DOLOR SET AMET

C HAPTER 1

About J.K. Rowl-

ing J.K. Rowling was borne on July 31,
1965 in Gloucestershire, England. Rowl-
ing is a Novelist, Film Producer, TV Pro-
ducer, Screenwriter, and Philanthropist.
she is best known for her writing of the
Harry Potter series. The Harry Potter se-
ries has sold more than 400 million copies
and has become the bestselling book se-
ries in history. This is how it all started.
J.K. Rowling was on her way back from
Manchester on a train she and the train
stopped and announced there was a me-
chanics problem. So, while she was wait-
ing for the train to be fixed she conceived
the idea of Harry Potter. Soon after this
her mother died and this inspired Harry’s
own loss of family in the first Harry Pot-
ter book. Harry Potter and the Philoso-
phers Stone. Then in 1995 Rowling com-
pleted the manuscript for the first Harry
Potter book (Harry Potter and The Phi-
The first manuscript was rejected by 12 pub-
lishers before being accepted 1 year later
in 1996. In 1997 the book won it’s first
award, the Nestle Smarties Book Prize and
was auction in the U.S for the right to pub-
lish it. It was won by Scholastic Inc. for
105,000 U.S dollars. Rowling said she
nearly died when she heard the news. In Oc-
tober 1998, Scholastic published Philoso-
pher's Stone in the US under the title of
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, a
change Rowling says she now regrets and
would have fought if she had been in a bet-
ter position at the time. Now, if you are won-
dering why they changed the name from
Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone to
Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone when
the book was published in the United States
here’s why. When Scholastic bought the
copy they didn’t think that any children
would know what philosopher meant there-
fore didn’t think young kids would read so,
they decided to change the name to Harry
Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.

2
 C HAPTER 2

About the movie

actors: Daniel
Radcliffe
Daniel Jacob Radcliffe was borne on July 23rd, 1989 in
Hammersmith, London, England. Radcliffe is best known
for his role as Harry Potter in the Harry Potter film series.
Here is how it all got started. In 2000, producer David Hey-
man asked Radcliffe to audition for the role of Harry Potter
for the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's
Stone, the best-selling book by British author J. K. Rowling.
Rowling had been searching for a British actor to play the
character, and the movie's director Chris Columbus recalled
thinking, "This is what I want. This is Harry Potter", after he
saw a video of the young actor in David Copperfield. Eight
Rupert Grint (top)
months later, and after several auditions, Radcliffe was se-
lected to play the part. Rowling also endorsed the selection
Daniel Radcliffe (middle)
saying, "I don't think Chris Columbus could have found a bet-
ter Harry."Radcliffe's parents originally turned down the of-
Emma Watson ( bottom)
fer, as they had been told that it would involve six films shot
in Los Angeles. Warner Bros. instead offered Radcliffe a
two-movie contract with shooting in the UK; Radcliffe was
unsure at the time if he would do any more than that.
CONTINUED

The release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

(released as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United For financial and scripting reasons the last book was split into
States) took place in 2001. Radcliffe received a seven figure two parts shot back to back, which drew criticism to the fran-
salary for the lead role, but asserted that the fwas "not that chises film base. Radcliffe defended the split saying that it
important" to him; his parents chose to invest the money for
him. The film was highly popular and was met with positive would have been impossible to make the film correctly without
reviews, and critics took notice of Radcliffe "Radcliffe is the splitting the film into two parts.
embodiment of every reader's imagination. It is wonderful to see
a young hero who is so scholarly looking and filled with curiosity
and who connects with very real emotions, from solemn
intelligence and the delight of discovery to deep family
longing,"A year later Radcliffe starred in Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets, the second installment of the series.
Reviewers were positive about the lead actors' performances but
had polarised opinions on the movie as a whole. The 2004
release Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was the third
film in the series. Radcliffe's performance was panned by New
York Times journalist A. O. Scott, who wrote that Watson had to
carry him with her performance.

