This seems to be a good year for young adult fantasy fiction crossing over to the big screen.  Aside from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, here are other books that you can expect to see in theaters soon.

I remember reading Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising.   Maybe I was too young or I let my imagination run away with me or Susan Cooper writes a good story, because I know it scared me and I had to put it down a few times before I could finish it.  It is the story of a boy who finds out on his eleventh birthday that he is an Old One, someone destined to protect the world from evil.  The book is part of a series of five volumes.  The movie is scheduled to come out towards the end of the year.

Being released as a Christmas movie is Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass (known in the UK as The Northern Lights).  The story is set in a world that is like ours, but isn’t, where humans have animal companions representing their own souls.  Lyra, a young girl, becomes the bearer of a compass that can tell you the answer to any question.  The story has missing children, daring rescues, and armored polar bears.  It should make for a good movie.

Coming sooner to a theater near you is Neil Gaiman’s Stardust.   It is the story of earnest Tristan who promises to fetch his lady love a star they saw fall beyond the enchanted wall of their village.

Here’s a new website from the nice people of Read or Die.  They describe it as “…an online Filipino literary portal and community…hosts blogs, author and group sites, reading guides, reading lists, reading challenges, podcasts, news of events on literacy and literature, online book clubs and digitized publications.”

The site looks nice and neat and is packed with information.  Anyone with anything to say about the local reading culture can and should use it.  You can visit it just to read what’s new in the Philippine literary setting.  You can create your own blog to, let’s say, promote your new book.  You can join the forums and discuss books, events, writers, etc.

Hey there.  5 days to go till Book 7!  Meanwhile, my meandering musings on the Harry Potter films…

I saw the movie version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last Wednesday in Glorietta 4 (it had been a couple of years since I’d caught a flick there).  I’ve never been picky about how big or wide (or flat, for that matter) the screen/monitor I’m watching on is, but for the first time I found myself lamenting how the screen seemed to be undersized — disappointingly so.  “Creevey TV”, I thought. 

In comparison, my boss told me that he and his family (his eldest being the resident Pottermaniac) trekked to the Mall of Asia and watched HP5 at the IMAX theater.  Or perhaps the better way to put it is that they “experienced” HP5.  The gigantic (”Grawpy”?) screen and 3-D effects in the last 20 minutes reportedly were beyond awesome; his young kids were fully awake though the screening was from 11 p.m. to 1:30 a.m (as all other screenings were sold out).   

Oh well, good for them.  Tonight I get to watch the fifth film for the second time, courtesy of my buddy’s free passes to Eastwood. 

This movie isn’t my favorite of the five to date, though I thought it was a lot better than Goblet of Fire (which I just re-viewed on cable the other day).  My barometer for the films is how well they capture (what I consider to be) the essence of the original work, how well they “get it”.  For this reason, I think the first film Sorcerer’s Stone succeeds highly as an adaptation.  Admittedly, it is the simplest and shortest of the books and thus it was fairly straightforward to translate to screen. 

The Prisoner of Azkaban film would have been the best if it weren’t for a major bad call in omitting a theme at the book’s heart: Harry finding his connection to his father.  That the filmmakers didn’t feel this was important enough to keep is evinced by 2 of their decisions.  First: omitting the significance of Harry’s Patronus being a stag.  How many more seconds would it have taken to say that James’s animal form (whence hiis nickname “Prongs”) was a stag?  The other: Sirius’s parting words to Harry before the former flies away to freedom was “You truly are your father’s son” in the book, but in the movie this is shifted to Sirius telling Hermione “You truly are the brightest witch of your age.”  What the?!?!?  To have made these choices for the film, I feel, gutted the emotional heart of the story.  (As well, Sirius treating Harry as if he were his best friend James himself is key in the later books.)  All the 3rd film has going for it is the time-travel sequence (which for me is the most brilliant of Harry’s escapades in all the books), but this is really owes to the strength of Rowling’s story (pure genius to pull off the climax of a “children’s book” with this device!) rather than the filmmakers’ treatment.

Re HP5.  I have concerns whether non-fans (or, more accurately, those who haven’t read the book) will be able to follow the plot.  I imagine they’d go, “Who’s this friggin’ Mrs. Figg?”  The length of Books 4 and 5 doesn’t lend easily to film adaptation, particularly the action-packed Goblet of Fire.  But, whereas I felt the HP4 movie butchered then reassembled the story a la Frankenstein [for instance, it didn’t make sense that Barty Crouch, Sr. was found dead (a departure from the book), and yet they continued with the Final Task like nothing had happened], Order of the Phoenix was able to distill the key bit, which for me is how government/people in power can be absurd and as a result frighteningly capable of great harm.  How successfully (or not) each film conveys this is in large part thanks to the actors.  Again, HP4’s casting fell short of my expectations (mainly Crouch Sr., Cho and Fleur, maybe Moody and Krum too); in contrast, HP5’s Imelda Staunton as Umbridge and Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix were superb, spot-on choices, plus there were great moments from Alan Rickman’s Snape and Emma Thompson’s Trelawney. 

