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Huzzah! This discovery will eclipse even my greatest work thus far: Falling Out of Airplanes Linked to Death!

Now if only I could figure out the "sky is blue" matrix!: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040103/ap_on_he_me/food_portions


Dr. Obvious

Inspired by another topic, I wanted to know everyone's favorite directors:

Here's mine (and for the most part in order):

1. Tim Burton (a.k.a. God, wild, imaginative, visualist)
2. Quentin Tarantino (All around cool, and brilliant behind the camera, with a compelling vision)
3. The Coen Brothers (Brilliant men, offbeat and cinema savvy)
4. Steven Spielbergs early stuff (the movies he made when he still had guts...)
5. Walt Disney (The master of entertainment for kids of all ages.)
6. Sam Raimi (B-Movie bad ass, turned Major Hollywood Player)
7. Robert Zemeckis (master of the world of heart-warming fantasy)
8. Sam Mendes (Brilliant director, with a beautiful style)
9. George Lucas (Re-Defined the space epic, and the special effects in general)
10. Orson Wells (influential expert filmmaker)
11. Robert Rodriguez (the most energetic filmmaker ever)
12. Stanley Kubrick (Great visionary, and perfectionist)
13. Martin Scorcesi (Genius)
14. Alfred Hitchthingy (the man had a ground breaking style)
15. Frank Capra (Capra-corn)
16. Cecil B. Demil (Big budget showman, epic filmmaker)
17. Stanley Donnen (Master of the Hollywood musicals)
18. Ron Howard (Child star, turned Hollywood Hotshot)
19. Roman Polanski (The only man to rival Hitchthingy in the terror department)
20. Ang Lee (Asian art filmmaker)
21. John Ford (master of the westerns)
22. Mel Brooks (Master of vulgar comedy spoofs)
23. David Lynch (disturbing art house filmmaker)
24. Christopher Nolan (innovative and unconventional)

What's yours?

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban director Alfonso Cuaron and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell have both been talking about their upcoming films.

Cuaron tells The Associated Press that some themes in the third film are similar to how the cast is growing into their teens. "Harry goes through a journey where he realizes that demons aren't just things that go bump in the night," Cuaron said, "but also can be painful emotions, worries about family, friends, the future, the monsters that lie within. And that's a classic teenage issue."

Cuaron added that he's also trying to make the film more contemporary with the characters wearing modern clothes under their school cloaks, following the intent of author J.K. Rowling.

Meanwhile, Newell has been chatting with The Sunday Mail about the fourth film for which he says Warner Bros. will have to pull out its big wallet. "I think of myself as being really lucky. I'm going to make the most expensive film there has ever been. These things are not like ordinary films they are world events."

Newell said the job of directing a Harry Potter film carries huge responsibilities. "I have millions of 10-year-olds who must not be disappointed. Making Harry Potter is like being President of Brazil. It is a colossal undertaking."

He adds that finding an 8 ft tall French woman to play Hagrid's love interest, Madame Maxime, is giving him a major headache. "We are casting right now. I've been in Paris, looking for giant women and French schoolgirls."

[Best Picture]

Okay, so the oscars have been moved up to February 29th. YAY!
Well anyway... I just wanted to cast predictions (and hopes) for the categories...

Best Picture
Big Fish (hope it wins)
Mystic River
Cold Mountain (it's by Miramax and they always win awards)
(This one I doubt will be nominated, but I think it should be) Kill Bill volume 1
Last Samurai is a good bet
Lord of the Rings blah blah blah... almost certain to get nominated but I hope it won't win.

Best Director
Tim Burton (Big Fish) had better win this one...
Clint Eastwood (mystic river) might luck away with a nomination
Peter Wier (master and commander) will get one
I wish Gary Ross (seabiscuit) would get one

Best Actor
Disney has really been pushing for Johnny Depp to win (and he should since he singlehandedly saved an otherwise plain film)
Jude Law (Cold Mountain) I hope gets a nomination
Bill Murray (Lost in Translation) should also get a nod from the AMPAS
Sean Penn (Mystic River) might net a nod
Tom Cruise (Last Samurai) may walk away with a nomination (which should be award enough for him)
I think Bruce Campbell should get a nomination for Bubba Ho Tep, but we all know that won't happen.

