HARRY POTTER: HALF BLOOD PRINCE TRAILER
The release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (30 June 1997 by Bloomsbury in London) the first novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling controversial not only because it was banned in every public library in California upon its release. Here are some of the recent challenges/bans of Harry Potter books:
2001
Challenged in Moscow, Russia by a Slavic cultural organization that alleged the stories about magic and wizards could draw students into Satanism.
2002
A federal judge overturned restricted access to the Harry Potter book after parents of a Cedarville, Arkansas fourth-grader filed a federal lawsuit challenging the restrictions, which required students to present written permission from a parent to borrow the book. The novel was originally challenged because it characterized authority as “stupid” and portrays “good witches and good magic.”
2003
Challenged, but retained in New Haven, Connecticut schools despite claims the series “makes witchcraft and wizardry alluring to children.”
There was also the plagiarism allegations by Mary Burke, a woman who claimed that she wrote Larry Trotter and that single mom JK Rowling stole the entire idea from her. Burke wrote a story about a boy named Larry Trotter who was a magician and attended public school. Trotter used feats of magic to get his friends out of a jam. Rowling came up with Harry Potter, a wizard who attends a private boarding school and enters into a war of wizards in which he involves his friends. So who is telling the truth? I’ve always believed Marty Burke’s claim that Rowling stole her story. Burke sued and was unsuccessful in her bid.
The author of the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling, and her publishers were sued by another writer who claimed that certain plot elements and characters in Rowling’s three runaway bestsellers (which have so far sold 19 million copies) all started with her. Nancy K. Stouffer of Camp Hill, Penn., claims in her federal lawsuit that certain names and entire concepts for the Potter series were lifted from her 1984 book, “The Legend of Rah and Muggles.” “I think coincidences happen, but I still say if it looks like a duck and acts like a duck, it’s a duck,” Stouffer told the Associated Press. Among the similarities: Stouffer’s book contains a character named Larry Potter. Stouffer also wrote of “muggles” — little people who look out for two orphaned boys. In Rowling’s books, “muggles” are what the wizards call humans. Stouffer also has characters called Keepers of the Gardens; Rowling’s books have a Keeper of the Keys. A spokesman for Scholastic Press, which publishes Rowling in the U.S., calls Stouffer’s suit “meritless.”
JK Rowling sued for £500m in plagiarism lawsuit by family of late Willy The Wizard author
Then there was: JK Rowling and her publisher are being sued for £500million for allegedly copying Harry Potter from an earlier children’s book, also by an English writer.
Adrian Jacobs book Willy The Wizard – also about a child discovering he has magical powers – was published in 1987, ten years before the first in the Harry Potter series and three years before Miss Rowling says she came up with her idea.
He allegedly sent the manuscript to Christopher Little, the literary agent at Bloomsbury Publishing who went on to represent Miss Rowling, but it was rejected. Instead his book was published by a smaller company under the title The Adventures Of Willy The Wizard No 1: Livid Land.
Mr Jacobs, who lost all his money in a stock market crash in 1991, died in 1997, so did not live to see the Harry Potter books’ success. Adrian Jacobs book Willy The Wizard - also about a child discovering he has magical powers – was published in 1987, ten years before the first in the Harry Potter series and three years before Miss Rowling says she came up with her idea. He allegedly sent the manuscript to Christopher Little, the literary agent at Bloomsbury Publishing who went on to represent Miss Rowling, but it was rejected. Instead his book was published by a smaller company under the title The Adventures Of Willy The Wizard No 1: Livid Land. Mr Jacobs, who lost all his money in a stock market crash in 1991, died in 1997, so did not live to see the Harry Potter books’ success.
But his estate – which includes his son and grandson – now claims Miss Rowling’s fourth book, Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, was plagiarised.
In both books, the boy wizard competes in a magic contest. Willy the wizard and Rowlings Goblet of fire. The estate of author Adrian Jacobs alleges Miss Rowling plagiarised material from Willy The Wizard for The Goblet Of Fire. The lawsuit also notes both have the boys trying to rescue human hostages held by half-human creatures from a bathroom. Shared references to a wizard train and a wizard prison are also part of the allegations. Legal proceedings have been issued at the High Court against Bloomsbury, and the Jacobs estate also says it will file a lawsuit against Miss Rowling. The estate is also seeking an injunction to prevent further sales of Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, and damages or a share in the book’s profits. JK Rowling is estimated to have a personal fortune of £560million.
