Over the weekend, The Sunday Times revealed that Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling was the true author of a well-received detective novel written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The Cuckoo’s Calling had sold about 1,500 hardback copies since its April release, but when Rowling’s identity was revealed on Sunday, the book raced to the top of sales charts on Barnes & Noble and Amazon in both the U.S. and the UK. By Monday afternoon European time, the hardcover edition was listed as “temporarily out of stock” on both U.S. sites. The detective novel centers on war veteran Cormoran Strike who turns private investigator after losing a leg in Afghanistan. He’s barely scraping by when he’s asked to look into the death of a legendary supermodel. Rowling told The Times she’d hoped “to keep this secret a little longer because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name.” The book was published in the UK by Little Brown’s Sphere, also the publisher of Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy which is being made into a BBC series. In the U.S., Little Brown imprint Mulholland says it will publish a second book in the series next summer and that The Cuckoo’s Calling is being reprinted, The Wall Street Journal reported.
J.K. Rowling’s ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’ Clocks Big Sales After Author’s Identity Uncovered
Warner Bros. UK Partners With BAFTA On Scholarships; Creates Training Program
Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, the film and TV facility the major owns outside of London, is to be officially inaugurated today during a visit from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry. At the same time, … Read More »
UK’s Organic Marketing Acquires Film PR Firm Romley Davies
Joe Utichi contributes to Deadline’s UK coverage
The UK film publicity landscape got a little more interesting today as Organic Marketing, the agency founded in 2008 by Nick Leese, announced the acquisition of production PR specialist Romley Davies. Veteran Harry Potter unit publicist Vanessa Davies will become Organic’s executive director of film production and work with deputy managing director Emma McCorkell across production and release, in the UK and internationally. Organic
has up to now specialized in release campaigns and events management. Bringing Romley Davies on board allows the company to start working on films at the production stage. “We have big ambitions and wanted to look at what made sense in terms of next steps,” McCorkell tells Deadline. “It’s a great time to get into film production in the UK, and Vanessa is the best in the business.” Read More »
J.K. Rowling May Return To Magical World Of Harry Potter; Also Warns Of “Massive Resistance” To UK Press Reform
The celebrated author says that she may produce “director’s cut” versions of two of her Harry Potter novels, and doesn’t rule out additional books in that world — but without Harry. When it comes to the boy wizard’s story “I’m done,” she … Read More »
‘Hunger Games’ Trilogy Outsells Harry Potter’s 7 Books On Amazon
Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy is now Amazon’s top-selling book series of all time, outselling the seven-book Harry Potter series, the online retailer announced today. That takes both physical and e-books into consideration. Hunger Games achieved … Read More »
British Film Institute 2011 Facts & Figures: An Average 87 Films Per Person
Although the Harry Potter series has drawn to a close, the UK film industry believes the movies will continue to work their magic for years to come. In releasing its 2012 statistical yearbook today, the BFI pointed to long tail benefits from the Potter decade that include Warner Bros’ new studio facility at Leavesden and the skillbase the films have built across the production sector since 2001. The industry is coming off of a record year that saw the box office reach above £1B and total production spend hit £1.27B despite a drop in the number of films produced. The yearbook is loaded with such facts and figures – including the finding that Britons watched an average 87 films per person during the course of last year. However, while box office thrived, TV accounted for 77% of all film viewings. There were 5,570 unique titles available across UK television. Excluding pay-per-view, films were watched 3.9B times on TV – or over 22 times the number of cinema admissions. Stats put the industry’s direct contribution to UK GDP at £3.3B for 2010. International investment from films made in the UK including The Dark Knight Rises, Prometheus and Wrath Of The Titans, was worth just over £1B. Outside the UK, British films earned $5.6B at the global box office, according to the report which can be found here in its entirety.
