A bunch of lucky muggles got the chance to see around 7 minutes of footage from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at the ShoWest Film Festival yesterday. Thankfully it didn’t blow their mains too much, and we have a number of descriptions online to give us an idea of what was shown. Some of the footage was apparently unfinished so it didn’t look as good as it could have, but it seems people enjoyed it nonetheless.

First up we have a Twitter reaction from FirstShowing:

Yep, just saw the Quiddich arena burning down and Harry flying with Hagrid on his motorcycle – footage from Deathly Hallows. Looks AWESOME!

I got chills seeing footage of Voldemort in Deathly Hallows without CG, just Ralph Fiennes with makeup & dots on his face. So frickin’ cool!

We saw a lot of him. In the forest looking for Harry. Then sitting down at a big table talking w/ Snape about Harry’s safehouse.

CinemaBlend wrote a description with a bit more detail:

Ralph Fiennes’ noseless Voldemort– had dots on his face marking the future digital alteration that really makes him who he is. But they weren’t just bold in what they showed us, but how they did it– the first scene of the extended trailer was Harry and Voldemort’s confrontation in the woods outside Hogwarts. Harry, bloodied and visibly terrified, approaches a cold Voldemort (flanked by Bellatrix Lestrange); Voldemort taunts Harry, “The boy who lived, come to die.”

We saw little bits of everything, from the seven Harry Potters escaping from the Dursleys house (totally surreal) to the attack at Bill and Fleur’s wedding to the escape from Gringotts on the pale dragon and even Hogwarts on fire. With unfinished effects it’s hard to really say how it all looks, though some of the most effective moments were the simplest– Ron and Harry’s fight in the tent, Harry visiting his parents’ graves, running away from the Snatchers in the woods, Harry defiantly telling Voldemort that he stays alive “because I have something worth fighting for.”

[One] of the final shots was of Hermione riding a broom, by herself, escaping from a fireball that’s likely the curse that Crabbe and Goyle set off in the Room of Requirement near the end.

Collider said the footage lasted between 4-7 minutes and mentions a few scenes the others didn’t:

The footage started with Voldemort walking in the forest with all of his followers around him. He was looking for Harry. While I assumed the footage was going to be just from the first Harry Potter movie coming this November, I think the opening was from part 2 and it was from the big climatic battle between Harry and Voldemort!

So we see Harry coming towards Voldemort partly beat up and with a look of nervousness. It was then we cut away…

Other bits of footage were Harry, Ron and Hermione in the forest fighting as Ron tells Harry that since he already lost his family his pain isn’t as important (or something like that). We also saw tons of pre-viz mixed in with shot footage like Harry flying with Hagrid and Voldemort chasing him with other Death Eaters. I also saw a scene of all the Harry’s from the beginning of the book. Other bits were the kids in London walking around, Bill Nighy as Rufus Scrimgeour, Harry and Ginny kissing, and so much more.

And finally, ComingSoon remembered seeing some giants smashing things up:

There was some footage of the trio running through the Forbidden Forest being chased by something, a quick anamatic of the giants smashing up some building (Hogwarts?) with their clubs, and footage of the kids being chased by a dragon. Another unfinished scene showed Hagrid on a flying motorbike that was rocketing through the side alongside what looked like Hermione and other Hogwarts denizens on broomsticks, as well as others riding Thestrals (those flying horses), seemingly being chased by a flying Voldemort or another Death Eater. With all of this happening, the friendship is also having trouble withstanding all of the strain, and in one scene, we see Harry and Ron really going at it, even more than we’ve seen them arguing in the past.

The footage ended with what might be the final confrontation with Voldemort as he asks Harry, “Why do you still live?” to which he gets the response, “Because I have something to live for.”

Some have been speculating that the first official teaser trailer for Part I will be attached to Clash of the Titans at the beginning of next month, which I hope is the case. Both are Warner Bros. movies and both are in 3D, so it would be a good fit. It’s just a case of whether they have enough footage ready.

