We’ve seen enough satirical Muppets promo material to last us through the next hundred Muppet sequels, but I have to hand it to the tireless Disney merchants for their newest gag: a Twilight Saga spoof. The Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog posters are expected, but it’s the third, Lautner-ian one-sheet that left me speechless. The pun is also first-rate.
Rupert Grint, Warwick Davis and other ‘Potter’ stars offer up some creative ideas for the Orlando, Florida, park. By Josh Wigler Rupert Grint Photo: MTV News ORLANDO, Florida — The books are long finished, the movies are now over, but all it takes is one step inside the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida, to know that “Potter” is forever. Still, despite the ever-flowing butterbeer and copious amounts of “Potter”-based roller-coaster rides, there’s always room for improvement, even at the Wizarding World. After all, the “Potter” universe is just too grand to fit every single element into one theme park. With that in mind, when MTV News traveled down to Orlando to cover the red-carpet celebration of the “Deathly Hallows Part 2” DVD release, we asked the cast and crew to weigh in on which features of J.K. Rowling’s imaginative world they’d like to see included in future park updates. Jessie Cave, who plays lovelorn Lavender Brown in “Half-Blood Prince,” suggested a new means of transportation for the park: “I think instead of being allowed to walk here, everyone should have to arrive by Hogwarts Express. You wouldn’t actually have to walk. It’d be just the most comfortable trip ever!” James and Oliver Phelps, better known as the mischievous Weasley twins, focused on a different mode of flying — via broomstick. “If it were actually possible, maybe [it’d be cool] for an actual Quidditch match to go on,” Oliver said. “Something like that would be quite cool to watch if that were actually possible to do.” Wishful thinking, perhaps — the technology probably isn’t quite there to catch a real-life golden snitch just yet. But the rest of the “Potter” cast tried to think in more practical terms, offering their ideas on attractions that could be added to the park in the coming years. Several of the actors, including Warwick Davis and Rupert Grint, suggested the Gringotts breakout as an excellent possibility for a roller-coaster ride. “Wouldn’t that be great? You could join Griphook on the cart,” Davis, who plays the aforementioned goblin, said of his Wizarding World wish-list. “And it’s already done!” “The Gringotts vault would be a really cool ride, I think,” agreed Grint, who played courageous hero Ron Weasley over the course of eight “Potter” films. “Also, the flying car!” Some castmembers didn’t need to look much further than their own reflections to find suggestions for Wizarding World improvements. “I’ve been thinking of a ride, a Luna ride,” offered Evanna Lynch, speaking of her own character, the loopy Luna Lovegood. “You know all of the creatures she dreams up, all of the creatures that she mentions throughout the books, I like to think that there would be a roller coaster, and each cart would be a new creature. It’d be in the dark and there’d be all these projections of creatures flying around.” “I don’t know what it’s like to be stoned,” she added, “but I imagine it feels something like that!” And Jason Isaacs, who plays Voldemort loyalist Lucius, believed it was high time for the Malfoy clan to get some Wizarding World love. “There should be a Malfoy ride,” he said. “I don’t know why there isn’t a Malfoy House of Horrors that you can enter as Lucius and leave as Lucius post-Azkaban.” Of course, Isaacs wasn’t the only one thinking of his own character. “We all want a ride based on us,” he said. “It’s a fantastic place here. The only thing that’s missing is, obviously, me!”
Co-star Matthew Modine, promoting his short Jesus Was A Commie , explained why the notion to film the megabudget blockbuster at Occupy Wall Street was scrapped. “The wisdom of Christopher Nolan and his incredible team was that, while it seemed like a good idea to give [the protestors] an opportunity for work, to give them money, it would send a terrible message . At the end of the day, we’re making a movie. What’s happening down there is more important than that. To co-opt what’s happening there and around the country… we didn’t want to trivialize it. It was more important to respect what they’re doing than to do anything that could potentially trivialize the political situation downtown.” [ indieWIRE ]
Even though you may not immediately recognize the name Warwick Davis, you are familiar with his work. That’s because the English actor has been involved with two of the most storied franchises in all of film history — the first being Star Wars , where Davis made his onscreen debut as Wicket in Return of the Jedi at the tender age of 13. Nearly three decades (and title roles in Willow and the six-part Leprechaun series) later, Davis helps close the door on the Harry Potter franchise, where he has played Hogwarts charms master Professor Flitwick and Gringotts goblin Griphook for 10 years.
Ashley Greene has been playing Alice, an unwaveringly supportive sisterly friend to Kristen Stewart ‘s Bella, since the beginning of the Twilight series. In Breaking Dawn — Part 1 the psychic Alice serves as wedding planner and all-around helpful vampire girl, but also faces a sudden inability to help Bella by seeing her future, or that of the child she’s carrying. Greene talked about Bella’s well-being, the nature of relationships and the film’s intense birth scene.
Poet/playwright Nick Flynn’s memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City is right for a movie adaptation: Its two main characters, Flynn and his father, are deep, articulate characters with a lot of angst to go around. In the first trailer for Focus’s adaptation Being Flynn , the younger Flynn (Paul Dano) analyzes the value of reuniting with his estranged father (Robert De Niro). Clip after the jump.
Didn’t have the stamina to camp out in downtown Los Angeles this week for tonight’s Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1 premiere? Fear not! Tonight, Movieline has your live stream of the red carpet event featuring stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner. Quickly, grab your finest bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling cider and meet Movieline after the jump!
How’s this for under-the-radar weekend news: Warner Bros. is moving ahead with its live-action/animation hybrid LEGO movie, which should hit screens in 2014. According to Variety, the pic will be comprised of 80 percent animation, to be handled by Animal Logic, the Aussie-based vfx house behind Happy Feet and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole , which could mean gorgeously rendered and lifelike… LEGO blocks come to life?
The 2011 AFI Fest drew to a close Thursday night with the North American public premiere of The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn , directed, appropriately enough, by AFI -associated Steven Spielberg . Though he was unable to attend in person (much of the crew of Tintin , including Spielberg, was on location filming Lincoln ), he sent star Jamie Bell in his stead to introduce the film and play a pre-recorded message for the audience at the Grauman’s Chinese, which became so packed festival goers spilled over into a second overflow theater for the premiere.
This past July was a bittersweet month for Harry Potter fans who flocked to theaters en masse to bid farewell to their beloved J.K. Rowling franchise with David Yates’s final film installment Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 starring, one last time, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. Fortunately for honorary Hogwarts members, J.K. Rowling’s mythical universe is still very much alive at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Parks in Orlando, Florida — where, this weekend, Warner Bros. hosts a junket for the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 home release.