By Matthew

What’s to become of the fella?

The poll is there on the right side bar.

How do we read Harry Potter?  How does our culture read it?  What are the effects of celebrity culture on the experience of Story?

You can subscribe to the Hog’s Head PubCast through iTunes, or Odeo, and VOTE for The Hog’s Head for the month of August at Podcast Alley.

On Tap:

• Harry Potter Conference: Searching for Platform 9 & 3/4
• Daniel Radcliffe Naked: Who Cares?
• August Givewaway

 

 Hog's Head PubCast #58: Movies, Books, and Culture: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (197)

by Travis
I’m wondering what the marriage of celebrity culture to great literature is doing to Harry Potter.

The extent to which film has become normative in our culture is profound, especially as it relates to literature.  We all used to joke about getting the movie version in order to do book reports in school (much to the chagrin of our teachers), but the Harry Potter phenomenon has produced a situation in which, for most of Harry Potter subculture, the films and the stories are inseparable.  Just subscribe to “Harry Potter” news updates through Google or any of the major fansites, and you’ll see what I mean.

So, according to the way the name Harry Potter is used, it’s “Harry Potter News” every time one of the young Potter actors is going to be naked for an upcoming project.  So this week’s “Monday Magical Musings” presents the following questions for discussion:

• What effects, positive and/or negative, is the broader Harry Potter subculture having on the overall perception of the series?  
• Is it really “Harry Potter” news when Rupert Grint is going to be naked in a non-Potter movie?  Is it really “Harry Potter” news if Daniel Radcliffe thinks he might have to get naked for the last Harry Potter movie?  Or when Emma Watson goes to a polo match?
• Is the story and the heart of Harry Potter getting lost in the celebrity culture that has been inextricably linked to it?
• How long (or what) will it take for the series to get beyond the commercial hype and become more popular in academia than it is in pop culture?

Note:  I’m entering this post in the Problogger “Killer Title” contest.

Leaky collected links of retailers who have posted images from the Half-Blood Prince movie which appear on merchandise (like 2009 calendars).

by Travis

Do you lend people your books and never get them back?  Do you love Harry Potter?  Harry Potter can help you solve your problem.  Enter The Hog’s Head August Giveaway and receive 5 packs of Harry Potter bookplates (4 packs are 18 count, 1 pack is a 12 count).  These bookplates let you personalize your library while displaying your love of all things Potter.

If you win this month’s giveaway, you’ll get three packs of “Chinese Fireball” bookplates, 1 pack of “Chudly Cannons” bookplates, and 1 pack of “Muggedom Mysterium” bookplates.   Great gift for a kid, if you’re not into bookplates.

How do you enter?  It’s a caption contest!  Someone grabbed this shot of me speaking at Convention Alley, which means this is your chance to pick on me mercilessly.  You write a funny caption by midnight (EST) of Thursday, August 30.  The Blogengamot will vote on best caption, and best caption wins.  Good luck!

Some items for your weekend:

• Three free kids’ books - first person to ask gets ‘em.  (I had no time to write a review, and I’m doing a different giveaway.)
• HP Progs did a brilliant reaction video to the HBP delay news.
• Harry Potter is being invoked for any and every cause - including dog adoption.  
• On September 23, the all-day read-athon in NYC to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first Harry Potter book will be webcast live.
• The Hog’s Head Facebook Group is at 95 members.  If you’re on Facebook and haven’t joined it yet, join!  Let’s see if we can break the century mark by the end of the weekend.

by Dave

An article on The Leaky Cauldron has touched on a different issue concerning the Harry Potter videogames: the potential that they might keep making them after Deathly Hallows. The game industry does have a habit of running moneymaking franchises into the ground, especially if they have marketing tie-ins that reach audiences outside of hardcore gamers. And the HP games have found a home on the Wii, which Nintendo markets to the “casual” gamer (a sometimes hotly debated strategy in gaming circles).

As the article makes note, the idea is not without precedent. Electronic Arts is also responsible for developing most of the Lord of the Rings titles, both those taken directly from the films and games simply set within Middle-Earth. And HP already has one spinoff — EA made Quidditch World Cup a few years ago. [Read more →]

by Dave

So, now that the movie has been delayed, what does this mean for the videogame?  Apparently nothing.  Some footage was shown at the Lepzig Games Convention (YouTube link here) in Germany over the last couple of days, and the release date is still slated for this November.  The link is worth a look just to see the graphics engine at work…if you’re in to that kind of thing… 

Why might this be significant?  The games are licensed to the developer, Electronic Arts, via Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.  Up to this point, the games have drawn quite a bit in terms of plot and visual style from the movies.  They are certainly not one-to-one adaptations, but they have been close enough in the past that I’m a bit suprised the game has not been delayed alongside the film — especially since WB has their hands in both. 

