Harry Potter Mania

A parents guide to select new movies:

'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'

Rating: PG for scary images, some violence, language and mild sensuality.

What it's about: The Hogwarts students cope with their junior year in school — with hormones and Death Eaters as their main worries.

The Kid Attractor Factor: Harry Potter and friends, beloved by a generation.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Of all the life lessons you learn, figuring out who you can trust is the most important.

Violence: Death and destruction, blood is spilled.

Language: A bit of coarse Brit-slang, mild stuff.

Sex: Quite a bit of "snogging" (kissing).

Drugs and alcohol: Butter beer is consumed in mass quantities.

Parents' advisory: It's a dark film that flirts with PG-13, but stays just this side of that line. Suitable for all ages.

We have seen them grow up on the HP film series. Now let's see what their hopes and dreams are in reality.

From source:

USA TODAY
Updated 8h 5m ago

The three young stars of the Harry Potter films talk about their future plans:

Daniel Radcliffe, movie star

"Hopefully in the next couple of years, I'll be back on stage in some form. I'd love to come to Broadway again," Radcliffe says. "They responded to the fact that I have a work ethic. I was on Broadway at the same time as Jeremy Piven, and I think he made me look really, really good because I didn't miss a show." He was jokingly referring to Piven's run in Speed-the-Plow, which was shortened by the actor's mercury poisoning.

First thing he'll do after Potter? "Sleep. Ideally, I would have three weeks off and go straight to something else. I get bored not working. … I have a huge amount of energy. When I'm on set, I use it all up. At home, I go wild in my head."

Emma Watson, model bookworm

As the series' outspoken, super-smart female lead, Watson says she's often confused with her character, Hermione Granger, off screen. That's why she has gone to great lengths to separate herself from her iconic teen wizard.

"People see me as Hermione in real life. They forget that I'm acting. We're quite different people. I want people to understand that I'm versatile," Watson says. "My way of hoping people would see me differently was through modeling. I worked very hard and did a lot of modeling shoots. Burberry offered me the campaign. That has moved me away a little bit. I'm not good at selling myself."

Rupert Grint, clown prince

As Harry's best friend and upbeat sidekick Ron Weasley, the red-haired Grint has provided most of the film series' comic relief. And now that his run as Ron is almost over, "I look forward to seeing what else is out there and to move on, really. This is a bubble, really. You don't get a sense of the real kind of industry. I look forward to it."

The least gregarious of the three, Grint peppers most of his responses with "really" and is every bit as reticent as Radcliffe is outgoing. Yates says Grint "has never changed. He's just Rupert, really laid-back and cool. He's the coolest person I know. He's so relaxed."

Who is Daniel Radcliffe?

Nope, it had originally been scheduled for November 21, 2008 release but was moved back to July 15, 2009.

From source:

Warner Bros president and chief operating officer Alan Horn said the move has nothing to do with any problems on the shoot of the new picture, which he said had already been finished. Instead the film was being moved to take advantage of a "free" weekend in the busy summer schedule.

"The picture is completely, absolutely, 100 per cent on schedule, on time. There were no delays," Mr Horn said. "I've seen the movie. It is fabulous. We would have been perfectly able to have it out in November."

The Half-Blood Prince centres on Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts' school of witchcraft and wizardry, and the book version is notable for the death of one of the series' major characters. It is directed by David Yates, working on his second Potter film after this year's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson once again reprise their roles as Hogwarts pupils Harry, Ron and Hermione.