Final Harry Potter to get 2011 release

The final instalment of the Harry Potter film franchise is to be released in 2011, it has been announced.

Fans of the boy wizard will get to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II in cinemas from 15 July.

Warner Brothers decided to split the seventh book in JK Rowling's series into two parts as it was impossible to cram its 608 pages into a single film.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I is set to be released on 19 November 2010.

Stuntman David Holmes suffered serious back injuries on the set of Deathly Hallows last month practising an aerial sequence.

The set was closed for a week for investigation before being allowed to re-open by the Health and Safety Executive.

It was announced in August last year that the release date for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince would be pushed back eight months to July this year.

Warner Bros president Alan Horn said the decision was taken to guarantee the studio a major summer blockbuster in 2009.

He also blamed the Hollywood writers' strike, which hit the film industry hard in 2008.

The first five movies have made $4.5 billion (£2.2 billion) worldwide - making it the biggest film franchise in box office history, surpassing both James Bond and Star Wars.

Via bbc.co.uk

Daniel Radcliffe flattered by male fan following

The actor has said that he feels "flattered" when gay fans have a crush on him. The actor, whose role in Equus has won him a large following in the gay community, has appeared naked onstage in both the West End and Broadway version of the musical.

The 19-year-old has said that his male fan following has come as a welcome change from his hordes of screaming female fans. "For a lot of straight guys and I know I’m guilty of it sometimes - when you know a gay guy has a crush on you, it is the most flattering thing,” Contactmusic quoted him as telling the Daily Beast website.

However, the young actor shares a comfortable rapport with homosexual men and has owed his show business upbringing for teaching him tolerance towards other lifestyles. He said, "My mum was a casting director and my dad was a literary agent and I was surrounded by gay men from a very young age.”

"And I was the only boy in my class at school who had that kind of relationship with gay men. Most of my friends had parents who had proper jobs in banks and law firms so none of them had been exposed to homosexuality in the way I had - as a normal course of things. So they had a rather different attitude toward it than I," he said.

Via indiatimes.com

Daniel Radcliffe writes raunchy letters to 'Equus' co-star

Daniel Radcliffe, who became a household name as 'Harry Potter', has grown up substantially since those early days of wizardry. This has been evidenced in his role as an, at times entirely naked, horse-obsessed stable boy for the Broadway production 'Equus'.

To turn the heat up a notch, the young star has revealed he gave his 31-year-old co-star Lorenzo Pisonia series of steamy notes on the show's opening night.

Daniel said: "We're getting on very well indeed. I've written some really, really deeply sexual things on some of the cards I've given him for opening night. But just to wind him up, you know." The 19-year-old star added he is in awe of Lorenzo, terming him "cool" and "gorgeous" before claiming he would even consider marrying him if he was gay. He said: "He's great. He's a truly remarkable man. If I was gay or a female I'd just want to marry him. He's gorgeous, and he's a really cool bloke as well."

Daniel also revealed he has received a series of strange presents from his fans including masks and plastic limbs, and is determined to convince one obsessed girl not to get his autograph tattooed on her arm. He is quoted by Britain's Daily Star newspaper as saying: "This girl called Anna, she said, 'Could you sign my wrist please?' And I said, 'Fine.' And she said, 'Because I'm thinking of getting it tattooed.' "Anna, I really urge you not to get the tattoo. I'm very flattered and it's been lovely to meet you, and I'm sure I will again, but I wouldn't advise a tattoo."


After showing himself in the buff onstage for the production of 'Equus', the young star's next naked appearance will be in a scene of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. He said: "At first I thought I had pants on. Apparently not!"

Daniel says he isn't too worried about people seeing him naked on the big screen. He said: "It's all old hat now, really!"

Via welt.de

Emma Watson: 'Radcliffe and I will never be a couple'

Harry Potter star Emma Watson is so sick of the media speculation surrounding her friendship with co-star Daniel Radcliffe, she has vowed never to start a romance with the actor.

Watson, who plays Potter's sidekick Hermione Granger in the hit film franchise, is convinced fans of the boy wizard series desperately want her and Radcliffe to become a couple in real life - because their characters fail to unite in author J.K. Rowling's books.

And the 18-year-old blames the public's desire for the union for the constant press speculation about their relationship.

She says: "Dan Radcliffe is very charming, and very, very sweet and knows how to handle it (the rumours about their relationship). We've been handling this situation for six years now.

"Everyone has been going, 'Are you and Dan together?' Because it doesn't happen in the books, everyone is so desperate for it to happen in real life that any opportunity to come up with a story about it is taken."

