PotterCast 139: We Can Do It Transcript

News Talk (0:00 - 18:11)

Melissa Anelli (MA): We’re going to earn our PG-13 rating again. This is PotterCast. Welcome. PotterCast 139, this is Melissa. I’m here again with John and Sue and we have a wonderful show lined up for you yet again.

Sue Upton (SU): Yay!

MA: Sue, before we go further, how come- How come? Why don’t you tell us about our sponsor this week?

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MA: All right, we’re here in PotterCast 139, and we’re in the middle of winter, (SU: Yeah.) struggling to get out of it with doldrums everywhere.

SU: It’s horrible! It’s horrible here in Michigan. Snow after snow after snow, I can’t stand it!

John Noe (JN): I actually had to wear a sweatshirt today. (MA gasps) It was down to the high sixties.

MA: Dear lord, John. (SU: Suffering.) What will you do?

JN: It was a mess. (MA: You poor child.) It was terrible. I was sweating on the way home.

MA: Okay, so as you know a little public service announcement. (JN: Mm-hm.) Last week, we sort of (JN whistles) had a little fun with some adult words. That won’t be happening again. (JN: Aw.) We’ve got a buzzer attached to John, and as soon as he says it, I’m going to shock him.

JN: We’re going to lose subscribers now. They’ll come to expect it, and I’ll be like, "You know what?" That sells shows. We’re selling these.

MA: You know, if we build and audience on that, we’re a whole different type of show.

SU: I’d heard that, John, that rumor. (JN: Yeah.) (JN and SU laugh) Okay, I’ll be good.

JN: There’s actually a secret X-rated PotterCast you can only access by clicking around Leaky a few hundred times.

MA: You know that’s what the password should be for. You should be able to search for that word on iTunes and get a special audio clip with the password.

SU: That would be awesome.

JN: That would be sweet!

SU: Let’s do it.

MA: It would be so fun.

JN: And you’re not allowed to listen to the show until you know the password.

SU and MA: No. No.

MA: Don’t do that.

JN: People couldn’t be arsed.

MA: What I’m talking about is extra content.

JN: Oh, sure extra content, yeah.

MA: Because we have so much time to produce that.

JN: Definitely, let’s get right on that.

MA: Okay. Sue! What’s happening in the wacky world of Potter this week?

SU: Well, it’s kind of slow, but we do actually have two pieces of kind of film-related news. One relates to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince when there’s no Phlegm. No Phlegm!

JN: You mean like Fleur Delacour?

SU: Yes, Fleur. Clemence Posey has given a new interview to MTV and says she is not going to be in the sixth movie.

JN: This is such a bummer. It’s just like we’re not going to cast Bill or Charlie, so we’re not going to bother bringing back Fleur Delacour, we’re not going to have a wedding, we’re not going to have Bill being chomped by the werewolf man.

MA: Well, they’ve never shown us Bill, so...

JN: They’re not going to introduce him to us now.

MA: Well, if they do Seven as two movies, they have time.

SU: Yeah.

JN: How’s this going to work? It’s going to be like, "Here we are at the Burrow, and these two random old kids come in with red hair," (SU laughs) and Harry’s all like, "Hey, what’s going on?" like their best buddies and (MA: Yeah, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.) and we’re all like, "Who the heck? How does Harry know these random people?"

MA: Harry’s going to go, "Hey, Bill." And that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

JN: And then Bill’s going to turn to the camera and be like, "Hey! I’m the oldest Weasley," and then turns back to the acting.

MA: On-the-side narration.

SU: Now the only mentions we’ve seen of him, he was mentioned on the clock, right? They show the shot of the Weasleys’ clock with the two, and then (JN: And the newspaper.) and the newspaper when they wave from Egypt, but that was it.

JN: But those could have been tour guides for all the audience knows.

SU: It’s true.

MA: Well, again, how are they going to introduce that Percy has had a falling out with the family? They don’t note it.

JN: They don’t need to put that in. (MA: Yes, they do!) I know, of course they do.

MA: Oh, my God, you gave me a heart attack right there.

JN: I know, but I don’t know how important they’ll find it. (MA: Yeah, shush.) It’s not like Percy came back in the heat of battle and did something heroic.

MA: All right, so...

SU: Well, we mentioned Deathly Hallows how this effect, if they did two movies. We did hear a new interview from the producers, who are kind of the ones who are making the decision. David Heyman and David Barron gave an interview to an Australian paper and said they’re still considering the two movie thing. I thought that was- (JN: The writer strike's over now.) Yes, it is. So, there you go.

