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7 Biggest Revelations We Learned From the ‘Harry Potter’ Reunion Special

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7 Biggest Revelations We Learned From the ‘Harry Potter’ Reunion Special

The first film of the Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. To kick off 2022 in a truly magical way, the cast and crew of the eight treasured films reunited for the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special which premiered on HBO Max on New Year’s Day. Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) joined many others from the beloved cast and crew to reminisce about the 10 years that changed not only their lives but the lives of millions, both young and old, who stood in long lines for those magical midnight releases and are now passing the films and the books on to younger generations.

As Watson shares in the special, “There’s something about Harry Potter that makes life richer, like when things get really dark and times are really hard, stories give us places we can go, where we can rest, feel held.” Here are some of the biggest takeaways we learned as the cast and crew shared their most memorable behind-the-scenes stories in this spectacularly nostalgic special.

RELATED: ‘Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts’ Releases First Image of the Trio

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Casting the Lead Role of Harry Potter Was Extremely Difficult

According to Christopher Columbus, the director of the first two films, “the search for Harry Potter was insane.” In a pre-recorded clip from 2019 used in the special, author J.K. Rowling said, “We couldn’t find Harry. We just couldn’t find Harry and it was getting kind of weird and panicky.”

After months of searching with no success, Columbus saw a young Radcliffe in the 1999 BBC version of David Copperfield. “Immediately, a lightbulb went off in my head,” Columbus says in the special, “and I said, ‘This is Harry Potter. This is the kid we’ve been looking for for months.’” David Heyman, the producer of the eight Potter films, then approached Radcliffe’s parents and convinced them to bring Radcliffe in for an audition, and the rest, of course, was history.

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Many Cast Members Were Fans of the Books Before Joining the Movies

The first three books, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, were published before filming began for the first movie. During the special, many of the cast members recall the impact the books had on their lives before they joined the film franchise.

Watson remembers reading the first book with her family when she was eight years old. She says, “My dad used to do all the voices, and my brother and I just became obsessed. We would just beg him to keep going.”

Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), laughing, recalls going to a friend’s house for a sleepover where, for the entire time, they both sat in silence reading the first two books. He says, “And that was it, really. I never looked back.” Likewise, Alfred Enoch (Dean Thomas) remembers Chamber of Secrets being the first book he “genuinely stayed up at night reading.”

harry-potter-20th-anniversary-return-to-hogwarts-reunion-special-helena-bonham-carter-daniel-radcliffe The Younger Cast Members Didn’t Initially Realize They Were Working With A-List Actors

The younger cast fondly recalls during the special how on the set of the first two films, Columbus allowed them to first and foremost be kids. That, of course, presented its challenges. Columbus says, “They’d say a line, and then they’d smile at the camera. They were just so happy to be in a Harry Potter film that they couldn’t contain their excitement long enough to focus on an entire scene.” He adds, “I don’t think any of the kids had the capability of understanding the gravity of who they were dealing with at the time … The British royalty of the acting world.”

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While talking with Enoch and Lewis, Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) says, “What’s funny . . . is being surrounded by the cream of the British acting industry and not having a clue who anyone is.” He adds, laughing, “I thought Richard Harris worked here as like – as a tour guide for a while.”

Gary Oldman (Sirius Black) was the first person Radcliffe remembers being completely starstruck by. Watson, while sitting down with Radcliffe and Grint, says she remembers Radcliffe giving her the “Gary chat.” She tells Radcliffe, “You were like, ‘Listen Emma. You need to be cool. It’s Gary Oldman. It’s a big deal.’”

harry-potter-deathly-hallows-alan-rickman Alan Rickman Was the Only One Who Knew His Character’s Arc Before the Books Were Released

When Radcliffe sat down with Oldman, Radcliffe told him that Alan Rickman (who sadly passed away in 2016), was the only one with the “inside line.” Rickman approached Rowling early on and said that as Professor Severus Snape, he felt like he needed to know what was going to happen to his character. Everyone else on set — Radcliffe, Grint, and Watson included — found out what happened as each book was released.

Radcliffe adds, “And he never told Chris [Columbus], he never told anyone. Chris would literally say to him, ‘why are you doing that like that?’ He was like, ‘I’ll tell you later.’”

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harry-potter-reunion-special-emma-watson-daniel-radcliffe Emma Watson Considered Leaving the Franchise After the First Four Films

The pressures of fame “finally hit home in a big way” for Watson and she considered quitting Harry Potter before the fifth film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Watson recalls finding an old diary entry and says in the special, “I could see that, at times, I was lonely.”

Felton reflects that while her male counterparts had each other, “Emma was not only younger, but she was by herself. . . People definitely forget what she took on, and how gracefully she did it.”