Independent British films had 13% of the market share driven by The King’s Speech and The Inbetweeners Movie. Cinemagoing habits are shifting with a record-breaking 42% of Britons opting for weekday screenings. Weekends only accounted for 58% of box office which is the lowest total in the last eight years. Takings for 3D films were down 20% suggesting that moviegoers are becoming more choosy. The BFI says people are more often opting for the format when they perceive a real contribution to the experience. DVD and Blu-ray sales were down 5% on 2010 with 152M units sold. VOD is on the rise, jumping 6.5% to £114M in transactions, although it hasn’t yet made up for the decline in video sales. Read More »
Is Harry Potter The Antichrist In Alan Moore’s Latest Graphic Novel?
JK Rowling and Harry Potter studio Warner Bros have been fiercely protective of the boy who lived, so it will be interesting to see what they make of graphic novelist Alan Moore’s new book. Over the course of his career, Watchmen, V For Vendetta and From Hell author Moore has summoned fictional characters including Captian Nemo, Dr Jekyll and Dracula. He’s also had fun with Wonderland’s Alice, Oz’s Dorothy and Neverland’s Wendy. But his latest borrowing may take the cake: an Antichrist character who’s got a fair bit in common with Harry Potter — and reportedly shoots deathly lightning bolts from his nether regions. Details of The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 2009, the latest installment in the series, have been kept close to the vest, but reviewer Laura Sneddon has provided her take on the tome that’s out this week. The boy wizard’s name never appears, but references are made to a hidden scar, a magical train between platforms at London’s King Cross Station, and the magical school to which it leads. There’s also a mentor called Riddle — although the Tom Riddle in Rowling’s books ultimately became Harry’s archnemesis, Lord Voldemort. According to The Independent, “Characters resembling both Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger also appear and, at one point, the Potter character kills someone with a lightning bolt from his flaccid penis.” Copyright infringement or acceptable parody? Rowling and Warner are expected to take a wait-and-see approach. Read More »
Harry Potter Attraction Headed To Japan
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is traveling to the land of the rising sun. Warner Bros and Universal Parks & Resorts are partnering to expand the Hogwarts experience to Universal Studios Japan. Execs involved in … Read More »
UK Gets New Studio Facility In Black Hangar
Black Hangar Studios — a 32,000-square-foot spread in Basingstoke, about a 40-minute train ride from London — was unveiled Wednesday. The UK is increasingly building its studio infrastructure. Warner Bros will launch the Leavesdon studios in June; that 500,000-square-foot facility, where all of the Harry Potter films were shot, is about 20 minutes from central London and has an 80-acre backlot. Also nearby London is the venerable Pinewood studios, which has recently been playing host to the latest James Bond pic Skyfall and to Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables. Read More »
J.K. Rowling Reveals Her New “Adult” Novel: ‘The Casual Vacancy’
Will grownups stand in line, the way young Harry Potter fans did, to be among the first to get their hands on what the author calls her “blackly comic” tale when it’s released on September 27? Rowling says on her web site that it’s her first novel for adults. Hachette will release The Casual Vacancy in the US, with Little, Brown Book Group doing so in the UK. It will be published worldwide in English in hardback, ebook, an unabridged audio download and on CD. The book runs about 480 pages, according to Little, Brown. Rowling’s Harry Potter series of seven books sold over 450 million copies in 200 territories and 74 languages worldwide, spawning a pop culture gold mine and a lucrative movie franchise from Warner Bros. Here’s Rowling’s synopsis of her new book:
Warner Bros UK Opens Harry Potter Tour
Now that Harry has hung up his Firebolt, Warner is looking to keep the multi-billion dollar franchise alive. Welcome to The Warner Bros Studio Tour London – The Making Of Harry Potter, a new attraction that opens today at its Leavesden studios in Watford, England. There, Muggles will get a glimpse at the behind-the-scenes magic of the films right where they were shot. As time wears on, however, it’s likely that interest in Potter will wane – but Warner says there’s a plan for that too.
