The Movies > Promotional Material

HELLO! MAGAZINE (UK), NOVEMBER 2001

This article appears to be cobbled together from numerous other media sources and has several factual errors. After working as a journalist for 13 years, I am sensitive to thq quality of news writing. I include this story as an example of lazy and/or bad journalism. It's also like the awful "quick fact" writing in the early days of USA Today nearly 20 years ago.

-The Webmaster

The Potter Phenomenon

Four years ago, Harry Potter was but a glimmer in author JK Rowling's eye. Yet since the 1997 publication of the first Potter book, it is speculated that 110 million copies of the series have been sold worldwide and Harry has battled Lord Voldemort in more than 45 languages. Today, the bespectacled young hero is a bona fide course of study at New Zealand's Massey University - and probably beyond.

The first three Potter books - The Philosopher's Stone, The Chamber Of Secrets and The Prisoner Of Azkaban, respectively - sold millions and remained firmly atop The New York Times bestseller list. In fact, the books so monopolized the chart, booksellers and publishers successfully pushed for the creation of a separate "children's book" list.

Some say Potter-mania peaked in 2000 with the frenzy surrounding the fourth book - the hardcover, 734-page Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire. More than 3 million copies of the book were sold in the first weekend alone and publishers immediately embarked upon a second printing. [What on earth? The writer never explains that this is U.S. info! The American edition that had the 734 pages and sold 3 million copies. What about UK figures? Their hardcover Goblet of Fire had 636 pages.] Now with the release of the movie, U.S. publisher Scholastic is expecting book sales to soar once again. [Yeah, but what about Bloomsbury? You're writing for the UK market!]

Author J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling's total earnings will reportedly top the £70 million ($100 million) mark with the release of the first Harry Potter film. The fourth installment, the novel Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, sold more than three million copies within two days of publication. [Webmaster: Oops ... you repeated it again. Sloppy editing.]

All of which is a far cry from the author's experiences while writing the original manuscripts. At the time, Joanne was struggling to raise a baby daughter alone on a £70-a-week ($100) welfare check in a mice-infested flat in Edinburgh. The once dreamy girl who liked playing at witches and wizards was forced to draw on all her resources.

Joanne Kathleen Rowling was born in Chipping Sodbury General Hospital on July 31, 1966, and grew up in a loving family. Her father, Peter, was an engineer and mother Anne, a half-French half-Scottish homemaker who stayed at home to care for Joanne and her younger sister Di. When Joanne was 14, her mother was diagnosed as having multiple sclerosis. [Webmaster: Oh, these mistakes -- Rowling was born in 1965.]

The Book Comes to Life

British producer David Heyman returned from a stint in Hollywood searching for a children's book to bring to life. His assistant suggested UK bestseller Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone - later titled Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone when it debuted in the U.S. "It's about a boy in wizarding school," she told him. "It's a cool idea." Needless to say, it was much more than a cool idea.

Heyman struck up a friendship with Rowling, and in 1998 the two met with Warner Brothers in Hollywood to discuss the project. The venerable studio liked what they saw, and picked up both the first book and its sequel, Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets, for the now bargain-basement price of $700,000. Warners then enlisted screenwriter Steve Kloves (The Fabulous Baker Boys) to adapt J.K. Rowling's first Potter book for the big screen. Of course he had to meet the famous scribe first.

"I was excited to meet her, but I also didn't want her to think I was going to be in the business of destroying her baby," he says, and rightly so. Protecting the integrity of the original series would become a major theme throughout production as J.K. and the British team set about convincing U.S. executives that both an all-British cast and a London production were essential. [What's with the first-name basis with the author? Besides, people call her "Jo," not J.K.]

Daniel Radcliffe is Harry

Director Chris Columbus - who worked his magic on Home Alone - auditioned thousands of kids for the first instalment in the Harry Potter series. However, he was set on casting the young English actor Daniel Radcliffe, whom he'd seen in a BBC production of David Copperfield. It took some heavy duty lobbying before Daniel's parents were convinced their boy wouldn't end up the next child star casualty, but producers were persuasive. The much-publicized search for Harry was over.

And J.K. Rowling couldn't be happier with their choice. "She told me she felt as if I'd cast her long-lost son," recalls Columbus. "[Daniel] has got a sense of wisdom and intelligence and a real sort of haunted quality Harry Potter has."

International acclaim seems imminent for the 11-year-old, who's already scored the cover of Vanity Fair. [Radcliffe was 12 at the time this was written.] But Daniel, who has signed for two Potter flicks, is already smart enough to know that fame is fleeting and is making the most of his current ownership of a Nimbus 2000 broom.

"In a couple of years, I might have changed so much that I look wrong for the part," he says. "So I just want to enjoy it while I can."

An All-British Cast

"Harry Potter is something that's weirdly about us - it's culturally British," says head of the British Film Commission, Steve Norris. "The thought that it was going to be made anywhere but here sent shudders down everyone's spine. It's like taking Catcher In The Rye and trying to make it in Liverpool."

But when the film's U.S. backers pushed for a marketing-friendly, recognizable cast - read: American stars - J.K. Rowling and company balked. And after some reportedly heated discussions, the Brits won out.

As a result, the cast list reads like a "Who's Who of Cool Britannia." Alan Rickman stars as Professor Severus Snape, Monty Python comedian John Cleese is Nearly Headless Nick and Julie Walters of Billy Elliot fame plays the lovable Mrs. Weasley. And Shakespeare veteran Kenneth Branagh has just inked a deal to star as Gilderoy Lockhart in the sequel. [It was originally spelled "Lochart" in the article. Oops once more.]