Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth fantasy adventure film in the popular Harry Potter films series, based on the novel by J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The director is David Yates. The screenwriter is Michael Goldenberg, who replaced Steve Kloves, writer of the first four films.^[1] Warner Bros., the distributor of the film, has scheduled a UK release date of 12 July 2007, and a US release date of 11 July 2007, both in conventional theatres and IMAX theatres.^[2] Live action filming finished around the end of November or beginning of December 2006, so the film is now complete.^[3]

J. K. Rowling wrote on her web site on 19 December 2006 that she was given a 20-minute preview of the film, which "looks fantastic."^[3] Unlike some authors, Rowling has consistently offered her praise for the film adaptations of her works.^[4][5][6]

Synopsis

Harry Potter enters his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The wizarding community has shunned him and Albus Dumbledore, head of Hogwarts, who claim that the evil Lord Voldemort has, after 14 years, regained a body and been restored to full power, and are instead influenced by the propaganda of The Daily Prophet and the intentional obliviousness of the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge. Fudge appoints a new Hogwarts Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Dolores Umbridge, who steadily begins to take over Hogwarts through the support of the Ministry. Harry and his friends Hermione and Ron immediately dislike Umbridge as she refuses to allow them to discuss the return of Voldemort, and when she teaches them inadequate practical lessons. Thus, "Dumbledore's Army" is founded, as an underground organization with Harry as leader to prepare twenty-seven of his schoolmates in case of a battle with Voldemort, which proved useful at the conclusion of the film.

Production

David Yates directed the film, after Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell turned it down. Mira Nair was offered the project, but also turned it down.^[7] Steve Kloves, the screenwriter of the first four Potter films, had other commitments, and thus Michael Goldenberg wrote the script for the film. Kloves will return for the next film, Half-Blood Prince.^[1]

Rehearsals for Order of the Phoenix began on 27 January 2006.^[8] Filming began on 6 February,^[9] and finished around November or December 2006.^[3] The film's budget is GB£75 million (US$150 million).^[10]

Nicholas Hooper was the composer for the soundtrack of the film, following John Williams, who scored the first three films, and Patrick Doyle, who did the fourth. In the new score, Hooper has incorporated variations on "Hedwig's Theme", the series' theme originally written by Williams for the first film and heard in all subsequent ones.^[11] In March and April of 2007, Hooper and the London Chamber Orchestra recorded nearly two hours of music at Abbey Road Studios in London. The score, like the film and book, is said to be darker than previous installments in the series. To emphasize this, the two new main themes reflect the sinister new character Dolores Umbridge, and Lord Voldemort's invasion of Harry's mind. A great Japanese Taiko drum was used for a deeper sound in the percussion.^[11] The soundtrack is set to be released 10 July 2007, the day before the film.^[12]

Mark Day is the film editor, Sławomir Idziak is the cinematographer, Jany Temime is the costume designer, John Richardson is the special effects supervisor, Tim Burke is the visual effects supervisor, and Nick Dudman is the creatures special effects supervisor.^[13] A new character in the film, Grawp, Hagrid's giant half-brother,^[14] will come to life by a new technology called 'Soul Capturing,' developed by Image Metrics.^[15]

Choreographer Paul Harris, who has also worked with David Yates several times, was brought in to create a physical language for wand combat and to choreograph the wand fighting scenes.^[16]

Filming locations

Leavesden Studios in Watford was again the location on which many of the interior scenes, including the Great Hall, Privet Drive and Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place were shot.^[17][18][19] Stuart Craig returned as set designer, having also designed the first four films' sets.^[20] Craig's design of the atrium in the Ministry of Magic is reportedly over 200 feet in length, making it the largest set yet built for the Potter film series.^[20]

Locations in England included the River Thames, for when the D.A. fly to the Ministry of Magic,^[21][22][23] a sequence also including landmarks such as the London Eye, Canary Wharf, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace.^[23][24] In Virginia Water, scenes were shot where Professor McGonagall recovers from Stunning Spells,^[25] and Burnham Beeches was used for filming the scene where Hagrid introduces his fifth-year Care of Magical Creatures class to Thestrals.^[26] Filming at Platform 9¾ took place at King's Cross Station, as it has in the past.^[27] A telephone booth near Scotland Yard was used as Harry and Arthur Weasley enter the Ministry,^[28] while the crew closed the Westminster tube station on 22 October 2006 to allow for filming of Arthur Weasley accompanying Harry to his trial at the Ministry of Magic.^[29] Other scenes were filmed in and around Oxford,^[30] specifically at nearby Blenheim Palace in Woodstock.^[31]

Various locations around Scotland were used for exterior shots. Fort William was used to show 'snow-capped mountains and glens' vital for the opening sequence of the film.^[32] Harry 'skips stones' in front of Bonnie Prince Charlie's Monument in Glenfinnan; the Hogwarts Express also crosses a viaduct here, as it has in the past three films.^[33] Aerial scenes were shot in Glen Coe, in Clachaig Gully,^[33] and Glen Etive, which, at the time of filming, was one of the few places in Scotland without snow, making it ideal for a backdrop.^[32] However, according to an article by The Scotsman, Scotland intook as little as GB£50,000 in 2006 from the production of films on Scottish territory.