A statement from Bloomsbury (Rowlings publisher) claimed the allegations of plagiarism were ‘unfounded, unsubstantiated and untrue’. JK Rowling had never heard of Adrian Jacobs nor seen, read or heard of his book Willy the Wizard until this claim was first made in 2004 – almost seven years after the publication of the first book in the highly publicised Harry Potter series – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and after the publication of the first five books in the Harry Potter series’, the statement said. It continued: ‘Willy the Wizard is a very insubstantial booklet running to 36 pages which had very limited distribution. The central character of Willy the Wizard is not a young wizard and the book does not revolve around a wizard school.
Upon the enthusiastic response of Bryony Evans, a reader who had been asked to review the book’s first three chapters, the Fulham-based Christopher Little Literary Agents agreed to represent Rowling in her quest for a publisher. The book was submitted to twelve publishing houses, all of which rejected the manuscript.[29] A year later she was finally given the green light (and a £1500 advance) by editor Barry Cunningham from Bloomsbury, a small British publishing house in London, England later bought by Scholastic Books. Scholastic Books, a longtime publisher of educational textbooks was crossing over into the mainstream and needed a vehicle which would be wildly successful to help launch their new commercial,line of fiction. Divorced, living on public assistance in a tiny Edinburgh flat with her infant daughter, Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at a table in a cafe during her daughter’s naps. It was in Nicholson’s Cafe and the Elephant House, in Edinburgh, where as a hard-up single mother, she famously penned her first Harry Potter novel in the early 1990s. the Scottish Arts Council gave her a grant to finish the book. After its sale to Bloomsbury (UK) and Scholastic Books, the accolades began to pile up. Harry Potter won The British Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year, and the Smarties Prize, Once Scholastic was in bed with the unemployed mother Rowling and the accusations of plagiarism and book banning began what else could Scholastic do but ride it out? The excitement, anticipation, and just plain hysteria that came over the entire country after the release of Sorcerers Stone was a bit like the Beatles’ first visit to the U.S. Marshall Fields, downtown Chicago devoted their entire Xmas window display the winter of 1999 to the Sorcerer’s Stone tableau.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, along with the rest of the Harry Potter series, has been attacked by several religious groups and banned in some countries because of accusations that the novels promote witchcraft. The resulting controversy over the book, and subsequent banning in several countries may have helped Sorcerer’s Stone win most of the UK book awards that were judged by children, and other awards in the USA. The book reached the top of the New York Times list of best-selling fiction in August 1999, and stayed near the top of that list for much of 1999 and 2000. Voldemort, the most powerful evil wizard in living memory, killed Harry’s parents but mysteriously vanished after trying to kill Harry. While the wizarding world is celebrating Voldemort’s downfall, Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and Hagrid place the one year-old orphan in the care of his Muggle (non-wizard) aunt and uncle, Vernon and Petunia Dursley. For ten years, they and their son Dudley treat Harry as a drudge and whipping boy. Shortly before Harry’s eleventh birthday, a series of letters arrive, addressed to Harry who is a wizard and has been accepted at Hogwarts for the next year. he is befriended by the Weasley family and the bossy Hermione Granger, winds up in Gryfindor, becomes the youngest seeker in the Quidditch Tournament and the 7 book deal, 9-movie deal adventure begins. J.K. Rowling is now one of the most famous authors in the world, who can financially take care of her family beyond her wildest dreams. But imagine how crushed she would have been, if the plagiarism cases had been sucessful? If her publisher Scholastic decided to dump her instead of sticking with her.
The HP series has gone through a lot of evolution in the past 12 -years. Dumbledore as portrayed by the late Richard Harris in thefirst two films was passed on to actor Michael Gambon upon the death of Richard Harris. During the 9-movie deal a host of Oscar winning actors/actresses would portray many of the characters, Maggie Smith, Oscar winning British actress would play Professor McGonagall, Alan Richman, the bad guy in Die Hard would play the severe and brooding Severus Snape. Other award winning actors like Shakespearean actor/director/producer Kenneth Branagh, his Oscar winning wife Emma Thompson, Helen Bonham Carter, Miranda Richardson, Gary Oldman,
Seldom has so much acting firepower been assembled in a single film – or series of films. In addition to Smith, we’ve seen Emma Thompson (five Oscar noms and two wins), Kenneth Branagh (four Oscar noms, including one for directing), Julie Christie (four noms and one win), Julie Walters (two Oscar noms), Irishman Richard Harris (two noms), Ralph Fiennes (two noms), John Cleese (one nom), Helena Bonham Carter (one nom), and Imelda Staunton (one nom). This month’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince also introduces 2002 Oscar winner Jim Broadbent (Iris) to the cast.