In just over a years time the Harry Potter franchise will be coming to an end with the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II in July (Part I this November). Over the past 10 years each Harry Potter film has provided Warner Bros. with over $900 million per outing, and thats without taking into account DVD/Blu-ray sales, merchandise etc. They will need to find another event franchise if they want to keep bringing in the $$$.

The only franchise they have at the moment that makes ridiculous amounts of money is Christoper Nolan’s Batman franchise, with The Dark Knight making just over $1 billion worldwide. Batman 3 is currently in development and should do rather well upon its release (2012?), however that is only one film. What tentpole movies will Warner Bros. be filling the summers of 2013 and beyond with?

Superheroes.

According to Collider, who attended a Warner Bros. presentation at the South by Southwest Film Festival, head honcho Alan Horn confirmed that Warner Bros. will be looking to make use of its DC comics library in order to fill the gapping hole left by Harry Potter. This means that over the upcoming year or so we could be hearing developments on movies such as The Flash, Wonder Woman and eventually a Justice League movie. We’ve heard hints of this before as Warner Bros. are planning to emulate Marvel by making solo movies, and then joining everyone up for a big team movie.

I’m not sure a single Wonder Woman or Flash movie will generate a Harry Potter-type box office return, but if they release two superhero movies a year they should end up making similar numbers. It’ll make fanboys happy too.

Not only will the two upcoming Deathly Hallows movies draw to a close the story of Mr. Potter and his close circle of friends, it will also be the end of the road for all the supporting characters. Most haven’t had that much of an arc throughout the previous movies, but there are some such as Lucius Malfoy, played by Jason Isaacs, who have had a few small storylines over the course of the films, and they will be resolved one way another in the final film.

The following will contain spoilers, which those who haven’t read the books may want to avoid.

Lucius Malfoy has always been the slightly evil school parent who used to be among Voldemort’s inner circle during his reign of terror. In Order of the Phoenix we saw Harry and co. battle Lucius and some Death Eaters, which resulted in Malfoy being locked up in Azkaban. In Half-Blood Prince we saw the effect this had on Draco, who broke Harry’s nose in revenge and was given the task of killing Dumbledore without his father around to stand up for him.

At the beginning of Deathly Hallows we see that Voldemort has freed Lucius, however he has taken over the Malfoy residents and demands Lucius hand over his wand. By the end of the film both Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy no longer care for Voldemort and his campaign, and simply want to make sure Draco isn’t injured or killed during the epic Battle of Hogwarts. We see that while Lucius wasn’t the most pleasant of characters, he was only trying to protect his family. I think J.K Rowling wanted to show this, and that’s why she didn’t kill him off.

Although…during a recent interview with BBC Radio 2 Jason Isaacs hinted that Lucius’ story may not go along exactly with the one in the book:

“In fact, [Lucius' ending] wasn’t planned. It was a decision made about how Lucius should end his bit in the story and we’d been leading up to it for a while and David – the lovely director – came to me and goes “What are we going to do with you that’s really great? How are we going to do the ending?” And one day I came up with this thing and he went “gasp Oh that’s it! Oh that’s it. It’ll be great.”

We shot some particular bit but I still had months left to film. And I went to the trailer and took my wig off and the First Assistant came to me and said “Jason I’m just looking at the schedule and I noticed that, actually, we don’t need you now.” And I said “Why?” and he said “Well because that thing you decided to do means you’re not in that scene or that scene or that scene.” And I went [jokingly] “Ahhh! I’ve changed my mind!”

Did they decide to kill him off? Will Lucius be sent away somewhere? I guess we won’t find out until next year when Part II is released in July. While J.K Rowling ended the series brilliantly in the books, most of the focus was on Harry and we didn’t really get great send-offs for other characters that have been around for the past 10 years. I don’t mind if they change a few things around if it means the characters get some closure they deserved.

