TheDailySnitcher

From The Hollywood Museum:

Harry Potter’s legendary wizardry lives on at The Hollywood Museum, the official museum of Hollywood, located in the Historic Max Factor Building. The Museum’s new collection of sorcery includes acquisitions from the Harry Potter film franchise, considered among the highest-grossing films of all-time.

Spotlighted are new items from noted Harry Potter historian Christopher Knoll, President of Ovation Productions. The ultimate broom used by Harry Potter in the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) and his quill and inkbottle used while at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry enhance the exhibit.

Potter’s wands are also part of the permanent procurement.  A black wand box signed by Maggie Smith and a series of wand boxes with their coordinating wands are displayed, highlighted by Harry’s black handle instruction wand and Dumbledore’s purple handle wand, both in their ‘dragon skin’ boxes.  Other items also on exhibit are Harry’s robe, costumes, signed blueprints of rooms at Hogwarts School, photos, posters, and more.  In addition, Daniel Radcliffe’s tennis shoes are displayed, as well as Rupert Grint’s and Emma Watson’s shoes and the writing stylus’ used by all three when they were honored with foot and hand prints at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

“We salute the thrilling Harry Potter movies as a part of Hollywood legendary history,“ says Museum Founder and President Donelle Dadigan. “We are excited to present these famous items for fans to experience up close and personal!“  

From ABC Family --

ABC FAMILY STIRS UP A MAGICAL "HARRY POTTER" WEEKEND AIRING SATURDAY, MAY 11TH & SUNDAY, MAY 12TH

Included in the marathon is the Network Premiere of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1"

Burbank, CA (April 22, 2013) - ABC Family gives "Harry Potter" fans something to celebrate with a weekend full of magical memories of Harry, Ron and Hermione's adventures. The "Harry Potter Weekend" starts with "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" on Saturday, May 11th and will conclude with the network premiere of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" on Sunday, May 12th.

The "Harry Potter" marathon schedule is as follows:

Saturday, May 11th

1:00 PM - 4:30 PM ET/PT - "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"

4:30 PM - 7:30 PM ET/PT - "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"

7:30 PM - 11:00 PM ET/PT - "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"

Sunday, May 12th

9:30 AM - 1:00 PM ET/PT - "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"

1:00 PM - 4:00 PM ET/PT - "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"

4:00 PM - 7:30 PM ET/PT - "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"

7:30 PM - 11:00 PM ET/PT - "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1"

From Universal Orlando Resorts -- 

Building on the global phenomenon that is The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Universal Orlando Resort and Warner Bros. Entertainment today announced an expansion of historic proportion with the entirely new themed environment,

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley.

Scheduled to open in 2014, the world’s first centrally themed, multi-park experience expands The Wizarding World of Harry Potter across both Universal Orlando theme parks and allows Universal’s creative team to bring an unparalleled vision to this unique project. The new area will bring to life some of the experiences and places found in and around London in the Harry Potter books and films, offering brand-new adventures for fans and theme park guests from around the world.

Diagon Alley and ‘London’ will be located within the Universal Studios Florida theme park, which is adjacent to Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park, where guests now experience Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. The new area within Universal Studios will be just as expansive, immersive and authentic as the existing themed environment.

And – just like in the books and films – guests will be able to travel between ‘London’ and Hogsmeade aboard the Hogwarts Express.

Work on the new area is already underway. When complete, it will feature shops, a restaurant and an innovative, marquee attraction based on Gringotts bank – all directly inspired by the fiction and films.

More details on The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley will be released over time.

To bring Diagon Alley and ‘London’ to life, Universal’s creative team is working closely with Warner Bros. and the production design team from the Harry Potter films – just as it did for Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.

"I'm so pleased that The Wizarding World of Harry Potter has proved so popular to date, and I'm sure that the attention to detail in creating the new Diagon Alley area will make this an even better experience," said J.K. Rowling.

“We are continuing the journey and adding an entirely new level of adventure,” said Tom Williams, Chairman of Universal Parks & Resorts. “And we are bringing the same drive, commitment, enthusiasm and innovation to this project as we did to the first.”

“We are thrilled to offer the legions of fans the opportunity to embark on this new journey and experience Diagon Alley as it was brought to life in the books and films,” said Brad Globe, president, Warner Bros. Consumer Products.

“Our vision is to create two amazing theme park experiences that combine into one, complete, magical journey,” said Alice Norsworthy, executive vice president, marketing and sales for Universal Orlando Resort.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade opened at Universal’s Islands of Adventure in June 2010 as a fully immersive Harry Potter themed environment - bringing to life the bestselling books by J.K. Rowling and the blockbuster feature films from Warner Bros. Since that time, it has become a global phenomenon, entertaining millions of people from around the world.

