcliffe said in an interview with USA Today that he would reprise his role as Harry Potter in the movie. Confirmations from Ralph Fiennes, Rupert Grint, and Julie Walters came in later months.
From September to December 2005, Warner Bros. casting directors scoured English schools, looking for a girl to play Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. They also accepted mailed-in resumes during that time period, but said that they would not hold an open casting call for Luna, as they did with Cho Chang and the Patil twins for Goblet of Fire. However, the casting directors' search did not produce the results they had hoped for, so they backed off their earlier statement and held an open casting call in London on January 14, 2006. The turnout trumped all expectations, with 15,000 girls queuing for hours upon hours in the cold weather on that Saturday. Less than three weeks after the open call, WB announced that 14 year-old Evanna Lynch had been cast as Luna.
Warner Bros. also announced the addition of four other new cast members - Natalia Tena as Nymphadora Tonks, Imelda Staunton as Professor Umbridge, Helen McCrory as Bellatrix Lestrange, and Kathryn Hunter as Mrs. Figg. - on the same day. |
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