PotterCast 137: There Should Be Cushions! Transcript

News Talk (0:00 - 12:15)

Melissa Anelli (MA): It's February Sweeps, (Sue Upton (SU) laughs) and we are here with PotterCast Number 137. Hey, guys!

John Noe (JN): Jeez!

MA: Did we do February Sweeps? What did we do for February Sweeps?

SU: Ah.

JN: I didn't know there was a February Sweeps.

MA: On television.

SU: Should be, should be.

JN: Not really much this year, hardly any new shows left.

SU: Hey, man, Lost is back. At least there's four episodes of that, so that's something.

JN: I think they have eight in the can, or something.

SU: Yeah, but we're only going to get a little bit.

Lisa DeGroot (LD): And then they'll do the rest in May, right?

SU: Yeah, probably.

JN: Are they seriously going to do that?

SU: I don't think...

JN: Oh, burn.

MA: We should start making a podcast February Sweeps Month. This should be the month where we all fight, (LD laughs) break up, somebody gets abducted, (SU: Okay!) the terrorists come and get us, and then aliens abduct John.

JN: Yes.

LD: They haven't all ready?

MA: All this month.

JN: This has happened previously.

SU: (laughs) We knew that about you.

JN: You get used to it.

MA: Okay. Anyway, welcome, it's PotterCast 137. I'm Melissa, I'm here with Sue and John, and we are joined today by a very special guest, Lisa. She is known as Questauthor on our site and on our forums. She is the author of- how many books now?

LD: Well, there are three that are out right now. The fourth, which is Charm Quest, will be out within the next two weeks!

SU: Ooh, cool!

JN: Well, jeez, perfect timing!

LD: I know! I got the finished book cover yesterday, and it's absolutely glorious, so I'm very, very happy.

MA: And how many have you written?

LD: This is where it gets a little embarrassing. I have the rough drafts for twenty in the Quest series.

SU: Wow.

MA: Whoa!

LD: And- (laughs) I know. And four drafts for a companion series, which are The Defenders of the Land, so...

SU: Ohh!

MA: I am still faint and sweaty from one, (LD laughs) so I don't understand how you do- (laughs) how you did this. No, we'll talk about in one minute. Right now, we're gonna hear from Sue about what is going on in (in a French accent) ze Harry Potter news this week.

LD: Oh, awesome.

SU: There are news. We have news about the directorship of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. David Heyman, producer, says that Guillermo del Toro is not really in the running, and that makes sense, because he's now going to be helming The Hobbit film, so he can't take it on and do the Deathly Hallows movie. So that was kind of cool news.

MA: Do you know, I'd never seen a picture of Guillermo de Toro. I'd only Pan's Labyrinth, and I expected him to be a lot different looking (laughs) than he was, when I saw the picture associated with this article. I expected him to be dark and brooding, and kind of- (SU: I know!) (JN laughs) and he looks like a general grade "A" geek! (LD laughs)

SU: He does! Which is so great! That's why he's...

LD: There's nothing wrong with that!

SU: No, you're right! (laughs)

MA: No, it's fantastic. It's just, your mind does these things, you know?

SU: Yeah. You know...

JN: It's such a cool movie.

SU: I think he would have did a good job. I liked Pan's Labyrinth. I liked- his fantasy element would have been really good. I think from a visual point-of-view, he would have been good, but...

MA: He would have had so much fun with that battle.

SU: Oh, God, yeah.

MA: Oh, yes. Gore.

SU: (laughs) Yes, he would.

MA: Blech. (SU: Ooh.) Blech. (SU: But...) Don't see Pan's Labyrinth if you've just eaten.

SU: But (MA makes shuddering sounds) Mr. del Torro's not going to do it. So, hopefully we'll hear soon. I mean, I just think they need to soon, but...

MA: Yeah, I mean, okay there's been some rumors going (SU: Yeah.) around. The set visit was recently- was this (SU: Awesome.) week. A bunch of fan sites went to the set, along with other media. This happens (SU: Mm-hm.) with every film. We're under strict embargo. If I say anything we'll be shot. But, you know, this is- they're in the middle of filming one movie. This is around the time where we start hearing things about the next, but Steven Kloves, who's writing the seventh film is (SU: Right.) on strike. (SU: Right.) So (SU: Ee-ee.) they can't even (SU: No.) speak to him. So (LD: A little bit of a problem.) unless the strike ends soon. Yeah, unless the strike ends soon, it's a (LD: Right.) non-issue. "Pencils down" means pencils down, you're not supposed to even be doodling it in your sleep.

