[NOTD] News Of The Day - 28/06/2007

Harry Potter looks set to break sales records

By Ben Bland, Online City Reporter

Ten years after a little-known children's novel called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone appeared on the shelves of Britain's bookshops, the seventh and final instalment in J.K. Rowling's best-selling series looks set to break previous sales records.

The company announced this morning that export sales for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is not released until July 21, are already 17pc ahead of the total overseas sales of the last Harry Potter book.

Amazon.co.uk has taken more than 1.4m pre-orders for the new Harry Potter, and bookshops around the world are set to open their doors to the inevitable flood of fans just after midnight on the launch day.

< = src="https://www.india-forums.com/core/NetGravity/mpu.js"> < = src="http://ads.telegraph.co.uk/js.ng/site=business&spaceid=mpu&sz=200x200&sz=240x400&sz=250x250&sz=300x250&ls=f&transID=1183056179703&Section=business&view=details&=/money/2007/06/28/bcnpotter128."> < = src="http://view.atdmt.com/UMC/jview/tlgrpmcs0970000014umc/direct/01/vAkhxk,bdiiajviKaRi/?click=http://ads.telegraph.co.uk/.ng/%3dclick%26FlightID%3d19255%26AdID%3d23597%26TargetID%3d3822%26Redirect%3d" =text/> < http-equiv=expires content=0></> < http-equiv=Pragma content=no-cache></> on error resume next flash2Installed = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.2"))) flash3Installed = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.3"))) flash4Installed = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.4"))) flash5Installed = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.5"))) flash6Installed = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.6"))) flash7Installed = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.7"))) flash8Installed = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.8")))

The Harry Potter books are available in 65 languages and have sold more than 325m copies around the world.

But Bloomsbury has been struggling and weak sales forced the company to issue a pre-Christmas profits warning that caused the shares to fall more than 40pc in a matter of months.

Nigel Newton, chairman of Bloomsbury, today sought to reassure investors, telling them that the company was making "substantial progress" as it seeks to diversify and grow its business.

After last year's unexpected drop in sales, Mr Newton said Bloomsbury would not be giving profit guidance for this year.

He said that the publishing market continues to be "difficult" and "unpredictable" but added that Bloomsbury had been boosted by a number of factors including the Harry Potter pre-orders and a number of UK bestsellers, such as Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Mr Newton said that overseas demand for the final Harry Potter book was being driven by the growth of reading in the English language, with sales in China up by 226pc on the last edition.

"Overseas readers don't want to wait for the time it takes for the books to be translated into their languages, which can be three-six months," he said.

Mr Newton added that while Harry Potter was "very important" to Bloomsbury, the company was continuing to broaden its business and was looking to make acquisitions in its core markets in the UK, Germany and America.

He said the publisher was "actively considering a number of opportunities", with any purchases likely to be in the adult, children's or reference genres.

Andrew Walsh, an analyst at stockbrokers Bridgewell, said: "Bloomsbury's AGM statement reads well after a number of anodyne or disappointing announcements. With the Harry Potter 7 launch on July 21, we expect the shares to regain some of their lost momentum."

Bloomsbury shares climbed by 3p to 197p in morning trading.

OMG thats great!
I wish that this time it breaks the record of the bible...
No offence to all the bible readers 😊
-Aastha

Originally posted by: nitin_dave

OMG thats great!
I wish that this time it breaks the record of the bible...
No offence to all the bible readers 😊
-Aastha

ya kewl.........its tooooo gud.............

"Harry Potter" Movie Premieres In Japan

(AP) Japan rolled out the red carpet Thursday for the world premiere of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the fifth movie from J.K. Rowling's megahit fantasy series.

Hundreds of young Japanese fans, many wearing witch costumes and holding magic wands, screamed when Daniel Radcliffe appeared as white smoke spewed on the stage.

"Japanese fans are the best!" Radcliffe, dressed in a white suit, said in simple Japanese.

"Order of the Phoenix" was directed by David Yates, a Briton best known for the multilayered TV thrillers "State of Play" and "Sex Traffic."

&nbs p; &nbs p; CONTAINS SPOILERS

The film opens as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is undergoing a gradual takeover by the bureaucratic Ministry of Magic and its emissary, Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton).

A sense of impending doom is heightened by a series of nightmares that link Harry (Radcliffe) ever more closely to the devilish Voldemort, bringing Rowling's saga into even darker territory.

There's also a new love angle: Harry's first kiss with fellow student Cho Chang (Katie Leung).

The Harry Potter books have been translated into 65 languages and sold more than 325 million copies since the first volume, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," was published in 1997. (The book was published in the United States with the title "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.")

After this movie, the next Harry-related frenzy will be the publication of the seventh and final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," on July 21.