Via iol.ie

Daniel Radcliffe To Make Nude Broadway Debut

British actor Daniel Radcliffe is set to bare it all as he will reprise his role as the disturbed stable boy in the Broadway version of Peter Shaffer's critically acclaimed "Equus."

The "Harry Potter" star will make his Broadway debut on Sept. 5, at the Broadhurst Theater on West 44th Street, with an official opening on Sept. 25, for what is being described as a strictly limited 22-week engagement, through February 8, 2009, it was announced Tuesday. The revival will be produced by the Shubert Organization at its Broadhurst Theatre, while Thea Sharrock is set to direct.

The 19-year-old actor's stage performance during the play's eight-week run in London cast new light on his talent, as he shed not only his Harry Potter mantel but also his clothes, a brave move which gained him loads of media attention and respect for leaving his wholesome image as the bespectacled boy wizard in the big-screen adaptations of J.K. Rowling's best-selling fantasy novels, behind.

In a September interview, Radcliffe, who was reunited onstage with Richard Griffiths, who plays Potter's uncle in the "Harry Potter'' franchise, told Reuters that he finds the prospect of acting in New York "terrifying."

"It will be amazing, but I will be terrified because I was talking to Richard Griffiths about playing New York and he said the most stupid thing you can do is underestimate New York audiences," he said.

"I would be very nervous because I think (the audiences are) even more discerning than in London," he added.

Shaffer's 1974 Tony Award-winning drama finds a deeply disturbed 17-year-old boy Alan Strang who is put in the care of psychiatrist Martin Dysart after blinding six horses. Dysart’s passionless life is called into question as he finds out more about Strang’s behavior.

Tickets for the play will go on sale to American Express Gold Card members on Saturday, April 12 at 9 AM ET by calling (212) 239-6200 or by visiting Telecharge (www.telecharge.com).

Via efluxmedia.com

Radcliffe romance goes to pot

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is single again after his relationship with actress girlfriend Laura O'Toole came to an end.

The 18-year-old actor started dating Laura after meeting during the West End stage play Equus.

Both appeared in the steamy play and had to strip in raunchy sex scenes.

But it is understood the couple have agreed to end their romance and are now just good friends.

The news comes just days before the play Equus goes on a four-month UK tour.

Laura said in a recent interview: "Daniel and I are still good friends and have a good time when we see each other. We just have to be realistic."

Dublin-born Laura, 22, understudied the role of his girlfriend, Jill, in Equus, a character who appeared in a lengthy nude sex scene with multi-millionaire Radcliffe.

As Joanna Christie played the female lead, Miss O'Toole was called upon only once to strip off on stage with Radcliffe, who was then 17.

The play ended in May last year but the pair were still secretly seeing each other, pictured walking in Fulham, West London, near Radcliffe's home, in November.

Radcliffe is thought to have been given access to an estimated £20 million on his 18th birthday last July.

At the time he was swamped by screaming female teenage fans at his Harry Potter premiere and generated even more hysteria when he admitted he was anxious to meet a girlfriend.

But it seems Daniel - who once dubbed actresses as "completely barking" - had his heart stolen by Miss O'Toole.

She made her name six years ago in the Irish TV series On Home Ground on channel RTE.

Producers of Equus were so impressed by her performance in the play, she will now be the female lead opposite Lily Allen's brother, Alfie, when the tour starts in Chichester on Thursday.

Radcliffe is set to open the play in New York towards the end of year.

He is also expected to get £25 million for starring in the final two Harry Potter movies.

Laura O'Toole's agent said: "I have no idea if they are still together. Her private life is her private life and I regard it as just that, private."

Via news.com.au

Daniel Radcliffe to star in a new war movie

The 'Harry Potter' actor has signed up to appear in 'Journey', in which he will portray tragic photographer Dan Eldon, who was stoned to death during the devastating civil war in Somalia, East Africa, in 1993.

Radcliffe fought off stiff competition from other Hollywood stars including Heath Ledger, Joaquin Phoenix, Ryan Phillippe and Orlando Bloom to land the role, after Eldon's family decided he would be perfect for the part.

The late photographer's mother Kathy said: "We resisted a lot of older actors because Dan was a boy emerging into manhood. The timing is right and the person is right and I couldn't ask for more.

"He has portrayed a magician for years and my Dan was a different kind of magician. There are parallels in the two Dans' lives.

"Daniel Radcliffe is a poet, he keeps journals and he is half Jewish. He has a sense of humour and energy inside him which reminds me of Dan."

Eldon was just 22 when he was murdered in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu. The film will be based on his diaries 'The Journey is the Destination', which were published in 1997.

Via thecheers.org