[NOTD] News Of The Day - 23/06/2007

New hair accessories celebrate Order of the Phoenix premiere GREENVILLE, S.C., June 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Sassy Tails(R) (https://www.sassytails.com/) announced a licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Consumer Products that allows the company to produce and sell Harry Potter themed hair accessories. Sassy Tails(R)'s company owner Kim Madden approached Warner Bros. Consumer Products after noticing an opportunity for fashionable hair accessories for Harry Potter's female fan base. Her Harry Potter product line is based on her company's signature ponytail holders, Sassy Tails. Sassy Tails ponytail holders have multiple ribbons of different patterns, colors and textures. The nine Harry Potter-themed styles include ribbons printed with Dumbledore's Army and the Ministry of Magic silhouettes in addition to solid ribbons in red and purple. Fans can use Sassy Snaps(R) to decorate backpacks, shoes and belts. These ponytail holders are round cloth-covered buttons with elastic bands and embroidered or embedded logos, graphics and text. There are 12 styles in the collection which include the Harry Potter and Hogwarts(TM) Crest logos and graphics from Dumbledore's Army to Order of the Phoenix. Ponytail Pizazz(R) is a line of Harry Potter-themed single-knot ponytail holders with two ribbons of coordinating colors and themes. These ribbons are also available as reversible headbands. There are eight styles in this collection. Rounding out the Harry Potter collection are Sassy Signature(TM) head scarves made of high-quality, heavy-weight silk that look like the neckties worn by the main characters in the films. The six styles are available in the colors, patterns and logos of the four Hogwarts houses, solid black with the Hogwarts logo and solid red with the Order of the Phoenix logo. Each scarf has one discreetly placed logo. The Sassy Tails(R) Harry Potter line is available at www.sassytails.com. Products can be pre-ordered for shipment in late June. Orders placed by July 2nd will arrive in time for the opening of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix(TM). Prices range from $7.95 - $14.95 for single pieces. Gift collections range from $19.95 - $99.95. Based on the brainstorm of mom-preneur Kim Madden and her now nine-year-old daughter Heather, Sassy Tails(R) was born in 2004 when the two sat down to create a hair accessory for Heather. Product demand grew from Heather's friends to local schools and sports teams. The accessories are now sold nationwide and have appeared in major publications, Internet sites, and blogs. TM & (C) Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Harry Potter printer steps up security

Security arrangements have been stepped up at the Bungay printers of the final instalment in the Harry Potter series.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be published at one minute past midnight on July 21, and is already the most ordered book in history.

Clay's in Bungay is printing millions of copies of the 700-page book. As speculation about how the series will end mounts, extra barbed wire has been installed around the works and security guards put on the doors.

Staff have also had to face restrictions - most are not allowed to take mobile phones into work in case they use a camera phone to take pictures. They can only take a small bag into work, which has to be searched. They also need identification to get into the building, and have signed a contract banning them from talking about the book. And workers who normally scan-read the books for errors as they are being printed have been banned from doing so in case the secrets leak out.

In the run-up to the publication of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in 2005, word about the plot was thought to have spread when a rash of bets on the ending were made in Bungay. And in May 2003, Donald Parfitt, a forklift truck driver at Clay's, pleaded guilty to stealing pages from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and trying to sell them to the Sun.

A Clay's spokesman said the company would not comment on the Harry Potter book.

How I raised Potter's bar

Director David Yates has given the boy wizard some clout, he tells Amy Raphael


The last time I interviewed David Yates, he was standing next to a pothole on a country road in Romania, directing the harrowing film Sex Traffic. Then, in the winter of 2003, he was looking forward to taking on a remake of Brideshead Revisited and there was even talk of the gentle Merseysider returning to direct a second series of the brilliant BBC series, State of Play. Now Julian Jarrold is behind the camera of Brideshead and Kevin Macdonald is to direct an American feature film version of State of Play.

And Yates? He's having the time of his life directing Harry Potter films. Taking the baton from Chris Columbus, Mike Newell and Alfonso Cuaron, he finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, to be released on 13 July, just five weeks ago and is already in pre-production on its follow-up, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. He seems genuinely to have no idea if he will direct the final film; not surprising given that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows isn't published until next month.

Without wishing to sound rude, how did he get the job? 'You're not the first to ask,' he laughs. 'David Heyman, who produces the Harry Potter films, was a big fan of the TV work I'd done. There were certainly other directors in the frame, such as Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who directed Amelie. But as Order of the Phoenix is quite edgy and emotional, and it's got a political backstory, the studio saw a fit with me. I think they wanted to wake it up a bit, make it real.' His great skill as a director is taking actors to another level. He did this most successfully with James McAvoy in State of Play and most recently with Anamaria Marinca in Sex Traffic. 'I like to create an atmosphere where actors feel safe enough to take risks. I certainly don't believe in being a macho bully; I'm not interested in frightening good work out of people. It's bollocks.' Hollywood is already calling. Is Yates tempted? 'In an ideal world, I'd bounce between big projects and no-budget TV dramas with fantastic scripts. A lot of Hollywood films tend to be bloated, bombastic, loud. At the same time, I do like the infrastructure of making a blockbuster; it's like having a big train set. I'm very excited about going to see an Imax print of Order of the Phoenix because the last 20 minutes are in 3D...' When Yates starts shooting Half Blood Prince later on this year, JK Rowling will have the time to hang out on set, given that there are no more Harry Potter books to be written. 'Jo is actually going to come and join us for a few days and talk through the script. I'm really looking forward to having her around; she's grown up enough to say that the film is a separate entity to the book so she always leaves the director to get on with his job. Having said that, she has great ideas and insights.'

Given that he's now a Potter insider, has JK Rowling given Yates a sneak preview of Deathly Hallows? 'Jo's dropped a few hints, but nothing juicy enough to share. I've only got one thing left to say about Harry Potter: go see the film!'

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