Grint recalls that he “had similar feelings to Emma, contemplating what life would be like if I called it a day.” He says, “But we never really spoke about it. It just didn’t really occur to us that we were all having similar feelings.” Radcliffe adds, “We never talked about it on the film, because we were all just kids. As a 14-year-old boy, I was never going to turn around to another 14-year-old and be like, ‘Hey, how are you doing? Is everything okay?’”

In the end, however, Watson says, “No one had to convince me to see it through. The fans genuinely wanted you to succeed and we all genuinely have each other’s backs. How great is that?”

harry-potter-reunion-emma-watson-tom-felton Emma Watson and Tom Felton Had a Special Bond Over the Course of Filming That Continues to This Day

Watson shared that she had a major crush on Felton on the set of the films. She describes the moment where she “fell in love with him”: “I walked into the room where we were having tutoring. The assignment that had been given was to draw what you thought God looked like, and Tom had drawn a girl with a backward cap on a skateboard. And I just don’t know how to say it — I just fell in love with him!”

She continues, “I used to come in every day and look for his number on the call sheet — it was number seven — and if his name was on the call sheet, it was an extra exciting day.” Sadly for a young Watson, Felton, three years older, always viewed her as a little sister.

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Although they never were together romantically, Watson and Felton just clicked. “The truth of it was Tom was the one I could often be more vulnerable with,” Watson says. “Nothing has ever, ever, ever happened romantically with us. We just love each other. That’s all I can say about that.”

harry-potter-ron-hermione-kiss The Long-Awaited Kiss Between Ron and Hermione Was a Nightmare to Shoot

The build-up to the hugely anticipated kiss between Ron and Hermione in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II put an enormous amount of pressure on Grint and Watson, both of whom grew to view each other as siblings over the course of filming the eight movies. “Kissing Rupert is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do,” Watson says. “It just felt wrong, so wrong on every level.”

Grint and Watson couldn’t stop laughing during the filming, so eventually, Watson took initiative. Grint, laughing, says to Watson, “I kind of think I blacked out. I just remember your face getting closer and closer.” To make matters even worse, Radcliffe recalls being “an absolute dick” and telling them, “‘I’m gonna come on set and watch you guys kiss!”

The Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special and the entire Harry Potter film collection are now available for streaming on HBO Max.

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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

Hitting the three-quarter-century mark usually means a retirement home, a nursing facility, or if you’re lucky to be blessed with relatively good health and savings to match, living in a gated community in Arizona or Florida.

For Sylvester Stallone, however, it means something else entirely: starring in the first superhero-centered film of his decades-long career in the much-delayed Samaritan. Unfortunately for Stallone and the audience on the other side of the screen, the derivative, turgid, forgettable results won’t get mentioned in a career retrospective, let alone among the ever-expanding list of must-see entries in a genre already well past its peak.

For Stallone, however, it’s better late than never when it involves the superhero genre. Maybe in getting a taste of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) with his walk-on role in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel several years ago, Stallone thought anything Marvel can do, I can do even better (or just as good in the nebulous definition of the word).

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The property Stallone and his team found for him, Samaritan, a little-known graphic novel released by a small, almost negligible, publisher, certainly takes advantage of Stallone’s brute-force physicality and his often underrated talent for near-monosyllabic brooding (e.g., the Rambo series), but too often gives him to little do or say as the lone super-powered survivor, the so-called “Samaritan” of the title, of a lifelong rivalry with his brother, “Nemesis.” Two brothers entered a fire-ravaged building and while both were presumed dead, one brother did survive (Stallone’s Joe Smith, a garbageman by day, an appliance repairman by night).

In the Granite City of screenwriter Bragi F. Schut (Escape Room, Season of the Witch), the United States, and presumably the rest of the world, teeters on economic and political collapse, with a recession spiraling into a depression, steady gigs difficult, if not impossible, to obtain, and the city’s neighborhoods rocked by crime and violence. No one’s safe, not even 13-year-old Sam (Javon Walker), Joe’s neighbor.

When he’s not dodging bullies connected to a gang, he’s falling under the undue influence of Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk), a low-rent gang leader with an outsized ego and the conviction that he and only he can take on Nemesis’s mantle and along with that mantle, a hammer “forged in hate,” to orchestrate a Bane-like plan to plunge the city into chaos and become a wealthy power-broker in the process.

Schut’s woefully underwritten script takes a clumsy, haphazard approach to world-building, relying on a two-minute animated sequence to open Samaritan while a naive, worshipful Sam narrates Samaritan and Nemesis’s supposedly tragic, Cain and Abel-inspired backstory. Schut and director Julius Avery (Overlord) clumsily attempt to contrast Sam’s childish belief in messiah-like, superheroic saviors stepping in to save humanity from itself and its own worst excesses, but following that path leads to authoritarianism and fascism (ideas better, more thoroughly explored in Watchmen and The Boys).