Those who haven’t read the Harry Potter books and don’t want to be spoiled look elsewhere now!

While on the rounds promoting Alice in Wonderland Helena Bonham Carter spoke to Rotten Tomatoes about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Since Order of the Phoenix she has played whack job Bellatrix Lestrange, and in the next two films she gets up to quite a few immoral deeds, such as murdering and torturing some the characters we’ve known for year.

In the interview Carter talks about her last day of filming, falling off a table, and comments on some girl on girl duelling that will take place during the final films climax.

“I’m mostly in [Deathly Hallows: Part 2],” she told RT. “But it was fun. I died on my last day, which was really weird — to actually be [killed] on my last day. Molly Weasley – Julie Walters – kills me.”

And it’ll be quite the moment, she explained. “I do get a good death scene,” she told us. “It was really exhausting. As usual! [I'm] duelling, with a wand, on a table. I fell right off. I was clever enough to say, ‘If you’re going to ask me to duel, backwards, can we put a stuntman at the end?’ They said, ‘Ah, you won’t need one.’ And what did I do? Walked straight off.

“You’d think with 70 people looking at you, one of them would go, ‘Er, could you stop?!’ No! They loved it. I nearly killed myself — on the day that I died.”

For Bonham-Carter, bringing Bellatrix to an end was an emotional experience given her investment in the creation of the character as she appears in the films. “Bellatrix wasn’t on the page,” she explained. “I did think, What can I do to make this interesting? She was just written as tall and gaunt, but I knew there was something I got attracted to — playing arrested development. You know, children. Bellatrix is another child — stuck and totally anarchic.”

MTV also interviewed the actress, and she talks about the part in the film when Hermione takes the form of Bellatrix. Non-US people may not be able to watch it, so click here to read what she has to say.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 will be released in November (we may be getting a trailer with Clash of the Titans in April), and the final film will be released next July.

JoBlo reports that The Hollywood Reporter reports (the latter won’t load on my browser, hence this indirect route) that 3D test screenings for Clash of the Titans went well earlier this week, and so the film will hit cinemas in 3 glorious dimensions. Clash looks like it could be a great action epic (the creature designs are particularly awesome), and 3D will mean that the effects are even more in-our-faces. Which is good. Usually.

Shockingly, WB has also decided to release Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts I & II in 3D, again meaning lots of magicflasherycolourfulsplosion effects coming right out of the screen at you. I enjoyed the use of the format in Coraline and Up, where it was utilised in a more subtle way to add more depth to a scene, rather than to exploit an insane amount of VFX (and our wallets), but the movies released this way will probably still look cooler anyway.

According to Film Score Monthly French composer and two time Oscar nominee Alexandre Desplat will score Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I. Desplat has scored films such as The Golden Compass, The Queen, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, New Moon and Julie & Julia.

Nicholas Hooper composed the scores for Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince (both great), however he decided not to return due to family commitments and he thought a certain composer named John Williams should return to finish what he began. Williams may actually return for Deathly Hallows: Part II, as Desplat has only signed up for the one film (so far as we know). It would be great if they could get Williams to finish off the franchise.

In the February issue of Empire Magazine there is an on-set preview of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 which will be released in November. In the article Daniel Radcliffe talks about filming the ‘Seven Potters’ sequence, which fans of the book will know takes place towards the beginning of the film.

In order to protect Harry from Voldemort and the Death Eaters Ron, Hermione, and several other characters drink some Polyjuice Potion in order to take the appearance of Harry, and to act as decoys. Not only will the scene feature seven Harry Potters on-scene at the same time, the following events include aerial wizard battles, chase scenes down busy highways, and deaths.

“We are actually filming what is probably the single most complicated sequence we’ve done in any of the films. Everyone’s changing into me and nobody really knows what’s going on. I’m dressing up as everyone else ad they’re dressing up as me, and, well it’s very confusing.”

