8. Alan Rickman
It's good to see that here, amid the chiselled cheekbones and perfectly coiffed heads, is a man who's sexy because he's smart, snarky and has a fine line in put-downs. Sure, everyone loves a bad(ish) boy, but Rickman's rogues' gallery is united by the fact that they're all strangely, unjustifiably sexy. Yes, even greasy-haired Snape. And as for his good guys, they're pretty irresistible.
Most alluring as... For Rickman as a good guy, as deceased cellist Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply (if you haven't seen it, it's like Ghost but better). For Rickman as a baddie, it's gotta be Hans Gruber in Die Hard.
Interests include... He's heavily involved in supporting theatre and lots of theatre causes, and holds a vice-chairmanship of RADA.

24. Jason Isaacs
Last time we ran a Sexiest poll, repeat voting by a hard core of Isaacs fans threatened to derail the whole thing. This time, he's in a slightly more sensible position, reflecting both the fact that he's not a hugely well-known leading man and the fact that he's devastatingly charming and handsome. Seriously, show us someone who doesn't fancy him, and we'll show you a corpse.
Most alluring as... Is it wrong that we fancied him as both Lucius Malfoy and Captain Hook in Peter Pan (2003)? It is? OK then, er, David in Friends With Money.
Interests include... Amusing all the Empire staff with scandalous anecdotes every Empire Awards night. Also, raising two children and speaking Spanish.

"Could you possibly give us an insight as to why Flitwick's look was changed for the third HP movie?"
So many of you have asked me the 'New look Flitwick' question, so I will answer it here, once and for all. When it came time to shoot 'Azkaban', there was no mention of 'Flitwick'' in the script. However, the producer still wanted me to be in the movie, so he asked if I would play the role of 'Choir Master'. Of course, I said 'yes'. When it came time to shoot 'Goblet of Fire', the director, Michael Newell said he liked the look of the choir master, and from that moment, the character became known as 'Flitwick'.

( Read more... )
If you could play another Potter character which would it be?
Without doubt, Snape.

James Williamson will play the role of a Death Eater in the final part of the JK Rowling series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  The 25-year-old, from Peartree Farm in Wood End, landed the role after going for an audition at Leavesden Studios in Watford.

( Read more... )

...early bird registration price for $165.00 until midnight of September 7th, 2009. After that, registration will be $180.00 until March 31, 2010. It will then increase to $200.00 pending availability. Please note that your registration will include two meals and access to our Ball as well as all Formal Programming except for the Keynote Luncheons (which can be purchased at a later date). Information about park tickets will be available soon.

And, of course, I can't say enough about Alan Rickman as Snape. Nobody can say as much with just a glare as Rickman can. I especially love how he bites off the ends of his sentences like they were a chocolate bar, adding menace to everything he says, even "hello." And the way he often pauses....before....each...word in that clipped manner of disdain is just brilliant. I wish there had been more Snape in this movie, though thankfully there is a bit more than usual.

nettlebrew

lemon_ashwinder

"Don't reach down for your popcorn, because by the time you do, I could be off the screen, in Half-Blood Prince I am literally like, whoa, there she goes! But everyone was like that. In our first scene, Helena Bonham Carter and I are rolling past this blue screen, and we knock on the door and Tim Spall comes out.

( Read more... )

This is an open post for the London Premiere as the pictures come "rolling" in. I will be updating this throughout the evening.


 

"Potter Plotter is Hotter to Trotter"
~ Title of review in The Sun

At times like a High School rom-com. Hogwarts is Snogwarts as Ron lip locks with Lavender Brown, much to Hermione's annoyance.
~ The Sun

The death of Sirius Black in 2007's Order Of The Phoenix was an emotionless affair.
The demise of a beloved character here is told with heart and power. This is a full-blooded affair.
Rather than giving us a series of computer-generated action sequences (yawn again), Yates has gone for careful character development, building to a dramatic crescendo. And that is the biggest surprise of all - The Half-Blood Prince is masterful.
~ The Sun