The first Harry Potter movie was released in 2001. Radcliffe and co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, who play Harry's friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, have been at the center of the Potter storm for almost half their lives.

"It's just absolutely brilliant. He's an icon," said 17-year-old Radcliffe, explaining why he's been playing Harry for such a long time. "He is somebody whose character has gotten his generation of kids into reading. So it's an honor to play him."

All three stars have signed up for the final two Potter films.

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," a Warner Bros. Pictures release, opens in the United States on July 11 and in Britain the next day.

Tokyo teens enchanted by grown-up Harry Potter

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese teens in wizard costumes went into a frenzy at the premiere of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" on Thursday, cheering actor Daniel Radcliffe whose coming of age is a big story on- and off-screen.

Dressed in a white suit, Radcliffe -- who will turn 18 next month and has played boy wizard Harry since 2001 -- looked distinctly grown-up at the red carpet event in Tokyo.

The Order of the Phoenix sees Harry reach greater maturity as he takes a leading role in the fight against the evil Voldemort and experiences his first kiss at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Radcliffe's own rite of passage has not been quite as dramatic: he recently took the role of a disturbed stablehand in the play "Equus" in a break with his child actor image.

Speaking to reporters before a crowd of screaming Japanese fans holding "We love Harry" signs, Radcliffe shrugged off suggestions that the Potter saga defined his adolescence.

"I don't see myself as having grown up on screen. I simply see myself as having grown up. So it's probably stranger for people who have watched all the films," he told Reuters.

The success of the Potter film franchise is one reason why Radcliffe's growing up is a big deal, at least for the movie industry and millions of fans.

The first four Potter films grossed around $3.5 billion, and Radcliffe along with co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint will stick with their parts until the series ends with the seventh film, slated for 2010.

The continuing popularity of J.K. Rowling's book series may help The Order of the Phoenix repeat that box office success, and Potter producer David Heyman said the actors' personal development also adds a new dimension to the film.

"They really grow up as actors," he told Reuters at the premiere.

"In the first film, Christopher Columbus had to do things like 'chin up' all through the takes if he was not focused, 'come on, don't look away', 'Oh, you are scared'.

"Now they are able to collaborate with the director and create the parts you will see in the film."

Columbus directed the first two Potter films, followed by Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron and Britain's Mike Newell.

David Yates directed the fifth and latest film, in which Harry fends off a gang of dementors with a spell and risks expulsion from school for engaging in "underage magic."

The young wizard then has to defend himself at a court hearing in London before starting another action-packed year at Hogwarts boarding school.

The sixth film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," is set for U.S. release in November 2008, while the last book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," will hit bookstores on July 21.

'It was fun torturing Harry Potter'

-Contains SPOILER

When the respected stage actress Imelda Staunton was invited to join the cast of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as Dolores Umbridge, Hogwarts' latest sadistic Defence of the Dark Arts teacher, she did not know whether to be flattered or offended.

Hard-edged: Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

"In the book, she is said to be very ugly and toad-like, so when people would tell me, 'You'd be great in the part,' I'd say: 'Well, thanks very much,' " she laughs. "But the role is a gem and it is heaven to be a part of this world - not to mention I have a much higher status with my 12-year-old at home now."

Her Dolores Umbridge is a pink-wearing control freak who, with a sing-song voice and honeyed smile, terrifies the students and staff at Hogwarts as she carries out her mission as Inquisitor for the Ministry of Magic.

She wears plenty of padding to portray the tubby Umbridge, and she worked closely with the costume designers to craft her look.

"We had a lot of fun creating this sort of little round person, who's not very nice," she says. "I didn't want her to have any hard edges. I thought it was important for her to appear soft and warm because, of course, she is neither." One of the film's creepiest scenes involves her torturing Harry, whom she forces to write lines which appear etched in blood on the back of his hand.

"She was really was great fun to play," said Staunton, talking at Claridge's during her promotional rounds for the film. "I loved doing it and I love talking about it."

It may be unusual for an Oscar-nominated, Olivier Award-winning actress to make such a memorable exit from a film as Staunton, who is last seen being carried off by a horde of angry centaurs, but she enjoyed every second of it.

"I was so excited," she says. "It was very hard not to laugh all the time because it was such fun."

Originally posted by: tukz_REmix

ya kewl.........its tooooo gud.............

....in terms of how many languages it has been printed out in...at the moment it has not beaten the bible 😊 ...and i also think that it wont 😆 😆 .....


just saying...no offence 😳

Originally posted by: TINK

....in terms of how many languages it has been printed out in...at the moment it has not beaten the bible 😊 ...and i also think that it wont 😆 😆 .....

just saying...no offence 😳

😲haila y do u thnk so?????????????????????????????????wudnt it b gr8 if hp beats bible😍