“It’s the hardest film to do, absolutely. I’m not sure anyone would disagree with me on that one. But as long as you equal that kind of toughness with your enthusiasm, then it sort of goes away”

Director David Yates, who Empire describe as “considerably greyer” than the last time they saw him, spoke about how different Part 1 feels compared to previous movies:

“Jo [Rowling] described the book as a bit of a road movie so the first of the two movies is gonna feel very much like that. I watched the first assembly of Part One just last week, and the most interesting dynamic is that you’re taking these three characters we know quite well away from the comfort zone of Hogwarts. And you really can’t underestimate the odd power of that.”

Emma Watson who plays Hermione Granger took time out of filming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, which was nice of her. (Merry Christmas from Filmonic too if you will be celebrating it over the upcoming days).

In other Deathly Hallows news Bill Nighy, who will play Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour in the upcoming films, spoke to The Daily Record about his role. (Potential spoilers for those who haven’t read the book).

“Scrimgeour is a tragic figure,” said Bill. “He knows what’s coming. It’s a very moving thing to play.

“He’s also very powerful and has had a very complicated progress to the top. And he has an interesting relationship with Harry, who views him initially with contempt. But then it’s softened by subsequent events.

“There’s a scene where he delivers Dumbledore’s legacy to the three children. He gives them all the things Dumbledore has left them, and that’s when it’s indicated he may not be around for much longer.”

We got our first glimpse at Nighy as Scrimgeour in the teaser trailer that was released earlier this month.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 will be released next November, and Deathly Hallows: Part 2 will be released July 2011.

Earlier this year producer David Heyman revealed that the final battle in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (or The Battle of Hogwarts as it’s known in the book) will be around 30 minutes long. That’s 30 minutes of wizarding duels, death, and destruction that will draw the franchise to a close in an epic fashion.

Tom Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy in the films, recently spoke to MTV while promoting the Half-Blood Prince DVD and he spoke about filming these scenes (we heard that around 43 principal cast members were needed on set for filming last month).

“It’s kind of cool, because this is the first time we’ve had so many castmembers on one set at one time, especially everyone from the evil camp and everyone from the good camp in a Western-style showdown — without revealing too much,” said Felton, who plays the nefarious Draco Malfoy. “It’s an amazing last scene, what we’ve shot of it so far. It’s very exciting.”

That’s not the only scene left to complete. The yearlong shoot was originally slated to wrap up at the end of April, but it’s now been extended well into June. Though the end is far off, Felton laughed that he, Daniel Radcliffe and the rest of the cast are looking forward to what should be a killer wrap party, a decade after they began filming the first movie in the series.

In the meantime, Felton is looking forward to returning to the “Potter” set across the Atlantic. “I’ve rarely had an opportunity to work with the evil family,” he said. “I’m working with Helena Bonham Carter, who’s a lovely lady and also a completely scary witch when she wants to be. I’m enjoying working with adult cast tremendously.”

He also told Female First that they’ve “been shooting outdoors at the moment and they build, basically this decrepit castle that’s all been smashed up and it’s quite incredible”.

It looks like Hogwarts will be a great pile of rubble when it’s all been said and done. I wonder if a quick ‘Reparo!‘ will be sufficient?

One of the main selling points of the Half-Blood Prince Blu-Ray was the revealing of the first bit of footage from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. However, in the age of the internet and camera phones things don’t stay purely on discs for long, and the footage has made it’s way online. It’s not the best quality so hopefully Warner Bros released it in HD in the near future.

It’s more of a teaser trailer for the two films as it contains footage from both. We see Harry, Ron and Hermione in the middle of a busy London street, the trio battling in a forest, and we get our first look at Bill Nighy as Rufus Scrimgeour.

The image above is the second official image released for the film, and features Harry holding a wand as he searches a house, presumably Grimmauld Place which we saw at the beginning of Order of the Phoenix.