Next was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2005. The
film was the second-highest grossing Harry Potter film at that
point, and Radcliffe singled out the humour as being a reason for
the movie's creative success. The future of the franchise was put
at stake when Radcliffe and his co-star’s Emma Watson and
Rupert Grint hesitated to sign the contract for the last 5 films.
However in March of 2007 Radcliffe had signed the contract for
the final films. Radcliffe reprised his role for the fourth time in
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007). Radcliffe
stated that director David Yates and actress Imelda Staunton
made Order of the Phoenix the "most fun" film in the series to
work on. His performance earned several award nominations,
and he received the 2008 National Movie Award for "Best Male
Performance." As his fame and the series continued, Radcliffe,
Grint, and Watson left imprints of their hands, feet, and wands
in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. In July
2009 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released, the
series' sixth instalment. Radcliffe received nominations for "Best
Male Performance" and "Global Superstar" at the 2010 MTV
Movie Awards.
F ACT #1

E MMA W ATSON A LMOST QUIT PLAYING THE

PART OF H ERMIONE G RANGER WHEN SHE
WAS 16
Emma Watson said that she almost quit
the film series at age of sixteen. even
though she earned 60 million dollars play-
ing the role of Hermione Granger she said
that she felt completely trapped by the ‘hor-
rible’ film schedule. the 20-year-old Emma
Watson, was locked in a contract when she
was cast in Harry Potter and the philoso-
phers stone at age nine.

but, her deal with Warner Brothers came up

for renewal while she was shooting the
fifth film, Harry Potter and the Order of
The Phoenix, in 2006.

her co-stars, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert

Grint, who play Harry Potter and Ronald
Weasley, also had a chance to quit
 Emma, the daughter of divorced law-
yers from Oxfordshire, said she
chance to quit at the time, but never
reached a low point while shooting
gave it a thought.
Deathly Hallows: Part 1.
However, Emma said she felt unsure
The film involved arduous outdoor
that she wanted to continue being con-
scenes in which, she said, she, Daniel
trolled by a plot in which she had to
and Rupert were cold and wet for
go on looking and behaving like an old
months on end. 
schoolgirl.
‘I hate to sound whiny but it’s horri-
When she eventually agreed to sign
ble,’ Emma told New York magazine En-
up for another 5 years she said it was
tertainment Weekly, which is owned
‘agonizing,’ she said
by Time Warner, the parent company
‘I love to make people laugh and I love of Warner Brothers.
being creative, but there are so many
‘This has definitely been the most in-
other things I love doing too,’ she said
tense, gruelling period of film-making
‘I have such a structure when I’m work- I’ve ever done.’
ing on Potter. I get told what time I
get picked up.
'I get told what time I can eat, when I
have time to go to the bathroom. Every
single second of my day is not in my
power.’

vi
 F ACT #2

2. H ARRY ' S EYES

Filmmakers originally planned to have
Daniel Radcliffe wear contact lenses so
his eyes would be green like Harry's are
in the books.

On the first day of filming for "Harry

Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," they
gave Radcliffe green contacts to wear.

"But he was allergic to them," said pro-

ducer David Heyman in "Creating the
World of Harry Potter, Part 1: The Magic
Begins," "and ultimately we made the deci-
sion to remove them. But for the first day,
we tried to work through it.

"So for the last scene, when he's saying

CONTINUED

goodbye to Hagrid (on the train

platform), you can see almost his eyes
tearing and his eyes a little bit
swollen, and it feels like he's about
to cry. He probably was."
 FACT #3

Hermione Granger

J.K. Rowling wrote herself into the

books in the character of Hermione
Granger.

"I wouldn’t say that I based any of

these women on people I knew, but
Hermione is an exaggeration of me,"
said Rowling in "The Women of Harry
Potter."

"I was a very insecure person for

longer than I'd like to admit," said
Rowling. "I think writing about the time
in Hermione's life that I write about ...
brought back to me how very difficult
CONTINUED

it is. ... Often, you are asked to sac-

rifice parts of you in becoming a
girl, I would say. Hermione doesn't
play the game."

Which is why Rowling was most wor-

ried about the casting of Hermione
than any other character. She said
that she knew Emma Watson was per-
fect for the part when she first
spoke to her on the phone, but Wat-
son said that she didn't know for
sure if she'd done a good job until,
after the third movie, Rowling
wrote her a letter that began, "To
my perfect Hermione."

"That was when I really knew that

I'd done a good job," said Watson