When Warner Bros acquired film rights to JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, lore has it the author insisted on an all-British cast and that all films be shot in the UK. Ten years later, the highest-grossing film series in history has had a huge impact on the British economy – and on Warner Bros’ bottom line. In June 2010, London mayor Boris Johnson penned an editorial in The Telegraph decrying the fact that a Potter theme park was to open in Orlando rather than in Harry’s own backyard. He wrote: “This Potter business has legs. It will run and run, and we must be utterly mad, as a country, to leave it to the Americans to make money from a great British invention.”
Fast-forward 18 months and Johnson was waving a wand at Ollivander’s shop on the Potter tour’s Diagon Alley. A coincidence? Warner’s Sarah Roots, VP of the tour, tells me the idea of a film based attraction at the Leavesden studios has been in the pipeline for quite a few years and that Harry Potter has been such a part of the studio’s heritage, “it made sense to launch the attraction with Harry Potter.” The opening of the tour is timed to coincide with the start of Easter break for British school kids. Warner is eyeing up to 5,000 visitors per day on staggered tours that last about 3 hours. Roots says tickets for the first period have sold well and that first visitors are expected to be mostly UK residents with more overseas interest next year. As with all tourist destinations in the UK this summer, Warner is hoping for a residual Olympics effect. Read More »
‘Harry Potter’ Books Finally Available In E-Book And Audio Formats
Just ahead of the planned early April launch of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s full Pottermore site for all things Hogwarts, e-book and audio book versions of all seven Harry Potter books were made available today on the site. … Read More »
‘Harry Potter’ Author J.K. Rowling To Go Adult With New Novel
The Harry Potter series made author J.K. Rowling one of Britain’s richest citizens and now the writer is ready to tread new literary territory with her new book geared toward adults. Publication for the new novel and further details … Read More »
SNL: What Ever Happened To Harry Potter? ‘Epilogue’ Sketch Starring Daniel Radcliffe
Cast already teased “Jersey Shore Harry Potter” in cold open here which wasn’t very funny, either. Nothing like starting 2012 on a lame note:
Harry Potter Attraction Riding Into Universal Studios Hollywood
Harry Potter will materialize sometime in the future in Universal City with his own special section of the theme park much like “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” at Universal Orlando Resort. NBC Universal is expected to announce plans … Read More »
HAMMOND: Composer Alexandre Desplat Is Music To Oscar’s Ears Again This Season
Is Alexandre Desplat the new hardest working man in show business? The prolific French composer who has had four Oscar nominations in the last five years is just coming off his busiest year since gaining international notoriety in 2003 with Girl With A Pearl Earring. Since then he has been one … Read More »
UK Extends Movie Tax Break Until 2015
Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that film tax relief will be extended for four more years until the end of December 2015. It had been due to expire March next year. The UK tax break is worth 16% of the budgets of Hollywood movies shooting over here, and 20% of the budgets for local films. The news is designed to re-assure Hollywood that the UK is still the place to shoot big-budget movies. Recent Hollywood productions that have shot at Pinewood Studios include Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows and Snow White and the Huntsman. The tax break has been worth $151 million to producers over the most recent financial year, supporting over $1.6 billion spent on 208 UK-qualifying films. Read More »
‘Harry Potter’ Won’t Be Gone Too Long
Harry Potter fans take heart. Just because Warner Bros says it won’t ship more DVDs or Blu-rays after December 29, that doesn’t mean Hogwarts will immediately vanish from physical or virtual shelves. Or that it won’t be available for … Read More »
HAMMOND: Woody Allen, Brad Pitt, ‘The Help’ & Cast Among Early 2011 Leading Oscar Contenders; Can They Hang On?
OK, I’ll say it: If the Oscars were held today (nearly two-thirds of the way through 2011) Woody Allen could have another Best Picture winner. Of course the 84th Academy Awards aren’t being held yet and we are … Read More »
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