Visitors to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter are swept into the adventures of Harry Potter. They can tour Hogwarts castle, shop in Hogsmeade and dine at the Three Broomsticks. They can soar above Hogwarts with Harry, be chosen by a wand at Ollivanders, sample Butterbeer and much more.

From Warner Bros Studio London --

 Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry cast spells, explored iconic sets and discovered the behind-the-scenes secrets of filmmaking as they visited Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter.

Spellbound children and parents from Their Royal Highnesses’ supported charities joined them and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling as they relived the magic through the eyes of filmmakers who brought the Harry Potter film series to life.

Their Royal Highnesses stepped on to the flagstones of the Great Hall, the longest standing set from the Harry Potter film series, and The Duchess got
the chance to measure up to the costume of half-giant Rubeus Hagrid. First built for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone™ in 2000, the Great Hall contains a house points system made up of tens of thousands of Indian glass beads which caused a national bead shortage when built. During their visit, Their Royal Highnesses held a meeting with their charities on this iconic set.

Wands were raised for The Duke and Duchess as they took a wand combat lesson in the Gryffindor common room, using choreography from the Harry Potter film series. Wielding their wands, The Duke and Duchess sparred with each other.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry was surprised to see carrots chopping themselves in the Weasley kitchen, home to a number of household special effects including a self-ironing iron and self-washing frying pan. The set was designed to appear as though Mr Weasley had built much of it himself so doors, windows and walls all sit at crooked angles.

Their Royal Highnesses reunited in Diagon Alley where they took part in a special effects demonstration. By pointing their wands, The Duke, The Duchess and Prince Harry were able to cast a spell which made the sign above Potage’s Cauldron Shop bang and flash as if by magic.

In the Studio Tour’s Wand Room – an area dedicated to the thousands of talented British cast and crew that worked on the film series – Their Royal Highnesses were presented with their own wands, hand-carved by propmaking expert Pierre Bohanna.

'House of Secrets' review by Milo

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Harry Potter alumni, Chris Columbus, had co-written a novel, and I was even more intrigued by the quote from J.K. Rowling on the front cover which reads; "A break-neck, jam-packed, roller coaster of an adventure." If it has Jo's approval then it's good enough for me, right?

Upon receiving my copy of 'House of Secrets', I was already deep in the pages of 'A Game of Thrones', so I thought to myself a change of flavour would be welcome. And what better way to mix it up, than a tale that, from the cover page, has all the hallmarks of something that enchanted us akin to J.K Rowling with Potter. Directly under the title it reads "Three Normal Kids. One Hell of a Curse," so there was nothing more to it and I began to read.

'House of Secrets' centres around the Walker family, who live in modern day (2013) San Francisco. The three main characters are the children, Cordelia (the eldest daughter and book worm), Brendan (the average 15 year old, who likes games and sports) and Eleanor (the youngest, who has a learning disability but is quite possibly smarter than you think). A perfect trio, these are the characters who we spend most of, well almost entirely, the length of the book with. As I said, the story begins in modern day, and features an array of pop culture references, which almost jump out from the page (I haven't been used to reading such things in quite a while) and these continue throughout the story, which I think helps keep a keen sense of the characters and where they have come from. After a turn of events, some which are genuinely scary to read, we find ourselves whisked away into a not too familiar alternate world. Without giving away too much of what happens, the plot enables itself to switch and intermingle with many different characters, time periods and locations. This is very much a story written for young people of today’s generation, and its that factor that allows Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini to create this world which they can drop these characters into and still keep the writing style and language contemporary.

The book itself is quite lengthy, and I even found myself overwhelmed by how big it is, considering it’s the first volume in what may possibly become a trilogy. But what Columbus and Vizzini do quite cleverly is that they make each chapter rather short, and almost every one of them ends on a cliffhanger. Coming in at over 550 pages, you'd think this device would get quite tiresome, but on the contrary, it works very well and had me constantly turning the pages to find out what happens. It's not a difficult story to grasp, the intended audience is clear, but it does combine all elements of fantasy and history, and really creates a world which you haven't quite seen or read the likes of before. The Chris Columbus element in the equation really had me comparing it to his Potter outings and I could see quite easily how it would translate into a possible screen adaptation, and at times I could feel the Potter influences coming through into the work, which isn't a bad thing at all.

In the end, ‘House of Secrets' didn't quite capture me the way Potter did (I don't think there'll ever be a fantasy story that can quite top it anyway), but what it did do was immerse me into a world that, even as a young adult, I found very enthralling and entertaining. The pop culture references, though not too subtle, did give the story that extra kick and added sense of realism in something that could have quite easily got lost within itself.

Chris Columbus is a man who knows how to tell stories and, like us, loves to read. And that message comes across in this book. If you love to read, and fantasy adventure novels are your thing, then definitely add this one to your list.

‘House of Secrets’ was released this week and is available on Amazon US and Amazon UK.