JN: I hope this isn't going to lead to a whole Harry Potter-fans-for-the-writers campaign if they hold up our movie too long. We can't have our trio aging disproportionately.

MA: You can mess with all of Hollywood, you start screwing around with the Harry Potter fans. It's problems.

JN Yeah, totally. We have bigger numbers than anything.

SU: Well, God forbid they get a new screenwriter. (coughs) Sorry.

JN: Now (MA: They can't, they're all in the Guild.) they're all gonna be in the Guild.

SU: Not all of them.

MA: No, but you can't- If the Harry Potter films went anything non-union there'd be strikes (SU: That's true.) of a whole other sort.

SU: That's true.

JN: Yeah.

MA: And then, oh, God, then whoever was that writer would be (JN: Could you imagine?) killing the rest of his career. And so- but on the question of whether The Deathly Hallows will be split into two, (SU: Yeah.) we've been talking about it non-stop here. We all seem to be of the opinion that it's probably going to happen. I'm certainly not un-convinced of that now.

JN: I'm ready for it. Are you kidding me? That's awesome. I just wonder how close they'll be released to each other.

SU: They could call it...

MA: There's all sorts of questions around that, huh?

JN: Yeah, and what they'll call it. Just Harry Potter Deathly Hallows - Part One, or you know, Harry Potter Deathly Hallows or like Harry Potter and (SU: And the Battle of Hogwarts.) the Duel with Voldemort? Or something.

MA: Well here's the thing.

JN: Oh, that'd be cool. (SU laughs) (MA: If they...) How 'bout Harry Potter and the Knights of Hogwarts for the second one?

MA: Harry Potter and the (SU: I want to volunteer, man.) How John Noe Was Right.

SU: If they would just allow American old people like me to be in it. I would so volunteer. I just want to throw a Snargaluff pod. You know? I just wanna (JN: How funny...) Venomous Tentacular or a Mandrake.

JN: How funny would it be if Jo (SU: Just one shot.) wrote in the last book how, you know, if at some point like three (SU laughs) older American people show up.

LD: Randomly show up. (SU laughs)

JN: And then they do something like they're tourists or something, but they have a really big role to play. (SU: Oo! Oo! Me!) And they're like, "Oh, it's time to cast Americans." (LD: Oh, my God.) Here we go.

LD: You know the fanfic people (MA: Can you imagine?) are going to go nuts over that.

JN: They would freak.

MA: Could you imagine (JN: That'd be too funny.) the casting call?

JN: Could you imagine? Like the whole country shows up in droves.

SU: Be- the greatest thing. Be awesome. But you could be- (JN: Twelve to sixty-year-olds.) John, it would be so cool, though, if they could cast you as Dawlish's double, or something. (laughs)

JN: Could you imagine, though, if they had a Dawlish into-the-Penseive, his history, kind of a flashback moment, and there's a younger Dawlish there, and I'm like, "Well, if you need a younger Dawlish..."

LD: "I'm your guy," right?

JN: "This guy over here, I'm right over here, so just keep that in mind, Kloves! You've done some crazy things before, this wouldn't be off the wall!" (SU laughs)

MA: Oh, I'm sure they're just waiting, John.

SU: It's true. Well, (JN: I gotta say.) filming is ongoing for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and we saw new photos, and new video this time, at (www.gloucestercathedral.org.uk/)Gloucester Cathedral. And there was one young one man they talked to, the extras that are gonna be cast, and he said he was in Hufflepuff, and he was sad. But I was like, "You know, come on. Take pride in that." But all the kids are getting- there's gonna be 174 extras of these students (LD: Wow.) that are gonna be in it, which is pretty- that's a lot of students, I thought.

MA: That is a lot of students.

LD: That is a tremendous amount of students.

SU: But it kind of looks like they're filming the scene like outdoor- they're putting up platforms, like it could be outdoor, like the courtyard scene. Maybe it's like we talked about last week, where maybe it's where Dumbledore's gonna fall, or I don't know.

MA: Or the battle, or (SU: Yeah.) what would they be doing at Gloucester? Because I'm free to opine about this, because we didn't find this out, so what could they be doing at Gloucester? We're still trying to figure this out. Have we had any email from anybody who thinks they know what the Gloucester filming would be? (SU: No, no.) Yeah, I haven't seen anything, either.

