Update

Okay thought I'd better give a quick update as I haven't got round to blogging again recently. I had meant to do a post with reviews of the films I've seen since the last filmic post, but to be honest I can't be bothered - I'll just say that I've seen State of Play, X Men Origins: Wolverine, Coraline and Star Trek and they were all pretty good. Star Trek was at the IMAX at Waterloo, which I'm not sure was an improvement - probably not, although it's not going to stop me going to see Harry Potter at the IMAX as it has bits in 3D apparently (sadly probably not Severus Snape though). Coraline was in 3D, although I'm sure that wasn't improved for being so, it could have used the 3D far more effectively and sadly, the Jonas Brothers concert film that was shown as a trailer was excellent and showed just how good it could have been.

Anyway, as you'll see from the counter it's now only 31 days until the release of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and of course I'm getting mega-excited. I've stopped watching all the trailers etc. as I'm fed up of seeing bits of the film and WB have released so much footage now that I feel like I've already seen it. D Day is Wednesday 15th July and I expect to be at one of the first showings of the day - sadly no midnight showing at any of the cinemas near me, as there apparently are in the US, but I think the first showing is about 11am.

Talking of Severus Snape, WB have just released this and I’ve decided that I NEED it. No don’t ask where I’m going to put it ‘cos I have no idea, although I’m happy sharing my bedroom with both Alan Rickman and Severus Snape ;) I don’t care how impractical a 6’ 2” standee is ... I want it!

So to other news. Went to Chelsea Flower Show as usual, but this year Lynnie Lou had the audacity to go away on holiday to Spain with her sister so instead Mrs H3 and I went. Had the usual cracking day and were very lucky to have excellent weather. We got hundreds of photos before the batteries went on my phone and her camera about half way round. Sadly, I didn't get to see James May, but we did see most of the other major TV personalities.

Mrs H3 and I spent Bank Holiday Monday at Hall Place in Bexley where we joined King Henry VIII and his court in watching jousting etc. It was fun and once again we were lucky with the weather. In fact I actually got sunburnt. However, I’m not sure they were expecting the turnout they got as the food court contained only a burger bar, a jerk chicken stand (wtf?) a donut stall and an ice cream van. Queues for all were horrendous and we ended up leaving and driving the ten minutes down the road to Bluewater to grab something from Burger King instead. Anyway, photos to follow when we get round to uploading them, which will be after Mrs H3 returns from her highly exciting holiday in Skiathos.

Coming up next Saturday is the London Ukulele Festival. Having finally got my beautiful lilac sporano ukulele, I signed up to take part in the World Record attempt for the most ukulele's played in one place at the same time, assuming that we go. All well and good, but firstly I have to play (and I believe, sing) The Sloop John B - a tune that I haven't played since I was 12 and gave up guitar lessons. Not only have I had to relearn the chords (and believe me my fingers are feeling the burn) I've had to learn how to tune my ukulele as this warm weather is knocking it out of tune almost every time I play. Fortunately I've found a great online tuner - I have no idea what I'll do at the festival itself though. Hopefully one of the many hundreds of other ukulele players will be able to help me. Secondly, I'm supposed to be raising sponsorship money as it's an event for Cancer Research, but as I’m still not 100% sure that we’re going I feel a bit bad asking people to sponsor me for something I might not end up doing. If anyone’s interested in sponsoring me if I do go, please leave me a message or e-mail me to let me know.

Skype. Since changing to my new computer I’d completely forgotten about Skype, mainly because it turns out that my phone is not compatible with the new software. The old Skype software, plus the new phone software has now been installed and Skype is once again a great place to chat!

The Angry Ranting Bit

Yep I’m pissed off … extremely pissed off. With Warner Brothers. I’m sure by now that everyone knows that the release of ‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’ has been put back by eight, count ‘em, EIGHT months due to Warner Brothers money grabbing attitude.

Now I know I’m not alone in being upset. The Leaky Cauldron crashed from the number of people trying to access the site and comment on their disgust of the situation – over 600 comments in 2 hours, and reports in various world newspapers about petitions and boycotts from what are described by the LA Times as "amongst the most intense devotees in contemporary pop culture" show that the fans are very angry indeed.

This isn’t helped when WB executives release statements which give away their true intentions. Blaming the recent writers strike is useful but doesn’t cover up the fact they’re hoping to make more money by waiting till next July, especially when IMAX produce a press release saying exactly that. After the understandable outrage from the HP fandom at the date change WB’s President Alan Horn was quoted as saying that he acknowledged that the studio would have to pacify fans in the months to come: “We would never do anything to hurt one of the movies or the series. We love our fans.” Mr Horn certainly doesn’t use my definition of the word love!

The first pacifiers came quickly. After months of nothing much in the way of promotional material suddenly there were new pictures: including Snape, Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange performing the unbreakable vow; Snape and McGonagall with the golden trio examining the charmed necklace and the Slug Club meeting and Christmas party.

Nice to see especially for a Snape fangirl like me (maybe Snape will get more than ten minutes of playing time in this movie after all – a must surely considering the book (and film) is really called Harry Potter and Severus Snape), but annoying too. Forget the pictures and just give us the film!

I guess that explains why the official trailer wasn’t released with ‘The Mummy’ as had been touted by WB at the end of last month, however the publicity machine has already been gearing up for the November release so it will be interesting to see what happens when they have to promote next July. Entertainment Weekly (a huge magazine in the States) is running their 7 page feature on the film this month (it hits the newsstands today) and I am sure there will be others. Hard to see how this missed publicity will be recaptured when the film finally comes out.

So now I have to wait until 17th July 2009 to see the film. WB have helpfully pointed out that this means less of a wait for film 7 – ‘The Deathly Hallows Part 1’ which is due out on 19 November 2010 (assuming of course they don’t shift that date to a more profitable one too), but that doesn’t help. I expected the wait for the next film. I didn’t expect to have to wait another eight months for this one.

Interestingly, as part of the EW article, Steve Kloves (writer of 5 of the 6 HP scripts so far) says that he has just finished the first draft of HP7 Pt1. He is quoted as saying that they (I assume he means WB) are worried that with the end of the book series that the popularity of the franchise will drop and they won’t have an audience for the last films. Perhaps he and the executives at WB ought to take a look at the HP fandom before making stupid statements like that. Not only does it show no signs of diminishing, the number of people enjoying the books and films increases every year as more young readers (and adults willing to take a chance) pick up the stories. The main reason WB are likely to lose an audience is through stupid moves like the one they pulled yesterday!