Check out Maggie Smith in her Oscar-winning role as an equally influential (but much earthier) teacher in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; see also Richard Griffiths (a.k.a. Uncle Vernon) as a flawed but influential instructor in The History Boys. This has been the backbone attributing to the success of the HP films, Not to mention the younger British cast members like Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson beingable to sustain long-term careers with the classical training of their older Oscar winning costars?
Jim Broadbent, who plays Slughorn said, “Well, not every actor gets invited. I know some who are still waiting.”
Attributing as well to the success of the HP franchsise are the many directors. A lot of people are getting kudos for the success of the franchise but one man, the original director of Sorcerer’s Stone who saved the HP francshoce from certain death at the hands of the religious inquisition in America, people like King James Dobson of (Focus On The Family) quietly retreated into the background after the first two films when he should be receiving accolades left and right for giving biorth to such a successful franchise. never in the history of the movies has there been a more successful movie franchise like Harry Potter which has beaten out the Die Hard, Terminator, Spiderman, and Superman franchises.
It’s been eight years since the first “Harry Potter” film hit the big screen, and in that time the franchise has gone through half as many directors. With Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell and now David Yates putting their skills to work on bringing J.K. Rowling’s works to life, the various novels have been interpreted in a variety of ways. Yates, who is signed on to adapt the rest of the series, learned from the fan backlash and low critics’ ratings when he put together “Half-Blood Prince.” Keeping the beautiful stylistic decisions he made in “Phoenix,” “Half-Blood Prince” spends as much time on the characters’ interactions at Hogwarts as it does on the action. All while keeping fairly close to the original story. Credit the man for taking an almost 900 page book and cutting it down to an hour and a half long film. Fans may take issue with his removal of “fluff” scenes, like the beloved wizarding sport Quidditch, but “Order Of The Phoenix” was a concise and fast-moving action film as a result and my favorite HP film/book as it mirrored my upbringing in a private school very much like Hogwarts.
The last factor attributing to the colossal success of the HP franchise are the young stars themselves, Radcliff, Watson, and Grint who have grown up together making the films. much as Rowling’s characters grew up together in the seven HP books which take place at Hogwarts. They have matured in their acting skills having been mentored by Oscar winning bit players like Maggie Smith and others who are often grossly underused in the films. Emma Watson has grown into a mega-babe, photos of her on the Internet have millions of hits.
Rowling’s seven-book fantasy series about a boy wizard has smashed publishing records. Deathly Hallows, the final volume, today enters USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list at No. 1 after selling a record-setting 8.3 million copies in 24 hours last weekend in the USA. Money will never again be an issue for Rowling. She is listed as the second-richest woman in entertainment in a 2007 Forbes list, with estimated earnings of $1 billion. She’s second only to Oprah Winfrey (estimated earnings: $1.5 billion).
With the many allegations of plagiarism by Rowling and the dozens of lawsuits pending, it may be a while before the world sees another book from her. Rumors circulated that Rowling’s publisher (Scholastic) hired a ghost writer to help Rowling finish the last installment of HP, Deathly Hallows because Rowling was having writers block and was seriously behind in her publishing deadline. The readers may never know if the final book was all Rowling or mostly Scholastic Books string of ghost-writers. Rumors are circulating that Rowling is planning to apply her populist talent to create the definitive Scottish crime novel. Again, because of ongoing litigation, Rowling’s agent and publishers are being very cautious. Christopher Little, Rowling’s literary agent, refused to comment. A spokeswoman for the author cautiously said: “We do not have a definite plan of what her next project is yet.”
Whatever Rowling’s next project is, you can be sure her agent and publisher will have an army of lawyers going over every aspect of the work with a fine tooth comb for any hint of plagiarism or scandal that could lead to litigation. As for the final installment: Deathly Hallows, movie-director David Yates has decided to split the book into two final movies. His vision of the dramatic conclusion of the HP struggle with Lord Voldemort may not be Rowling’s vision. But at long last, the Harry Potter evolution is coming to a conclusion after a tumultuous 12-years.
Half-Blood Prince, no longer with children actors but full-grown adults, seems to be the best of the HP franchise yet. The faithful followers of the book will not be disappointed. As Dumbledore would say:
“To our newcomers,” said Dumbledore in a ringing voice, stretching his hands wide and a beaming smile on his lips, “welcome! To our old hands — welcome back! There is a time for speech-making, and this is not it. Tuck in!”
KH