( Read more... )

morgan_emerald

Interesting and lovely composition! I may be reading too much into it, but it feels a bit like a triumph

Snape and Draco situated both centre piece, still in opposition, but clearly leaning towards the "good side" and breaking away from the "bad". Dumbledore and Draco seem mostly focused on each other -- Dumbledore almost disappearing in the background and with little relation to Snape in the forefront, conveying an interesting message. Draco obviously has Greyback "backing" him (read: breathing in his neck). To me, Snape's posture in relation to Draco specifically, but to Dumbledore and the Trio as well, is clearly protective. He shields them with his body much like he did in the image from PoA. His non-wandhand gesture also suggests he is pausing Bella and Greyback, holding them back. I also like how he is the only one with an explicit and intense focus on something "outside" of the poster frame, as if he is the only one fighting the real fight, a very heroic image. Bellatrix' suspicous glare on his behalf is masterful and highly suggestive of his struggle maintaining his position in Voldemort's camp as well.

masterofmystery

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1. “When you live in London, as I do, being famous isn’t really a problem. People just stare at the pavement so they don’t really come up to you. In New York, weirdly, there is no class system. People just walk past you and say ‘like your work’, directly and honestly and walk on. But it difficult being famous and when you’re English.
There is an idea that you have to get back in your little bus. ‘Get back in your box’ should be the national emblem.”

2. “Fame is all relative. I mean, when you are with Johnny Depp (with whom Rickman starred with in Sweeney Todd and in the upcoming Alice and Wonderland), you realise ‘I’ve nothing to worry about,” he says, “I mean, sometimes I even fly economy!”

3. “I was very wary about it (playing Col. Brandon in Sense and Sensibility). I happen to love Jane Austen. When I first read her work, it was that type of moment where you wanted to show it to people and tell them how beautiful it is,”

4. “I said to Jo Rowling, ‘Look, I can’t play (Snape) unless I know him’. She then gave me this elliptical piece of information that I didn’t really understand at first. It was information she hadn’t told anyone else, not even her sister, but it gave me what I needed to take on Snape.”

5. "...I like limitations. They are good for a role. They help apply imagination to the story,” Rickman continues, before drolly adding, “Like with my rubber head in Galaxy Quest.”

6. “I never watch [my films]. Genuinely, I’m not just saying it. All I can see is my mistakes. In theatre, I can’t watch myself or be objective, so it suits me better in some ways.”

7. “I love new writing. I love seeing what’s going on in a writers head and you go, ‘Where the hell did that come from?!”

8. “Well, I believe what is going to happen is it will be my head on an animated caterpillar. I mean, Tim Burton just has a mind like a fairground. I aim to do everything he ever does. I am a crawling sycophant to him!”

9. "...We’re fighting with Disney at the moment… They are worried about having a character [the caterpillar] that smokes,” he adds, dramatically rolling his eyes to heaven.

10. "Life has shifting horizons so you might as well keep swimming.”

I've been out of things with a bad cold this holiday weekend, so I missed alot of news! So I'm putting all the news I could find into this one post 

This is long so all of it is under the cut.
 

Imagine making out with your sister. Now imagine something less taboo, and you'll know what it was like for Daniel Radcliffe to mack on Bonnie Wright, who plays Harry Potter's future wife Ginny Weasley in the sixth installment of the magical series. ''Harry's got a real thing for her, and that is slightly odd, because when we met, I was 11 and she was 9, and she was only ever Ron's little sister,'' says Radcliffe, now 19. ''But that all changed, and here we are snogging.''

Shooting Dumbledore's funeral was another tough scene for Radcliffe, as it took on the personality of an Irish wake thanks to some not-so-mournful extras: ''Because there's a lot of people there, it's one of those things that takes on a party atmosphere.''

The reason why we left out the battle at Hogwarts {in HBP} is because we have a battle at Hogwarts in the Seventh film and we are avoiding repetition. Dumbledore’s funeral was something that I really loved and is a fantastic part of the book and part of me would have loved it in the film. But we decided that while we loved it that what we came up with was the right ending for the film that we had made.