Best Actress
Jennifer Connelly (House of Sand and Fog)
Diane Keaton (Somethings Gotta Give) MAYBE
Nicole Kidman (Could Mountain) she won last year, it's doubtful she'll get another nomination.
Charlize Theron (Monster) I believe this is a safe bet
Uma Thurman DEFINATELY deserves a Nod from the AMPAS for her role in Kill Bill vol.1

Best Supporting Actor
Albert Finner (Big Fish)
Chris Cooper (Seabiscuit)
Ian McKellan (LOTRROTK) He deserves it for being the only interesting REAL character in the entire series. Too bad they paid too much attention to a CGI character and not enough on the actors...

Best Supporting Actress
Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River)
Natalie Portman (Cold Mountain)

Best Musical Score
Danny Elfman (Big Fish) my money is on this guy
Thomas Newman (Finding Nemo)
Randy Newman (Seabiscuit)
Did John Williams not have a movie this year? ... shame ... :(

Best Animated Feature Film
Do I even need to say it?
...

That's all folks...

Wow, I've heard this song a lot. But till today I had not been able to find the name for the silly thing: "Misirlou" by thingy Dole & His Del Tones.


I also got The Kill Bill soundtrack, and it totally rocks. "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" by Nancy Sinatra is just awesome. Al Hirts "Green Hornet" is also good. But my favorite is "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" by Tomoyasu Hotei. The song is just beautiful.

I was thinking it would be cool for all of us to participate in a group fan fiction. Here are the rules:
Each person must write one chapter in the point of view of ONE CHARACTER.
Each subsequent chapter (by a different writer) must follow the previous chapter but by a different character.
This will be taking place after Harrys years at Hogwarts. But that doesn't mean Harry can't be in the story.
Writers can write from the perspective of their own username (For example: Kiera could write from the perspective of her own name)

Other than that, anything goes.

Professor Snape (by the way, I get to write from Snapes perspective... of course). ;)

The Official Harry Potter website has up an interview with Harry Potter himself check it out here:

http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/web/dailyprophet/article.jsp?id=QandA_Daniel_Radcliffe

Or just read the copy/pasted version :-D

Q: How does it feel to work with the same group of actors and actresses again?

A: It always feels good working with Emma, Rupert, Tom and Matthew. We have become very good friends and as this is now the third film we have made together our relationships just get stronger.

Q: Are you going to work in anymore Harry Potter films?

A: At the moment I am working on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and I will certainly make Goblet of Fire. After that? Who knows?

Q: I really want to know how you manage to do everything you do.

A: I manage to fit in a lot of things thanks to the brilliant organization on the film set, by my tutors who receive a lot of support from my school and also because I have great friends who I see regularly. I can keep up to date with everything that is going on at my old school via email or text messaging.

Q: Rupert seems to do other movies besides Harry Potter. I wonder if you or Emma have plans to do other movies besides Harry Potter?

A: As I film practically every day on the movie it is pretty impossible to fit in other films between times. However, last year I was able to appear as the "surprise guest" in THE PLAY WHAT I WROTE in the West End directed by Kenneth Branagh. It was great fun and the first time I had been on stage!

Q: have you found that people treat you and your new-found celebrity differently in foreign countries?

A: I am always completely overwhelmed by the reception I receive when I visit different countries. People are always extremely kind, warm and generous and I feel very privileged to have visited so many countries and seen some of the most amazing sights in the world.

Q: How does working with the new director (Alfonso Cuaron) compare with your experience with Chris Columbus?

A: First of all, I consider myself very lucky to have worked with two great directors on these films. Chris is without doubt, the most energetic director I have ever met. He was amazing in keeping us motivated and in encouraging us every step of the way. Alfonso on the other hand directs in a more intense way. The scenes in this film are some of the most passionate and emotional I have ever worked on and Alfonso's style has been very helpful to me.

Q: Have you ever felt like you wanted to go back to your normal life, instead of being famous?

A: As far as I am concerned I am a normal person. I go back to school when I am not filming, I go out with my friends, I go to the cinema -- all the normal things that teenagers do. There is an assumption that I cannot leave my house without being hounded -- that is not the case. I am able to do many more things than people think I can.

Q: What did it feel like to talk to Dobby the Computerized House Elf? Is it hard to remember your lines?

A: I loved doing the Dobby scenes. I talked to an orange ball at the end of a stick. It was very detailed work because as he bounced around I had to ensure that my eyeline was in exactly the right position. It was demanding, but when I saw the end result I was really pleased.

Q: What are your favourite things to do during your time off?

A: I am absolutely obsessed with film and music. I am learning the bass guitar and it goes everywhere with me. Also, I have a portable DVD player which travels with me with a large supply of films. These two things occupy most of my spare time.

Q: Are you a football (soccer) fan? If so, of what team?