[Hmm.  What if they had kept Gilderoy Lockhart’s part in the 5th film?  Then we’d have Kenneth Branagh, his ex-wife (Thompson) and the woman he left his wife for (Bonham Carter, but they’re now exes too) all in the same flick!]

I’m looking forward most to seeing Luna Lovegood again.  When Jo Rowling dropped by the filming of HP5 and met Evanna Lynch (who plays Luna, after having beat out thousands in an open audition), the author had said Evanna was “perfect” for the part.  At the time, I had taken Jo’s compliment to be more generous than accurate.  [JKR had also said, years previously, that Emma Watson was the perfect Hermione.  Hermione Granger’s my absolute favorite character, but Emma Watson is easily too babe-licious to be Hermione (as a result, her “transformation” at the Yule Ball in the 4th film fell flat).  I mean, Cho Chang and Fleur Delacour are supposed to be the irresistable beauties in the books.   Even Hermione’s classmates Padma and Parvati Patil are said in the books to be “the most attractive girls in the year” (as attested to by Dean Thomas, at least).]   But in the movies, Emma’s Hermione is such a looker she gives those other girls a run for their Galleons… 

Anyway, getting back to Evanna as Luna, I was consequently skeptical of Rowling’s declaration that here was another girl who was perfect for her part.  But after watching Evanna’s Luna I’d have to say that Jo Rowling wasn’t exaggerating one bit about her being perfectly cast!  She’s got that dirty silver blonde hair, that odd but serene expression, and that dreamy voice to a tee!  Her performance really stood out in the midst of all these distinguished, career actors.  That Evanna Lynch is a certified Harry Potter fan (she’d been, er, crazy about the series since she was 8 and had even engaged in correspondence with Rowling) could have only added to the magic of the Potter phenomenon, and I imagine all Potterholics resonate with her.  I look forward to Evanna being chosen as the narrator of a retrospective that will look back on Harry Potter decades from now.   

–Mercury

Howdy.  My name is Mercury (Merc, to my mates), and I’m a Potterholic.  A true-blue, dyed-in-the-wand, honest-to-Hufflepuff Pinoy Potterholic.  And proud of it!

How much of a Potterholic?  Well, needless to say, I have all the books that comprise the HP canon (not just the 6 novels but also the 2 schoolbooks Fantastic Beasts and Quidditch Through the Ages).  I see the film adaptations at advance screenings or on opening day at the latest, and have watched them again many times since on DVD (original ones, of course) and HBO. 

I have all the HP videogames, in PC and PS2 non-pirated versions, and have spent hours immersed in them running through, creeping under and soaring over Hogwarts castle and grounds.  (And I plan to get a Wii just to be able to play HP5 using the Wiimote controller – as a wand!).  I even have the official Harry Potter Trading Card Game (from the same makers as Magic: The Gathering).  Naturally, my cell’s tone for incoming texts is Hedwig’s Theme, um, since 2001 (the first version was a monotone I encoded myself using my phone’s composer feature). 

A large part of being a Harry Potter fan (as with most fandoms nowadays) is the community experience via the Internet.  I was enrolled in an online Hogwarts simulation for 2 years, where I interacted daily with fellow HP nuts from all over the globe.  I was sorted into Hufflepuff where I became a Chaser on my house’s Quidditch team (Muggle translation - HP trivia team).  For running a HP trivia tournament for a big bookstore’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince release event I got my second copy of Book 6 for free as part of my fee (my first copy I had pre-ordered from Booktopia).  Both of these experiences were personally rewarding as I got to share and connect with so many other people who are passionate about these books… and all of this thanks to one woman’s imagination and genius.

Like millions of people around the world (likely, this includes you, as you must be a fan to have read this far) I’m counting down the days (and hours and minutes!) to July 21, when the seventh and final installment of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, hits the stands.  Over the next week, I’ve been invited to journalize my thoughts on this blog.  (Fortunately for me, but maybe not for the readers, it wasn’t specified that said thoughts need to be publication-worthy!)  So I hope you’ll bear with me as I share theories and memories, raves and rants, and other random ramblings about any and all things Potter. 

 –Mercury

Security is very tight to ensure that no part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is released to the public before July 21.

As she is writing it, only J. K. Rowling has a copy of the book. On her visit to the United States for an event with Stephen King and John Irving, she was asked to check in her manuscript but she insisted on taking it with her on the plane and she was granted this request.

As she is working on the cover and chapter illustrations, Mary GrandPre keeps her copy of the finished manuscript in a safe and speaks of it to no one. Her family and friends do not even ask her about it.

Everyone involved in producing the book, printers, distributors, and others, are required to sign confidentiality agreements. Booksellers like ourselves have our own agreements to sign which essentially says we will not distribute the book before midnight of July 21, London time (7am here). The books and even the cartons they come in cannot be photographed before the release date. We must ensure that the books are placed in a very secure location as soon as they are released to us on a date we cannot reveal. We would not want any part of this book accidentally leaking out as we know it will take away from everyone’s enjoyment.