  “Yes! I did [grow up on a Christmas Tree farm], so this is a good season for me. I was too young to help with the hauling of the trees up the hills and putting them onto cars. So, it was my job to pull off the preying mantis pods off of the Christmas trees. The problem with that is if you leave them on there, people bring them into their house. I forgot to check one time and they hatched all over these people’s house. And there were hundreds of thousands of them. And they had little kids, and they couldn’t kill all of them because that’d be a bad Christmas.”
~ Singer Taylor Swift on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno

“That's the true spirit of Christmas; people being helped by people other than me”.
~ Jerry Seinfeld

 "Let’s see. Fundies (Fundamentalists) prayed for:
1. Rain at the DNC. God said “NO” and sent a hurricane to ruin the RNC.
2. Obama to lose the election. God said “NO” and WALNUTS! lost by a landslide
3. The election to be deemed invalid claiming that Obama is not a U.S. citizen…Wonder what God will say?
I’m just wondering when they’ll realize that God isn’t with them on this one?"
~ A poster called NoWireHangers on the blog Wonkette discussing the fact that a group of religious fundamentalists are praying outside the Supreme Court Building that Obama's birth certificate will be ruled invalid  by the judges.

 "The school is not quite deserted," said the Ghost. "A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still."
~ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

 "I do feel so sorry," said Draco Malfoy, one potions class, "for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home."
He was looking over at Harry as he spoke.
~ J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

 "...what did JK Rowling do? She made sure that an important plot device in the last Harry Potter book was The Tales Of Beedle The Bard - a gimmicky spin-off book that she could then write herself and flog off to the millions of children who'd buy a rancid squirrel carcass if it was branded with the Harry Potter logo. Genius."
~ Stuart Heritage, Hecklerspray

 ...Then there's the illustrations. As a private gift from a woman who has a lot, they might have had a charm. Here, they resemble the bored doodlings emo kids put on their jotters. Skulls, roses, omegas, horses with fetlock joints like tumours: graphic illustrators, it would seem, are made, not born.
~ Stuart Kelly, Scotsman.com Review of Beedle the Bard

 Question: It just seems like you’re so well known here for the bad parts — for Snape or the Sheriff of Nottingham.
ALAN RICKMAN: Is Snape bad?
~ Interview with MoviesOnline, Dec. 5, 2008

 "We're calling it 'Duck,'you know, a cross between a doe and a buck -- a duck."
~ Kevin Ross, Illinois Deer Hunter, on finding that the antlered buck he had shot had no male genitalia (Belleville News Democrat

 Let the jury consider their verdict,' the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.
`No, no!' said the Queen. `Sentence first--verdict afterwards.'
`Stuff and nonsense!' said Alice loudly. `The idea of having the sentence first!'
`Hold your tongue!' said the Queen, turning purple.
`I won't!' said Alice.
`Off with her head!' the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody moved.
`Who cares for you?' said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time.) `You're nothing but a pack of cards!'
~ Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 12 

bnmc2005

alanrickman

AR: ...I'm at one end of the story... as an actor, and you guys are at the other end as deciding the stories that you want to go and hear told, and somewhere in the middle are a manipulative greedy bunch of pigs. (Audience laughs - Alan does not)

Moderator: It's a big middle.

AR: . . . who just want bigger houses and more airplanes and cars. And I guess it's a bit like, you know, what government do you want ~ You've just got to stand up and say you're going to fight for it, if you want to have a rich culture: It's yours and it's mine. And it's not theirs.

. . . This is exciting to me to be in a beautiful old theater absolutely filled with people who have just had a story told to them. You're not being manipulated at all, and I hope you each had your own relationship with that story. You know, we could go out with this microphone now and find out who thought what about all the characters in the story, 'cause God knows it's not just about wine - it's about people.

I think that's a big fight on, which is part of the life. (applause from audience) 
 

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xintax

 
Let's cruise into Memorial Day Weekend with more of the Travelling Wilburys: