I
still remember that fateful day back in 2001 when I was first introduced to the
wonderful world of Harry Potter.
A
friend of mine had gotten free tickets to the Ottawa premiere of the movie
"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", and she had an extra one
to spare and wanted to know if I'd like to tag along with them.
Of
course, I never turn down free anything, so I jumped at the chance to see it.
There
was just one thing. I had never read
any of the Harry Potter books prior to 2001.
I knew that they had existed, but I didn't have any time to get to read
them. So, I suppose you could say that
I was going into the film as a real "muggle" of sorts.
And
yet after watching that first film, I immediately wanted to read the book
version, just so I could see how the film differed from the book and what have
you. And, I suppose you could say that
was the catalyst towards my being a Harry Potter fan.
I
read all seven books, and I watched all eight movies, being completely amazed
at how such a wonderful story could be crafted as well as seeing how the three
main young actors - Rupert Grint, Daniel Radcliffe, and Emma Watson - matured
from little children to young adults.
Of
course, all good things must come to an end...and in July 2011, the final part
of the movie based on the seventh book - "Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows" was released.
I
know. It seems hard to believe that it
has been five whole years since the Harry Potter film series concluded, and all
of the actors went their separate ways (yet are all still quite active in the
film industry). But whether you've seen
all the films or only watched one, I can guarantee that this collection will be
entertaining generations for years to come.
And that is to the credit of J.K. Rowling who not only wrote all the
books in the series, but also watched over every detail of the films to make
sure that they stayed true to the book.
So,
as a celebration of the Harry Potter film franchise that ended in 2011, I
thought that I would post some behind the scenes trivia and facts that you
might not have known - just as a little token of appreciation towards the films
and books. And since all month long,
we'll be looking at topics from 2011, I thought that there was no time like the
present!
1. According to Daniel Radcliffe, he destroyed
approximately eighty magic wands during the production of all the films because
he kept using them as drumsticks. That
averages out to ten wands a film! Hope
they didn't cost too much money!
2. On the subject of magic wands, each one
created was between 13 to 15 inches long - and no two wands were ever
alike! That is amazing attention to
detail!
3. Obviously the scar that Harry Potter boasts
upon his forehead isn't real. It was
applied to Daniel Radcliffe and his stunt doubles by talented make-up
artists. But I bet you don't know how
many times that scar was applied. Would
you believe it was almost 6,000? At
least 2,800 of those times alone was on Daniel Radcliffe!
4. Giving a new meaning to the term
"Netflix and Chill", you would have to do a lot of chilling to binge
watch the whole Harry Potter series...like oh...18 hours and 20 minutes worth
of it!
5. Seems as though magic wands weren't the only
thing that Daniel Radcliffe went through a lot of. Apparently Radcliffe used 160 different pairs of prop glasses for
the whole series! Though, to be fair,
some of the scenes required Harry's glasses to break...
6. While thousands of actors appeared in at
least one of the eight film adaptations, only fourteen can boast that they have
been in every single one; Robbie Coltrane, Warwick Davis, Tom Felton, Rupert
Grint, Josh Herdman, Matthew Lewis, Devon Murray, James Phelps, Oliver Phelps,
Daniel Radcliffe, Geraldine Somerville, Alan Rickman, Emma Watson and Bonnie Wright.
7. The final part of "Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows" is the shortest running film at just two hours and ten
minutes. The longest film is
"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", at two hours and forty-one
minutes.
8. It is estimated that over 25,000 pieces of
clothing was used for the entire film series.
9. Although the film series was nominated for
several Academy Awards over its ten year history, nobody ever won one.
10. The second part of "Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows" is currently ranked as #8 of the world's highest
grossing movies of all time.
11. The same song that concludes the first film
of the series is also used to conclude the eighth film.
12. Although J.K. Rowling was unsure as to which
characters would still be alive at the end of the seventh book and eighth
movie, she did know one thing - Hagrid would definitely be a survivor.
13. Emma Watson once revealed in an interview
during the filming of the first film that she would NEVER kiss her co-stars in
the movie. And, by the end of the
series, she kissed both Rupert and Daniel!
14. It took several takes for the main actors to
nail their kissing scenes. While some
only took a few takes (Ron and Hermione's only needed six), some took a lot
more. The kiss between Harry and Cho
Chang? THIRTY takes to get it right!
15. J.K. Rowling had always intended to kill off
a Weasley (in the case of both the book and film, it was Fred Weasley that was
dispatched). But would you believe that
the Weasley patriarch and Ron himself were nearly killed off? Luckily, Rowling opted not to, but imagine
how that ending would have been if Ron weren't around to see it!
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