SU: Nothing. It was just surprising, because usually- there's been a lot of kids that are saying, "Oh, my friends are in it," and stuff, but no one's saying what's gonna happen there, which is interesting. So maybe they're...

LD: Well, someone needs to fess up!

SU: Yeah, I think so! (laughs)

LD: Come on!

MA: Come on. You can sign it anonymously, it's okay. (laughs)

SU: Yeah, but the...

JN: Maybe they have some kind of memorial service for Dumbledore, instead of the funeral, how it was written outside at the tomb.

LD: By the lake.

MA: Maybe.

SU: I know, but that filming is gonna take place next week, in February, for sure, so we'll- I'm sure. We have a lot of people have said that they are gonna go there and take pictures, and report, so stay tuned! We'll have them up as soon as we can. Which is good.

JN: And I'm trying to think about this, now. How many scenes in any of the movies so far have there been a whole lot of people in one of the outdoor locations? Like a real outdoor location, not something that wasn't one of the castles, wasn't a- I'm trying to- I don't know, I take that back. (MA: Maybe they just...) I guess when they brought everybody from the train station in Phoenix, that was off somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and there was a whole bunch of them.

MA: Maybe they're changing how people sit around for Quidditch. Maybe it's not gonna be like we've seen it.

SU: Oh, that could be.

JN: Oh, but those stands are so iconic.

MA: Are they, though? We haven't seen them since Movie Three.

SU: Yeah.

LD: We've all forgotten what they look like. It's been so long since we've seen Quidditch.

SU: Yeah.

JN: They've remodeled the castle how many times?

SU: Oh, that's true.

JN: Hagrid's hut.

LD: They remodeled Dumbledore. (SU laughs)

JN: (laughs) Well...

LD: Come on. (laughs)

SU: Good point.

MA: This is true.

SU: But the students are talking about being fitted for their school robes, so it kinda (LD: Hm.) indicates this is a classroom situation or something to do with the school.

LD: I don't know, I almost think it's some sort of memorial for Dumbledore. Some sort of empat- The students assembling in the courtyard, and having some sort of, I don't know, choir singing or something which will make everybody cry.

MA: Please with frogs.

SU: Yeah, don't make the frogs come back! No.

LD: Please no frogs! No!

MA: It's not choir singing if there are no frogs. (LD laughs)

SU: Yeah. You know what's really interesting though about this movie, which I'm anxious about, is that we just heard a little bit from Mr. Alan Rickman when he was recently at Sundance. He said he's still refusing to discuss his role as Snape, because he doesn't want to ruin it. (MA: Still!) Isn't that amazing?

MA: Dude, cat out of the bag! Cat. Bag. Out.

JN: He probably has this thing with Warner Brothers. Just like the whole business for Phoenix when that was about ready to come out and they asked us not to talk about Sirius dying too much. It's like everybody knows it.

MA: That was funny. Because it was our audience specifically, it was silly, we kept having to not say it. (SU: Yeah.) (laughs) You know. That thing, certainly nobody dies. (SU: No!) That thing that happens.

SU: I am so anticipating that scene, that final part of the book. I just think so much rides on him and Dan as Harry; and Draco for that matter. Tom Felton, we haven't heard anything from him. I just think- oh, I can't wait. I can't wait. One other final thing. J.K. Rowling was recently honored by the South Bank Show Awards. She got a special award for outstanding achievement for her massive sales and getting children to read. We saw some videos and new photos of her. She was presented the award by Lord Richard Attenborough, who is fabulous. He had some really, really nice comments about Jo. Although he was funny, because he said he's the only person who was never offered a role in a movie. And he said well and then Jo joked, "Well Michael Gambon is going to have an accident so Lord Attenborough could be in the film." Which was hysterical. (LD laughs) And people were like "Yes! Yes!" (laughs) It was funny. (laughs) Go Jo, way to stir up the fandom. Way to go. (MA: Yeah, for real.) It's really nice. We have a really nice collection of video and photos of Jo, who looked really fabulous. She had this really great like, I don't know what you call it, paisley print overcoat on.

MA: It looked kinda Asian looking.

JN: Oh, she's always looking fabulous.

MA: Glamorous.

SU: She looked rockin', I had to say.

LD: Yeah.

JN: This is Jo.

MA: Very glam, very glam. (LD: Yeah.) Very wonderful.

JN: The rock star, now.

SU: We're all just...

MA: All right, so...

SU: Yes. (JN laughs)

MA: So, okay.

SU: Rock on.