Gingerbread Girl, Stephen King’s new 21,000-word “long story” is appearing in this month’s issue of Esquire magazine.  The novella is the story of Em who runs from her husband to a secluded place in Florida where she makes the mistake of running into a neighbor inside a Stephen King story.

Another novel that previously made its first appearance in Esquire was Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s.  The magazine’s website includes an excerpt of the novella.

UK bookseller Waterstone’s is sponsoring an online petition to Save Harry. Their aim is to gather one million signatures by July 21. They will send the signatures to author J. K. Rowling to urge her to keep the magic alive and continue writing Harry Potter novels although Rowling has already said before that she will never write another Harry Potter novel again.

The author has also said that two characters will die in the last book and many speculate that one of them will be Harry Potter himself. Should Potter die at the end of the seventh novel, Waterstone’s insists he can be brought back to life, if he doesn’t, then writing another novel would be even easier. They cite Sherlock Holmes as one fictional character who was brought back to life by his creator. Arthur Conan Doyle killed Holmes in The Adventure of the Final Problem in a struggle with his nemesis, Professor Moriarty, and then brought him back after eight years in The Hound of the Baskervilles due to public demand.

We’ve tried signing up to see if the site will tell us how many people have actually signed up, but signing up doesn’t show you this. We also did not receive any e-mail after signing up so I guess we’ll have to wait for July 21 to find out if they successfully gathered the signatures they needed.

Click on the link below if you want to join the petition. It will indeed be sad to see the series end and even illustrator Mary GrandPre has said she felt sad after reading the last book, but fans have mixed feelings about the petition. Some want to let it end as the author meant it to end; for them forcing the issue may just result in less enjoyable stories. Others simply want more of the world of the boy wizard as there is so much material Rowling can expand on and write about like Dumbledore’s past, the original Order of the Phoenix, etc. Only J. K. Rowling can decide — What do you write next after the phenomenal Harry Potter?

The petition can be found here: Save Harry!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is just a few days away.

Make sure you’re getting the best deals on the most-awaited book of the year!

* Avail of our low price of P1,450.

* If you live in our neighborhood — and by that we mean: Acropolis, Bagumbayan, Corinthian Gardens, Eastwood City, Greenmeadows, Kapitolyo, Libis, Loyola Heights, Ortigas, St. Ignatius, Valle Verde, White Plains, etc. — we will deliver to you for FREE on July 21. Our owls will start delivery by 7am, the official release time for the book.

* If you work in a company that will order the book in bulk or if you can get your officemates to reserve the book with us, we will give you a 10% discount.

Riches in Foreclosures: Buy Your Own Home, Get Quick Cash or Create Passive Income! (Signed)
By Dinna Revilla
Foreword by Atty. Alex Lacson, 12 Little Things Every Filipino Can Do to Help Our Country

If you have read Think Rich, Pinoy!, Larry Gamboa’s practical and successful interpretation of Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad, you probably know Dinna Revilla. She was the mentor that Larry Gamboa spoke of. Now Ms. Revilla has come up with her own book based on her experiences in the real estate business. The book is now available at the store at the introductory price of P99.

Buying your first home? Want to make money? Want to create passive income?

You can buy and hold, opt to get quick cash, or get passive income from the properties you’ve had your eye on.

Dinna Revilla, the “Action Woman” and mentor of the Cash Flow Group tells you how you can do it.

This book documents 30 real life transactions, 17 of them are shown with the pictures of the moneymaking properties.

Discover the secretes of negotiations and deals. Get to know about the perks you can get from banks. Know how easy it is to buy foreclosed properties. This book tells you all about it.

This book will give you an insider’s perspective on the real estate business. Take pointers from someone who has done all these transactions and has been right at the heart of the market herself.

Here is a recap of the seven important questions asked by Scholastic Books (American publisher of the Harry Potter series) in preparation for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Choices that received the most votes are marked with “***”. The winning choices (which are likely a reflection of what readers want to happen — check out Question 4) may surprise you.

1. Who will live, who will die?

*** Harry Potter
Lord Voldemort
Snape
Ginny
Ron
*** Hermione
*** Neville
Hagrid
Draco Malfoy
Someone Else/Other

2. Is Snape good or evil?

Good and still a spy for the Order of the Phoenix
*** Good but in too deep with Voldemort
Evil and has always been a spy for Voldemort
Evil but only because Voldemort is back

3. Will Hogwarts reopen?

Yes
*** Yes but Harry, Ron and Hermione won’t go back.
Not at all

4. Who winds up with whom?

Harry and Ginny
Ron and Hermione
*** Harry and Hermione
Lupin and Tonks

5. Where are the Horcruxes?

Diagon Alley
Hogsmeade
*** Hogwarts
Only with Death Eaters
*** Godric’s Hollows
Ministry of Magic
Azkaban
St. Mungo’s
Among Muggles
*** Elsewhere

6. Will Vordemort be defeated?

*** Yes and he will die
Yes and he will live
No way
There will be a truce

7. What are the Deathly Hallows?

We’ll find out right away
*** We’ll find out in the middle
We’ll find out at the end