Showing posts with label blockbuster. Show all posts
It's a Harry Potter Reunion at Universal Orlando's Diagon Alley
Tom Felton and Helena Bonham Carter, who portrayed the villainous Death Eaters in the Harry Potter films, were among the stars who turned out for Wednesday night's VIP and media preview of the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley at Universal Orlando.
"I almost wore my Dark Mark," Carter tells PEOPLE of the Death Eaters' sinister symbol. "I got some [temporary] tattoos of it!"
Felton, meanwhile, was basking in the cast reunion. "It's great seeing everyone again," he says. "We've all been catching up – I love it."
The expansion, which opens to the public on July 8, includes among its many features a new thrill-ride attraction based on the escape sequence from Gringotts wizarding bank in J.K. Rowling's seventh novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Fans of the blockbuster book and film series may also ride the scarlet Hogwarts Express train from London's Kings Cross Station to Hogsmeade – with visual effects worthy of a wizard along for the special journey.
Also among the Potter stars in attendance: Matthew Lewis, who played shy but brave Neville, James and Oliver Phelps (prankster twins Fred and George Weasley), Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) and Warwick Davis. (Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint skipped the event, while joining Bonham Carter – and the festivities – was director Tim Burton.)
The new Diagon Alley, which includes the Leaky Cauldron pub, Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour and Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, to say nothing of a fire-breathing dragon, "is even more true to life than the movie sets," says Evanna Lynch, who played dreamy Luna on screen.
"I just wish they could figure out a way to have gnomes running around, biting your heels. Wouldn't that be fun?"
Hollywood blockbuster ‘Noah’ banned in Qatar, Bahrain, UAE
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| The $125 million film, prohibited by Egypt's Azhar, has sent shockwaves across the Arab world. (Photo courtesy: Paramount) |
Hollywood flick “Noah” has been banned in Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates on religious grounds, a representative of Paramount Pictures told Reuters on Saturday.
Sending shockwaves across the Arab world, the $125 million film - starring Oscar-winners Russell Crowe and Anthony Hopkins - was officially banned by censors in the three Gulf countries this week.
"Censors for Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE (United Arab Emirates) officially confirmed this week that the film will not release in their countries," a representative of Paramount Pictures, which produced the film starring, told Reuters.
The religious argument returns to one particular Islamic ruling which forbids artistic portrayals of the prophets.
Egypt’s Azhar weighs in
Earlier this week, the Egypt-based Al-Azhar authority ruled that screening the biblical production is prohibited in Islam.
“Al-Azhar prohibits the screening of a film that characterizes Noah,” reads the title of a statement ‘issued on Thursday by the top Muslim institution.
More Arab states are expected to ban the film.
"The official statement they offered in confirming this news is because ‘it contradicts the teachings of Islam’," the Paramount Pictures representative said, adding that the studio expected a similar ban in Jordan and Kuwait.
The film will premiere in the United States on March 28.
Noah, who in the Bible’s Book of Genesis built the ark that saved his family and many pairs of animals from a great flood, is revered by Judaism, Christianity and Islam. An entire chapter in the Quran is devoted to him.
‘Son of God’
The controversy surrounding Noah has emerged just days after “Son of God,” another biblical big-screen production, had a blockbuster opening last week.
It remains unknown, however when and where the film will be shown in cinemas across the Middle East.
“Son of God” is perhaps comparable to the 2004 release of Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ,” which was lauded by some in the region, but banned by more conservative Arab states.
(With Reuters)
News Source: english.alarabiya.net
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