A: I don't really play football but I support Fulham as I live very close to the ground.

Cheers,
Professor

Here is the report:

Well, what a night! It was a very cold and (typically UK) wet night, but hey, we were going to the Prisoner of Azkaban party, so who cared?! Driving up there was great, the excitement, the talk about who we wanted to meet, who we wanted to see. As we went toward the main entrance, it was exactly as the Oscar ceremony would be: flood lights all in the sky, waving in the dark night. We had our heads out of the windows as we drove up the runway!
Warner Bros. had without a doubt put on a fantastic show. There was a huge bonfire leading up to the main area, the marquees were massive with two Knight Buses lit up brilliantly with different coloured lights, a stage in the middle (mainly being used by an absolutely awesome Mexican band, all I know is that they were brought over for the one and only Alfonso).
One of Cuarón's favourite scenes was filming Aunt Marge.
Alfonso, with his wife and daughter, remarking that when he started out making this film he was on his own, now he is married to a lovely wife and has a baby girl. "What a year," he said.
OK, now Daniel - what a guy. It doesn't matter how many fans he has around him, he takes time to sign everybody's things. We met him very briefly on location, but this time had a chance to chat. He had a posse of girls around him when we caught up with him, signing away in the pouring rain outside, but was as happy as ever. We put up an umbrella and chatted for a while, we asked a few things (which will be posted shortly). This was billed as an end-of-filming party, but Daniel and a few others are still filming up to Christmas (don't worry, this doesn't affect the release date of the film, just extra bits I guess).
Apart from Daniel, without a doubt one of the nicest guys you could ever meet is Jamie Waylett. He's just so happy to chat and take some time out for you, it was nice for my sons that he remembered them from filming on location and stood for pictures with them. Actually EVERYONE who has anything to do with the films are ALL are like that. Rupert, Jamie and Devon were excellent and never let any of their fans down (we followed them all night patiently), to get a glimpse, a picture or signature. They took ages in signing books, scraps of paper, and never, never complained once. We watched the fans all leaving with big grins, happy to have met their idols.
I'll end at the moment with Emma Watson and Bonnie Wright. What truly lovely girls. I'd never met them before, they were with all their friends and, unasked, they each individually came over, chatted and signed some items, taking the time to make everyone happy before rejoining the party.

The Chicago Sun Times has talked to film composer (THE GOD) John Williams recently. I have included to full article below or you can click this link: http://www.suntimes.com/output/delacoma/cst-ftr-williams28.html