MA: Kloves is hard at work. Considering probably means that they couldn't do the contract negotiations with Kloves before and now they can. (SU and JN: Yeah.) Because they weren't allowed to speak to him (SU: Right.) about business while the writer's strike was going on. So, now that they can you can finalize these details if it's happening. (JN: Yeah.) (SU: But...) And, let's face it if it was an out there rumor we would've had it debunked by now. (SU and JN: Yeah.) It’s clearly being considered.

SU: Well, I was- (JN: Which is pretty sweet.) Yeah. It would be really sweet especially considering what David Barron says. He says, "The only negative of splitting the book into two films is that people could possibly perceive it as being the one last chance of cashing in. But the real positive, if we were to do that, would be that we wouldn't have quite the battle we'd always had. How do you compress all that, you know, scene battle? It would be brilliant not to have to cut anything." Think about that.

JN: It would be hecka brilliant.

MA: I still think you need to cut things. I still think there are going to be things you need to cut. And doing a literal translation as proof with the first movie isn't always the best. But, they have the room to make it what it needs to become, which is so fantastic.

SU: Right.

JN: We should make a huge PotterCast poll that has like thirty plot points from The Deathly Hallows and have everybody pick what they think are the ten most important. And then we can figure out from that which ones people choose to be the least important.

MA: I hate when you have ideas like this.

JN: Why?

SU: Because that's...

MA: Because we have to do them.

SU: Yeah.

JN: (laughs) So, you mean Alex should hate when I have ideas like this.

SU and MA: Yes.

MA: Alex should hate it, but me as well. Okay.

SU: I think that's actually a good idea because that has been bantered ever since this rumor first started. I know in my own head. I came up with things like, where would they split it? Would it be after they went to go see blank? The guy with the hat. What's his name? The guy with the hat.

MA: Xenophilius Lovegood?

SU: Yeah. Phil- (MA: Xenophilius Lovegood.) Yes. Him. I thought that would be the good splitting point.

MA: Yeah. I think so too.

JN: Well, the half point part is "The Silver Doe."

MA: I think it would be after "The Silver Doe." They should do it. (JN: Yeah.) Because it- I was talking about this with Cheryl, actually. We were discussing what we thought. And she was saying that it's such a good ending because it's like there's been action (JN: Mm-hm.) (SU: Yeah.) with the Horcrux and everything. And there's been a climax and then you can start the next movie with (JN: Yeah.) the kind of slower stuff.

JN: Right after Ron and Hermione have their climax.

SU: John! (makes buzzer noise) (JN: What?) No!

JN: Ron comes back. (SU sighs) And it's a big deal.

MA: My God.

SU: I knew your little mind was trolling in the gutter. (JN laughs) I just knew. (JN: What are you talking about?) I know you! I know you! (JN: It's a film term.) (makes buzzer noise)

JN: You are not starting to do this with this show. You are not doing this every week. (JN laughs) I will kill you. (MA and SU laugh) Every week you're going to bring this to the worst level possible.

SU: Yes, he is. (JN: Never.) Oh, yes.

MA: You are. You deserve to be on a shock jock radio show.

JN: Never.

SU: But if they can make two, like he said in the quote, if they can make two proper stand-alone films (JN: Yeah.) the whole battle- we've talked about this before, that whole battle sequence alone at the end you could do a whole hour- if you were to do it like Return of the King. The battle at Pelennor Fields. (JN: Oh, yeah.) (MA: Yeah.) They can certainly do that with the battle of Hogwarts for a whole hour, man. It'd be awesome. (MA: Yeah.) Totally. Do it, do it, do it. Okay. I'm sorry. I'll be good.

MA: No, I (laughs) agree with you.

JN: I heard Kloves was considering ways to expand the battle. (SU: Oh, God.) To make it even larger and they're going to (SU: Uh-huh.) at some point they decide to, in order to combat the giants, they use these catapults. (SU laughs) And they lodge parts of the castle at the giants and that at some point they run out parts of the castle so they start hurling House-Elves, (MA: I knew you were going to do that.) crouched up like little cannonballs. (SU laughs) They'll go flying (SU: That's just so- so...) at the giants. Just use their shear body weight to (SU: Uh-huh.) lay the giants. (MA: Yeah. Okay.) It's not very effective. They're quite small creatures by comparison.

SU: And you know what? (MA: John.) Just like in the battle- like, was that Troy? And they would come out, like one of them, and all the House-Elves would be hidden in one of those catapult things. Those machines. (JN laughs) And they'll bust out and they'll come charging after you because you'll be there as one of the little Slytherins. They'll be like, "Hi-ya! I'm going to get you!" And I will...