Marketing

The first trailer was released on 17 November 2006, attached to the trailer of another WB film, Happy Feet. It was made available online on November 20th, at the Happy Feet web site.^[34] This trailer can also be seen at the WB official Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix website. The international trailer debuted online on 22 April 2007 at 14:00 UTC.^[35] On 4 May 2007, the domestic trailer was shown at Spider-Man 3.^[36] Near-completed versions of the film have been screened across the United States.^[37]

Two posters released on the Internet that showed Harry accompanied by six classmates, including Hermione Granger, generated some controversy by the media. They were essentially the same picture, though one advertised the IMAX release. In one poster, the profile of Hermione, played by Emma Watson, was made curvier as the outline of her bosom was enhanced. Melissa Anelli, webmistress of noted fan site The Leaky Cauldron, wrote:^[38]

Representatives for WB later wrote about the poster under fire, "This is not an official poster. Unfortunately this image was accidentally posted on the Imax [sic] website."^[39]

The video game version of Order of the Phoenix, designed by EA UK, is set to be released 25 June 2007, about two weeks before the film is released.^[40]

Release

The film will be the third Harry Potter film to be given a simultaneous release in conventional theatres and IMAX. The IMAX release will feature the full movie in 2-D and the final 20 minutes of the film in 3-D.^[41] According to Warner Bros. executives, the film will be shown on over 10,000 theater screens this summer.^[42]

The film will mostly be released in a two-week period starting 11 July. WB has tried to stick with day-and-date releases for most countries "except in the Middle East and a few minor markets, because most are going to be in holidays at that point." The set of summer releases, even though the films are typically released in the winter, "really maximizes our opportunity," said a representative for WB.^[42]

The world premiere will take place in Tokyo, Japan on 28 June 2007.^[43] The UK premiere will take place on 3 July 2007 in London's Odeon Leicester Square.^[44] The US premiere will take place on 8 July in Los Angeles.^[45] After the premiere, the three young stars of the film series, Radcliffe, Grint and Watson, will be honored with a ceremony where their handprints, footprints, and "wand-prints" will be placed in the cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater.^[46]

The film will be released on the following dates in these major English-speaking countries:^[47]

• United States — 11 July
• Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Puerto Rico — 12 July
• Canada, Ireland — 13 July

Originally, Warner Bros. set the Australian release date as 6 September 2007, nearly two months after the majority of other release dates. However, after complaints from the Australian Harry Potter community, including a petition garnering 2,000 signatures, the date was pulled forward to 12 July 2007.^[48] The release dates of the film in the UK and US were also moved forward, both from 13 July, to the 12th and 11th, respectively.^[49][50]

The film is 138 minutes long.

Rating

According to the film's official web site, the film received a rating by the MPAA of PG-13 in the United States for sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images.^[52] In the United Kingdom, the film was given a rating of 12A by the BBFC for moderate fantasy violence and horror.

Casting

Kreacher, the Black family's house-elf, will appear in the film. However, his voice actor is still unknown.^[86]

On 1 April 2006, Helen McCrory, who was slated to play Bellatrix Lestrange,^[87] announced that she was three months' pregnant and had to withdraw from the film.^[88] On 25 May it was announced that Helena Bonham Carter would play the role instead.^[57]

Evanna Lynch beat over 15,000 other girls at the open casting when she won the role of Luna Lovegood,^[89] waiting in a line of hopefuls a mile long.^[90]

Young Remus Lupin was once rumoured to be played by the unknown Stuart Hastings, though it was denied by WB, on 27 March 2006, that anybody was cast in the role.^[91] On 25 May it was announced that James Utechin had won the role and will play young Lupin.^[57] James Walters, who won the role of young Sirius Black, also tried out for the role of young Lupin.^[56]

The family of footballer Theo Walcott will make a cameo role in the film. Theo himself was due to appear as well, though his commitments to Arsenal forced him to pull out.^[92]

Tiana Benjamin was scheduled to return for the film in the role of Angelina Johnson, but she had to withdraw due to commitments to playing Chelsea Fox in EastEnders. She believes that, though the producers looked into the possibility of recasting her role, the character was ultimately cut from the film. She has, however, recorded sound clips for the Order of the Phoenix video game.^[93]

An article by MTV about bonus scenes in films shown at the end of the credits mentioned one such bonus scene at the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) in which Gilderoy Lockhart, played by Kenneth Branagh, is seen promoting his new book in Diagon Alley. Earlier in the film, Lockhart performed a charm which made him lose his memory. The article notes that the scene will "piss off die-hard fans of the book" because "it's noncanonical," adding that Lockhart "makes a poignant and surprise reappearance in Order of the Phoenix[,] still without his memory." It was unclear whether this was a reference only to the book version of Order of the Phoenix, where Harry, Ron and Hermione encounter Lockhart, mentally insane, at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, or news that Branagh would make an appearance in the film version as well.^[94] At the U.S. premiere of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), series producer David Heyman said that Lockhart was in the first draft of the script, but there has been no announcement since whether he was retained through revisions or if Branagh would return.^[95]

Awards

Order of the Phoenix was nominated in a new category at the MTV Movie Awards 2007, "Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet." It lost to Transformers.^[96]

Notes

^A Nigel is not a character from the books. William Melling appeared in this same, minor role in the previous film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).

^B The character played by Ryan Nelson was billed as "Slightly Creepy Boy" when a promotional photo of Dumbledore's Army was released. There has been no word from Warner Bros. whether there is a correlation to a named character from the books, or if his character's name is indeed "Slightly Creepy Boy."