During the past century, anybody who was anybody in the classical music world has popped up on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's stage. Its repertoire covers a Who's Who of three centuries, and virtually every living giant of the field, from Richard Strauss to Stravinsky, Toscanini to Solti, Casals to Yo-Yo Ma, have either conducted, appeared as soloists or had their music played by the CSO.
It's safe to say, though, that no musician in the CSO spotlight during its 113 seasons -- with the possible exception of Luciano Pavarotti -- is more widely known than John Williams. A conductor as well as composer of the scores for such iconic films as "Jaws," the "Star Wars" series, "Schindler's List" and the Harry Potter films, Williams makes his downtown conducting debut with the CSO tonight. (He has conducted the CSO at Ravinia several times, most recently in 1999.) Suites from his movie scores are on the program tonight, Saturday and Tuesday, and the final two concerts also include the world premiere of his first concerto for French horn, a CSO commission written for principal horn Dale Clevenger.
Tens of millions of people around the world know Williams' music, from the low, short-breathed rumble of cellos and basses that announces the shark's presence in "Jaws" to the melancholy solo violin theme from "Schindler's List." In addition to writing music for more than 90 films, he conducted the legendary Boston Pops from 1980 to 1993 and is now that orchestra's laureate conductor.
Relatively few moviegoers, however, also know that the 71-year-old Williams is one of those rare Hollywood composers who also has kept a hand in the world of classical music. He has written two symphonies and several concertos, including a cello concerto commissioned by the Boston Symphony for Yo-Yo Ma. Like his new concerto for the CSO and Clevenger, two of Williams' recent concertos were commissioned by major orchestras for their principal players: a bassoon concerto for the New York Philharmonic and a trumpet concerto for the Cleveland Orchestra.
"Most of my work for the past four decades has been in the film area," said Williams, sitting down after a CSO rehearsal earlier this week for an interview in Symphony Center's backstage conductor's suite. When Daniel Barenboim, the CSO's music director, is in residence, a haze from his beloved cigars hangs over the suite's leather couches and easy chairs. Williams, a tall, fit-looking man with a modest manner and gentle voice, limits his indulgence to an occasional swig of bottled water.
"During that time," Willliams continued. "I've had a free month here, six weeks there. I've gotten in the habit -- even when I was a kid -- of composing every day. When I'm working on a film, it has to be six days a week. So if I stop doing that, whenever I'm not working on a film, I feel like I have to be doing something [musical], practicing the piano or writing. It's like a neuromuscular thing."
In composing for the concert hall, Williams exercises different musical muscles.
"In film, what we have to do is very prescribed," he said. "A scene will be three minutes long. There will be dialogue from here to here, there will be action from there to there, it should be soft from here to here. You can make a graphic illustration of what that three minutes has to look like and sound like. But I can sit down with a blank piece of paper and say, 'What do I want to write for Dale Clevenger?' without anybody saying it has to be three minutes long, loud or soft, this or that."
Born in New York, Williams studied piano as a child and moved with his family in 1947 to Los Angeles, where his father, a percussionist, found work in the orchestras that studios typically maintained in those days. As a young man, Williams had no ambitions to write music for movies. As so often happens, he fell by chance into his professional field.
"When I was in school, they didn't teach anything like this," said Williams, the wonder of stumbling into his career still lingering in his voice. "Now every music school has a cinema department. I came to it accidentally. I was a piano student, I married in my early 20s and needed a job. My father said there was an opening at the Columbia Pictures orchestra. They had a 52-week contract, a very good salary. I auditioned and got the job."
For two years, Williams played in the orchestra under Morris Stoloff, a conductor and composer whose lengthy film credits include "His Girl Friday," "The Desperadoes," "The Eddy Duchin Story" and "Fanny."
"Mr. Stoloff would occasionally come over to the piano at the end of the day and say, 'Can you orchestrate? Can you do this little scene for Thursday, for so-and-so?' And with the temerity of youth, I said I could. Pretty soon, I was doing orchestration for older colleagues but still playing in the orchestra. What a school, what a way to learn. I was playing in the orchestra for people like Alfred Newman and Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman and orchestrating for some of them." (Newman, Herrmann and Waxman are master film composers whose music also has found a place in the concert hall.)
Eventually, Stoloff asked Williams if he could write a score. Williams said yes, and he started working on "Because They're Young," a 1960 film with thingy Clark as a beleaguered high school teacher dealing with students including Tuesday Weld. Williams was on his way to becoming one of Hollywood's most successful film composers. More than 40 years later, his resume includes 42 Academy Award nominations, five Oscars and 18 Grammys.
Williams has scored most of Steven Spielberg's films and worked often with George Lucas and Robert Altman. He has worked on films as epic as "Jurassic Park" and as relatively intimate as "Catch Me If You Can." But the process usually follows a predictable pattern.
"There are great variations," said Williams, "but most typically, a director will come to a composer with a fairly completely edited film, a first cut or a director's cut. It's usually longer than what the public will see, but at least we can sit and look at something that's fixed in time. We can say, we need music from there to there or so on.
"You really can't get that off the page of script," Williams explained. "There may be one page of script that could be five minutes of film, or five pages of script that's 30 seconds of film. We need to see it."
Williams then starts composing, working on a schedule he describes as "always too little time."
Before arriving in Chicago, Williams was in London catching an early glimpse of the third Harry Potter film, which he is scoring for scheduled release next summer.
"The principal photography is ending about now," he said "I'll record the music in March, so that leaves about two-and-one-half months to write almost a two-hour score. It's colossally tight. And after mid-March, there's another month or six week for mixing and dubbing. So I would say for a picture like that -- fairly long, with special effects -- we're talking about four or five months.''
Thanks to computers and synthesizers, "shrinking post-production periods have become the norm in our business," he said with a sigh. "But I'm still a pencil-and-paper man and I write every note. It's very labor-intensive."
Williams has reduced his conducting schedule in recent years, doing most of it during the summer at the annual Tanglewood Festival in Massachusetts. A chance to write a new work for the CSO and conduct the world premiere was irresistible, however.
"This was such a privilege," he said, "to be invited to come here, that I said I would carve out the week, even in the middle of 'Harry Potter.' "

And WOW! This looks so much better than the last two movies, it's absolutely amazing. Getting Cuaron may be the best thing to ever happen to the Potter series. Everything about that trailer looked AMAZING!  :o
Dumbledore even looks better. Cuaron seems to have definately improved on the last two... Also, it looks like Alan Rickman will have more to do in this film which is DEFINATELY better. Also, the casting of Gary Oldman is genius.


