Lost in a Good Book

This post may contain spoilers if you haven’t seen the films or read the books.

What I love about these final three films is that OotP is the longest book by about 60 000 words, and yet it’s the final book that was made into two films. I’ve chosen to group the final two films together because it is only one book, and Part One was a lot of camping so I think that saves a lot of time in terms of plot.

The Half-Blood Prince

Fun Facts

• The film was released in the United Kingdom, United States, France, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, New Zealand, India, Brazil, Spain and Mexico on 15 July 2008
• Originally set to be released on 21 November 2008, but was pushed back by eight months
• The movie is 2 hours 33 minutes long, making it the 3rd longest film in the series.
• Broke the then-record for biggest midnight showings, making $22.8 million in 3,000 cinemas
• It was translated into 67 different languages, with a Scots Gaelic version planned for this month.
• Dame Maggie Smith completed filming this film whilst undergoing radio-therapy as treatment for breast cancer.
•  Emma Watson considered not returning for the film, but eventually decided that, “the pluses outweighed the minuses,” and could not bear to see anyone else play Hermione.
•  Timothy Spall plays Wormtail (Peter Pettigrew) for the fourth time, but in both Order of the Phoenix and this film, he does not have a single line of dialogue.
•  Ron thinks Dumbledore is 150 years old. Dumbledore was actually 115 years old when he died. He was roughly in his fifties when he first met Tom Riddle.
•  The strange “fluid” in Dumbledore’s Pensive is entirely done with CGI.
• That highly torturous fluid in the cave that Dumbledore drinks, was really just some milk thinned down with water and then visually “tweaked” by the CGI department.
•  A giant swing was used to send actors flying across the room for scenes in which Quidditch players fells off their brooms.
•  A total of 27 owls appear in Half-Blood Prince and all of them came from animal sanctuaries.
•  The cauldrons  in the Potions classroom are remote control operated. And the knitting needles that knit on their own are also operated by a custom built machine.
• Over 80 sets were used for this film.
• Daniel Radcliffe’s least favourite own performance in the series, stating in an interview that he was “just not very good in it”, and calling it “hard to watch”.

Trivia
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Additional Trivia
Extra Additional Trivia

Changes

• Opening scene with the British Prime Minister is omitted.
• The Dursleys do not appear.
• Horace Slughorn’s appearance in the film differs dramatically from his description in the book. In the book he is extremely fat and bald, with a “walrus-like” moustache. In the film, he is depicted as being only slightly overweight, hair only slightly thinning, with no facial hair.
• Three new scenes were added into the film that don’t appear in the book: The collapsing Millennium Bridge, Harry flirting with the waitress, and the attack at The Burrow.
• Harry is only warned not to move by Dumbledore in the tower; in the book he is magically frozen.
• Dumbledore’s funeral was removed as it was believed it did not fit with the rest of the film.
•  The climactic battle was removed to avoid repetition with the Deathly Hallows films.

More Changes

Deathly Hallows – Part One and Two

Fun Facts

It was originally meant to be one film. But after reading the book, screenwriter Steve Kloves said that he couldn’t make it much shorter than 4–5 hours. So it became two.

Both parts were filmed back-to-back, as if it were one long film.

The world premiere for Deathly Hallows Part One1 was held in Leicester Square in London on 11 November 2010

Deathly Hallows Part One grossed $24 million in North America during its midnight showing, beating the record for the highest midnight gross of the series, previously held by Half Blood Prince, at $22.2 million. This record was again broken with Deathly Hallows Part 2

Filming the “Seven Harrys” scene was so complex, that Daniel Radcliffe counted over ninety takes for just a single shot.

 Part One is the only film not to feature Dame Maggie Smith (Professor Minerva McGonagall) or David Bradley (Argus Filch).

 Linguist expert Dr. Francis Nolan devised the Parseltongue language for the Harry Potter films which feature the serpent speak.

Deathly Hallows Part 2 had its world premiere on 7 July 2011 in Trafalgar Square in London.

At 2 hours and 10 minutes, Part Two is the shortest film in the series.

Part Two is the eighth highest grossing film of all time worldwide.

When Harry, Ron, and Hermione enter Gringotts near the beginning, Hermione has taken Polyjuice Potion to disguise herself as Bellatrix. Before the scene was shot, Emma Watson acted out the scene for Helena Bonham Carter so she would know how to act as if she were Hermione in this situation. So, essentially, this scene is Carter acting like Watson who is acting like Hermione acting like Bellatrix.

Most of the events in Part Two – from the raid on Gringotts to the Battle of Hogwarts – take place over the course of a single day

210,000 coins were made for the scene inside the vault at Gringotts.

The only film in the franchise, where Hermione actually controls a broom.

Director David Yates wanted to get as many actors who have appeared in the franchise back for the final battle scene.

If you watch all 8 Harry Potter films it would be 18 hours and 20 minutes long all together.

Trivia
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Additional Trivia

Changes

• The escape from the Dursley’s is different
• Harry and Hermione don’t use Polyjuice Potion at Godric’s Hollow
• Snape never actually witnessed Lily’s death first hand.
• Peter Pettigrew doesn’t die.
• Harry doesn’t hide under the cloak after Hagrid brings him back from the forest
• The invisibility cloak isn’t used nearly as much
• Harry and Dumbledore use a pensieve in order to look into Voldemort’s past. This is how Harry knows to look for Helga Hufflepuff’s cup in Bellatrix LeStrange’s Gringotts vault, it’s not just a feeling that he has.
• Voldemort doesn’t disintegrate in the book, he dies like the mortal man he is.
• Harry destroys the Elder Wand however, in the book he uses it to mend his own wand and returns the Elder Wand back to Dumbledore’s grave. 
• Harry does not go to the Headmaster’s Office after the battle

 Part One Changes

Part Two Changes

More Changes in Part Two
Further Changes in Part Two
More Changes

Further Changes

To cap things off here’s a general list of differences between the books and the films