While Sam continues to think otherwise, Stallone’s superhero, 25 years past his last, fatal encounter with his presumably deceased brother, obviously believes superheroes are the problem and not the solution (a somewhat reasonable position), but as Samaritan tracks Joe and Sam’s friendship, Sam giving Joe the son he never had, Joe giving Sam the father he lost to street violence well before the film’s opening scene, it gets closer and closer to embracing, if not outright endorsing Sam’s power fantasies, right through a literally and figuratively explosive ending. Might, as always, wins regardless of how righteous or justified the underlying action.

It’s what superhero audiences want, apparently, and what Samaritan uncritically delivers via a woefully under-rendered finale involving not just unconvincing CGI fire effects, but a videogame cut-scene quality Stallone in a late-film flashback sequence that’s meant to be subversively revelatory, but will instead lead to unintentional laughter for anyone who’s managed to sit the entirety of Samaritan’s one-hour and 40-minute running time.

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Samaritan is now streaming worldwide on Prime Video.

Samaritan

Cast
  • Sylvester Stallone
  • Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton
  • Pilou Asbæk

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Matt Shakman Is In Talks To Direct ‘Fantastic Four’

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According to a new report, Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct the upcoming MCU project, Fantastic Four. Marvel Studios has been very hush-hush regarding Fantastic Four to the point where no official announcements have been made other than the film’s release date. No casting news or literally anything other than rumors has been released regarding the project. We know that Fantastic Four is slated for release on November 8th, 2024, and will be a part of Marvel’s Phase 6. There are also rumors that the cast of the new Fantastic Four will be announced at the D23 Expo on September 9th.

Fantastic Four is still over two years from release, and we assume we will hear more news about the project in the coming months. However, the idea of the Fantastic Four has already been introduced into the MCU. John Krasinski played Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The cameo was a huge deal for fans who have been waiting a long time for the Fantastic Four to enter the MCU. When Disney acquired Twenty Century Fox in 2019 we assumed that the Fox Marvel characters would eventually make their way into the MCU. It’s been 3 years and we already have had an X-Men and Fantastic Four cameo – even if they were from another universe.

Deadline is reporting that Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct Fantastic Four. Shakman served as the director for Wandavision and has had an extensive career. He directed two episodes of Game of Thrones and an episode of The Boys, and he had a long stint on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. There is nothing official yet, but Deadline’s sources say that Shakman is currently in talks for the job and things are headed in the right direction.

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To be honest, I was a bit more excited when Jon Watts was set to direct. I’m sure Shakman is a good director, but Watts proved he could handle a tentpole superhero film with Spider-Man: Homecoming. Wandavision was good, but Watts’ style would have been perfect for Fantastic Four. The film is probably one of the most anticipated films in Marvel’s upcoming slate films and they need to find the best person they can to direct. Is that Matt Shakman? It could be, but whoever takes the job must realize that Marvel has a lot riding on this movie. The other Fantastic Four films were awful and fans deserve better. Hopefully, Marvel knocks it out of the park as they usually do. You can see for yourself when Fantastic Four hits theaters on November 8th, 2024.

Film Synopsis: One of Marvel’s most iconic families makes it to the big screen: the Fantastic Four.

Source: Deadline

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Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase Star in ‘Zombie Town’ Mystery Teen Romancer (Exclusive)

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Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase have entered Zombie Town, a mystery teen romancer based on author R.L. Stine’s book of the same name.

The indie, now shooting in Ontario, also stars Henry Czerny and co-teen leads Marlon Kazadi and Madi Monroe. The ensemble cast includes Scott Thompson and Bruce McCulloch of the Canadian comedy show Kids in the Hall.

Canadian animator Peter Lepeniotis will direct Zombie Town. Stine’s kid’s book sees a quiet town upended when 12-year-old Mike and his friend, Karen, see a horror movie called Zombie Town and unexpectedly see the title characters leap off the screen and chase them through the theater.

Zombie Town will premiere in U.S. theaters before streaming on Hulu and then ABC Australia in 2023.

“We are delighted to bring the pages of R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town to the screen and equally thrilled to be working with such an exceptional cast and crew on this production. A three-time Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award winner with book sales of over $500 million, R.L. Stine has a phenomenal track record of crafting stories that engage and entertain audiences,” John Gillespie, Trimuse Entertainment founder and executive producer, said in a statement.

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Executive producers are Trimuse Entertainment, Toonz Media Group, Lookout Entertainment, Viva Pictures and Sons of Anarchy actor Kim Coates.  

Paco Alvarez and Mark Holdom of Trimuse negotiated the deal to acquire the rights to Stine’s Zombie Town book.

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