In case you wondered, the trailer is attached to the new Looney Tunes movie (which, by the way was really bad but it had some good trailers).

[The Director Speaks]

Here we go:

The Director Speaks

Alfonso Cuaron, director of the latest movie in the Harry Potter series, says the film's villain, the evil wizard Voldemort, reminds him of a combination of President George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein. "They both have selfish interests and are very much in love with power. Also, a disregard for the environment. A love for manipulating people," he tells Newsweek in the August 4 issue (on newsstands Monday, July 28). "I read books four and five, and Fudge" -- author J.K. Rowling's slippery Minister of Magic -- "is similar to Tony Blair. He's the ultimate politician. He's in denial about many things. And everything is for the sake of his own persona, his own power. The way the Iraq thing was handled was not unlike the way Fudge handled affairs in book four."

Meanwhile, to prepare for the older, bolder Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, star Daniel Radcliffe has been listening to the Sex Pistols -- which broke up 11 years before he was born -- as well as edgy new acts like the Strokes and the Dandy Warhols, reports London Correspondent Carla Power in an exclusive, behind the scenes look at the third installment in the Potter franchise. He's also watching Francois Truffaut (The 400 Blows) and Vittorio De Sica (The Bicycle Thief) to get a handle on Harry's "feelings of hopelessness."

"Azkaban" is the puberty movie in the Potter franchise -- the one, says Emma Watson, who plays Hermione, in which "all those lovely, lovely hormones start coming out." Mexican director Cuaron, who's taken over the series' reins from Chris Columbus, notes that his teenage cast is coming of age just as the characters are and that hormones on the set are raging. "You don't need to encourage it. You allow it to be. And believe me, they have a lot of it." Watson, who's 13, has a sign on her dressing-room door that reads BEWARE: BABE INSIDE.

With the series' two lightest chapters out of the way, the stage is perfectly set for Cuaron, who got an Oscar nomination last year for the teen-sex romp Y Tu Mama Tambien. "Alfonso is much more gritty than Chris ever was," says Watson. "He's really into the idea that [shooting] should be fluid and natural. People can be eating an apple during a take." Columbus, who says he was "too physically exhausted" to direct the third movie, is serving as producer and he makes no bones about the fact that he's doing it to "protect" the Potter world he adores.

"Azkaban" is a spookier story than the first two -- the soul-sucking dementors, who guard Azkaban Prison, make their first appearance -- and Cuaron promises that the movie's palette will reflect the gathering darkness. Cuaron also reimagined the role of Professor Dumbledore, played by British actor Michael Gambon in place of the late Richard Harris, styling him as an elegant old hippie.

Want to be in the Goblet of Fire?

Do you want to be an extra in the fourth Harry Potter film, the Goblet of Fire? Stupid question really!

Well, you might be in luck because you can write to the casting office from January 2004.

The casting office has confirmed to CBBC Newsround that kids can write to them from that date - but not before - otherwise your letter won't get read!

Starting January, 2004 (NOT BEFORE!) you should send a short letter and a recent photograph to:

Casting Office
Leavesden Studios
PO Box 322
Watford
Hertfordshire
WD25 7XJ

And the pictures...

New Dumbledore
http://www.comingsoon.net/gallery/Fantasy/Harry_Potter/Harry_Potter_and_the_Prisoner_of_Azkaban/hp34.jpg


Director and Emma
http://www.comingsoon.net/gallery/Fantasy/Harry_Potter/Harry_Potter_and_the_Prisoner_of_Azkaban/hp33.jpg


Film Still
http://www.comingsoon.net/gallery/Fantasy/Harry_Potter/Harry_Potter_and_the_Prisoner_of_Azkaban/hp32.jpg


Director and Radcliff speaking
http://www.comingsoon.net/gallery/Fantasy/Harry_Potter/Harry_Potter_and_the_Prisoner_of_Azkaban/hp31.jpg


Set Pics
http://www.comingsoon.net/gallery/Fantasy/Harry_Potter/Harry_Potter_and_the_Prisoner_of_Azkaban/set2.jpg

http://comingsoon.net/nextraimages/poa.jpg
Enjoy! :)

That you've discussed everything from the movie, except the best part:
John Williams musical score.

I happened to have loved the score (even though I didn't think that much of the movie). Once again John has shown he can do a diversity of high quality music.
What did you guys think?

Was Harry's mother a muggle? I seem to remember something about her going to Hogwarts being mentioned in the first book. But I'm not sure.