Just a note — be on guard for potential spoilers for the film if the game stays on track for its November release.

by Travis

• New picture of Dumbledore from Half-Blood Prince.  Is it just me, or did they make his hair/beard more like the Harris/Columbus Dumbledore?  (Apart from that silly beard tie, of course, which really needs to go).
• I’ve added a few more events to the Marauder’s Map post.
• The Hog’s Head Welcome Post (for new visitors - we’ve had lots in the past couple days)
• Janet Batchler, who knows her way around Hollywood, responds in the comments at HogPro to the Half-Blood Prince movie delay (and, as usual, makes a lot of sense).

by Travis

Before settling on Harry Potter & Imagination: The Way Between Two Worlds as the title for my book, we were considering calling it Standing at Platform 9 & 3/4.  I got a pleasant surprise in my inbox this morning: the NIU Harry Potter conference, where I’ll be speaking on November 1, has been called “Searching for Platform 9 & 3/4: An Academic Harry Potter Experience.” 

This looks to be an excellent conference, taking place on the campus of Northern Illinois University and featuring a costume ball on Halloween and academic presentations the entire following day.  

Registration is open, and it’s a very affordable conference, as far as Harry Potter conferences go.  

Hope to see you there!

by Travis

Alan Horn of Warner Bros. issued a statement today in response to the many complaints about the delayed release of Half-Blood Prince:

Many of you have written to me to express your disappointment in our moving Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to Summer 2009.

Please be assured that we share your love for Harry Potter and would certainly never do anything to hurt any of the films. Over the past 10 years, we have nurtured and protected each film, and the integrity of the books upon which they are based, to the best of our ability.

The decision to move Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was not taken lightly, and was never intended to upset our Harry Potterfans. We know you have built this series into what it is, and we thank you for your ongoing enthusiasm and support.

If I may offer a silver lining: there would have been a two-year gap between Half-Blood Prince and the much-anticipated first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which opens in November 2010. So although we have to wait a little longer for Half-Blood Prince, the wait from that film until Deathly Hallows will be less than 18 months. I am sorry to have disappointed you now, but if you hold on a little longer, I believe it will be worth the wait.

Alan Horn
President, Chief Operating Officer
Warner Bros.

Thoughts?  My initial, cynical reaction: Horn says, “…although we have to wait a little longer for Half-Blood Prince, the wait from that film until Deathly Hallows will be less than 18 months.”    Right.  Unless you decide to move that film from November to the following July, too.

Update:  Just thought I’d fill you in on the experiment - the post that we buzzed made it to the top page on Yahoo! Buzz entertainment page, and it’s currently still there.  If you haven’t buzzed yet, go for it!  Maybe we can get it to the main page.

One of the blogs I regularly follow, Problogger, noted today that Yahoo! Buzz went public today.  Problogger notes that Yahoo! Buzz will probably neither be the most successful social media outlet ever, nor will it fade into obscurity.  Since I have no fresh Potter stories at the moment (not wanting to talk about naked Radcliffe like the rest of the world), I thought we’d play a little social media game tonight: All Hog’s Head fans who have any form of Yahoo! account - let’s submit a Hog’s Head story to Yahoo! Buzz tonight and see how well it works.  I’ll take this post down after the next couple hours.  

This is just an experiment.

So here’s what you have to do - it’s very simple:  Click on this link, see the story at the top (which is a story from The Hog’s Head), and click on “Buzz Up.”  That’s it!

Let’s see what happens!

by Travis

Eric D. Snider debunks the following 4 Myths about the Half-Blood Prince movie delay:

1. Half-Blood Prince was moved because WB was scared of Twilight. (That one’s just silly.)
2. It got moved because WB was nervous about Daniel Radcliffe’s extra-curricular activities. (Referring to his appeared naked in Equus)
3. WB moved Half-Blood Prince to the one-year anniversary of The Dark Knight in the hopes of duplicating that film’s success.
4. Sending a petition to Warner Bros. demanding they reverse their decision will yield any results whatsoever.

Got an email from Randy Hoyt - Harry Potter has won this year’s Mythopoeic Society Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature.  It was announced this past weekend at MythCon 39.

A well-deserved win for Potter.

by Johnny

Entertainment Weekly, who is owned by Warner Bros. parent company Time Warner, Inc., featured the face of Daniel Radcliffe in their new Fall Preview issue that hit newstands in the middle of last week. The only problem is that the film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will not be released until July 17, 2009. The decision was announced by Warner Bros. around the same time the magazine hit newstands. This is sure to be an amusing story in light of our disappointment in having to wait nearly a year for the film. Word to Entertainment Weekly: I can’t wait for the Summer Preview issue…next year!

In the meantime, check these out:

• EW’s cover story ‘Harry Potter’: There Will Be ‘Half-Blood’ is online.
• HPANA has two new hi-res photos from the EW article.