JN: (laughs) What if all the house elves could join together like a transformer, (SU laughs) and morph into this huge giant elf looking thing. Have you seen that commercial for Coors Light or something where all the people (SU: Yes!) join together to form this giant walking human creature thing?

SU: It'd be like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man only it'd be the Stay Puff (JN: Yeah.) giant house-elf! That'd be awesome! (laughs)

JN: With a bunch of house-elves.

MA: The Stay Puff Giant House-elf?

SU: Yes! Oh, that'd be awesome! (laughs)

JN: That would work. And I don't think people would find that random in the slightest. (SU and MA laugh)

MA: Well I'm all for Ghost Busters references, I must tell you. (laughs)

JN: You must have skipped those ten pages in Deathly Hallows where they described it in detail.

MA: There is no Voldy, only Zuul. (SU: So awesome!) So, other news this week. We talked about this at the end of last weeks show, but we also announced LeakyCon 2009!

SU: Yes! Do-do-do-do!

MA: Do-do-do! We actually... (laughs)

JN: What's that all about?

MA: We recorded it as part of the show because we thought the announcement would be made. Then we realized that the show was ready to go up and the LeakyCon announcement wasn't made. (JN: Whoops.) We're like, Ah!" And so that's why the show was so late last week, so we apologize. LeakyCon 2009 is the first ever conference from theLeaky Cauldron. It is going to be in Boston, in the end of May. May 21st to 24th. It's at the Boston Park Plaza, which is a gorgeous hotel with a castle. We are going to be having a ball at the castle. There are so many activities that these girls are planning.

JN: I've decided I want something.

SU: Oh, no.

MA: What do you want, John?

JN: I want a giant cauldron ice sculpture that you can pour potions slash beverages into the top and it leaks out the bottom into your glass, outta the crack in the cauldron. This is my call to anybody who has any particular skill in carving ice.

MA: That would be so cool.

JN: If you come to LeakyCon.

MA: We've seen something like that before, haven't we?

SU: Yeah.

JN: I remember at the Webbys. They had something like that.

MA: They had a giant sculpture of a Webby which is like a slinky kinda spiral, (SU: Mm-hm.) and so they carved a tunnel out of the spiral and they threw your drink down the spiral and it was so icy-cold when it came out and landed in your glass. It was amazing.

JN: Absolutely. (MA: It was so cool.) It's that kinda liquid that can get colder than normal freezing temperature and stay a liquid.

SU: I've been on a couple cruises and I've seen amazing ice sculptures on the cruises. You know because all you do is eat. (JN: It's so cool.) That would be really kinda fun, actually.

MA: Yeah, let's see if it's in the budget.

JN: I got a pretty cool idea for an Ace of Cakes cauldron cake as well.

MA: See, this is a charity event, people. (SU laughs)

JN: (laughs) I want excessive things!

MA: Yeah, I am aware of that. (SU: Shock.) But I don't think we're going to raise a lot of money for the Book Aid International or the Harry Potter Alliance if we start doing extravagant ice sculptures.

JN: They will be plenty, but we need to have big elaborate food. (MA: Yeah, I know.) Where are your priorities, you guys?

MA: Look, we have lots more information on LeakyCon coming. Registration will open in a couple of months, maybe even sooner. We will have information on our hotel rate. Don't book your hotel rate yet, because we have a block of rooms that will be opened fairly soon and we do have the cheapest rate that you can get at that hotel. Don't book it now.

JN: Are there any suites? (MA: What?) Are there any suites? In this hotel?

MA: I'm sure there are.

JN: With the attached coffee?

SU: Can we address something serious, ignoring where he's going to go next? (MA: Thank you, yes.) This is being held over Memorial Day weekend, and I've got a lot of emails and people's comments are saying that you can't because school's going on. This is a holiday weekend in the United States. (JN: Mm-hm.) So please, if you can come. (MA: Yeah.) It is a holiday weekend. It was taken into consideration, and if you can't go to all three of them come to one or two days. A couple days. You can get there.

MA: Look, we really agonized over the date. (SU: Mm-hm.) Really, really agonized. By the time that we had to get our date finalized, Sectus 2009 was happening in England, and so we wanted to stay away from that. We originally wanted to do it in June, but then Sectus announced their conference. And so we backed up ours to get away- You know, to give them a courtesy space. And that conference has now been cancelled, so we regret not being able to move it back to June, but we just can't (JN: Mm-hm.) because there have been contracts and they have been signed and that's it. So, we really apologize. It is a weekend and we know it is U.S. based- U.S. biased because it is Memorial Day weekend, but it was the only option as opposed to late August, which is when even the U.S. college kids are back in school. So, we really had to do it. (JN: Yeah.) Just think of it like Phoenix Rising. Last year Phoenix Rising was a huge amount of fun and it was over Memorial Day weekend. So...

JN: It's true.

MA: Yeah. So, yeah. No, it's going to be amazing. We are going to have wizard rock. We are going to have- basically all conferences so far have been educational-based and we are more charity-based. We'll still have the educational stuff. We'll still have panels, but we're going to have a lot more fun activities. And you will see that unfold as the weeks go on.

JN: Is there going to be face painting?

MA: Yes, John, face painting just for you.

JN: Will somebody paint Crookshanks face on me with the whiskers?

SU: You want to look like a cat like from the Cats musical?

JN: Well, not every night, but- (SU: Why?) I think I have to have a Crookshanks night just to get into the spirit of things.

SU: Are you going to sing then? (sings) "Midnight..."

JN: What? Does Crookshanks sing? I didn't...

SU: I don't know.

JN: I must have missed that chapter.

MA: (sings) "Memories all alone." Like that?

SU: Speaking of- (laughs) do that again, Melly.

MA: (sings) "Memories." I can impersonate a cat wailing. (imitates a cat)

JN: Hey, you're getting good lessons from the Mooch. (SU laughs) (MA: Yes, I am.) Right. (MA laughs)

SU: That's so random.

MA: Okay. Anyway...

JN: You're talking about your cat all of the time. Gosh.

MA: Yeah, I know. God. It's always you who brings it up, though. But (JN: God.) podcasts- It's not just PotterCast. We've invited at least one other podcast and we will have more information (JN: Guess which one.) on that. We will have more information on that (SU: Subtle, John.) as things unfold. Yeah, subtle. (laughs) Really, it's going to be such an amazing event. We are so- it was a natural extension. When we were at Prophecy last year, our staff just turned around and said, "You know we want to do one of these. We want to throw- We want to have a party. We want to celebrate what it's been like to be a Harry Potter fan all of this time." I said, "Yeah, let's do it." So, basically, this is totally run by MJ and Stephanie from our crew who have now led another band of Leaky staff members (JN: Woo.) into the process. It's like a total- It's like a side division. I have nothing to do with it. We have very little to do with it, but they are doing amazing work and it is going to be great.

SU: Awesome. (JN: Yes.) Awesome, I can't wait. (MA: Okay.) Okay. I have one more piece of news before we go. (JN: More news?) Well, I just want to say congratulations to Jim Dale. He won a Grammy award for his Deathly Hallows audio book. (JN: Yay!) Congratulations. It's his second win and he rocks. I think for a Grammy. I think he won for Goblet of Fire. I am pretty sure, but that rocks. So, you know.

JN: Way to go. Mr. Dale in the house.

SU: I was...

MA: Go Jim Dale.

SU: Barack Obama and Jim Dale both won. I thought that was pretty cool.

JN: What?

MA: (laughs) Yeah, Barack Obama won a Grammy.

JN: What did he win a Grammy for?

MA: For reading his book. And do you know who he was against? (JN: No.) Bill Clinton.

JN: Nice.

SU: Yeah, pretty much.

MA: Okay. This is not a politics cast. So we are going to move on.

JN: That's funny.

SU: So, what we were saying, John. Your task down in Florida now that the construction on the castle at Hogwarts...

JN: I know. I was almost in Orlando this weekend, but it didn't happen.

SU: Yeah.

MA: I am sure we have other listeners in Orlando. (SU: Yes.) Go with your cameras and helicopters. Come on.

SU: I know. Come on people.

JN: Everybody owns a helicopter.

MA: Yeah.

SU: Well, it's going up now. There was vertical (MA: Yeah.) things. I was like, "Woo-hoo."

MA: Well, if you go- apparently, if you go on the Ferris wheel, (SU: Yeah?) the top of the Ferris wheel is a perfect view of Islands of Adventure. (SU: Oh.) So, there's some sort of Ferris wheel, ride, or something that puts you up really high. Bring a camera.

JN: There's a little unicorn rollercoaster thingamajigger that's near by.

SU: It's a unicorn?

MA: Bring your cameras; send us pictures. Let's go.

JN: Yep. I want pictures. Oh my God.

SU: Yay.

MA: Send them to- where should they send them? Staff@pottercast.com. Do that. It's the easiest to say. Okay.

SU: All right. (JN: Cool.) Done. I am done.

JN: So, we are good to party.

SU: Mm-hm.

MA: Okay. Let's get going, peoples.