7 STUNNING NEW PROMO PICS FROM HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS
Source: Blastr

Seven new promotional images from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I were just released, and in addition to getting us excited about the penultimate installment in the film franchise, seeing Harry all grown up also reminds us how far we’ve come since we first saw the boy wizard on screen in 2001.

SEE THEM ALL HERE.

What makes sci-fi epic Metropolis so influential?
Source: BBC News

At two-and-a-half hours long, Fritz Lang’s 1927 classic Metropolis was considered too long for audiences in the heyday of the cinema and it was cut, re-edited, and re-released.

Now, thanks to the discovery of the 25 minutes of lost footage unearthed in an Argentine museum, Metropolis has been put back together the way the director intended.

WATCH PART OF THE REPORT HERE

WAS IT BAD TIMING THAT BEFELL KICK-ASS AND SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD?
Source: Screencrave

As you might’ve heard by now, two ultra-cool comic book movies with seemingly everything going for them – Kick-Ass and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – crashed & burned in theaters. But why, Screencrave? Good question. There are many reasons already elaborated on by critics as to why the two movies failed, but perhaps most of it boils down to bad timing and crazy cultural shennanigans.

READ MORE HERE

NEW ‘RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE’ CLIP FEATURING THE EXECUTIONER HITS THE WEB
Source: Aceshowbiz

Another clip from “Resident Evil: Afterlife” has been made available for viewing pleasure. It gives a look at a scene similar to the footage screened in London last weekend but this one is shorter. Featuring heart-pumping music, the newly released clip shows Ali Larter’s Claire Redfield who fights off Executioner Majini in what looks like a shower room.

READ MORE & WATCH THE CLIP HERE

A varied bag of news today from old classics to new ones. My favoritw is the Deathly Hallow promo pics, it’s one of the movies I’ve been waiting for. But what grabbed your attention?

JOIN THE DISCUSSION IN OUR FORUMS HERE.

Magic, Medicine and MSNBC

Source: today.ucf.edu

The UCF College of Medicine’s Harriet F. Ginsburg Health Sciences Library played host to potions, wands, monsters and history recently, thanks to a traveling exhibit featuring the link between medical history and the modern Harry Potter sensation.

“Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic and Medicine” is an exhibit on loan to the college from the National Library of Medicine. The exhibit shows how Harry Potter’s adventures at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry actually have their basis in the early history of science and medicine.

On August 12, Mark Waddell, Ph.D., a historian of early modern science and medicine, spoke at the college about what Renaissance medicine means to us today. Dr. Waddell’s research focuses on the intersections between science, religion and art in the Jesuit order, and he has developed an undergraduate curriculum on Harry Potter and medical history.

READ MORE HERE

This is really cute! What do you think of this?

Join us in the forum to discuss!

The Official Twilight Convention is still going strong for the month of September, coming to four different cities in the U.S., there is a horror film festival in Oklahoma, take part in Decatur’s Book Festival, and if you’re into dragons there is a Con for you, plus much more!

Decatur Book Festival 2010

September 3-4, 2010 – Decatur, GA

For more info: www.decaturbookfestival.com

Oklahoma Horror Film Festival

Sept. 3-5, 2010 – Tulsa, OK

For more info: www.oklahomahorrorfilmfest.com

Geek Kon 2010

Sept. 3-5, 2010 – Madison, WI

For more info: www.geekkon.net/

DragonCon

September 3-6, 2010 – Atlanta, GA

For more info: www.dragoncon.org/

CopperCon 2010 – Sci-Fi Fantasy

September 4-6, 2010 – Mesa, AZ

For more info: www.casfs.org/cucon/

The Official Twilight Convention

Sept. 3-5, 2010 – Minneapolis, MN

For more info: www.twilightconvention.com/mn

Sept. 10-12, 2010 – Salt Lake City, UT

For more info: www.twilightconvention/ut

Sept. 10-12, 2010 – Chicago, IL

For more info: www.twilightconvention.com/il

Sept. 24-26, 2010 – Sacramento, CA

For more info: www.twilightconvention.com/ca

Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention – Retro Sci-Fi

Sept. 23-25, 2010  - Hunt Valley, MD

For more info: www.midatlanticnostalgiaconvention.com/

Special Guest: Dawn Wells (from Gilligan’s Island)

INTERNATIONAL

AussieCon 4 – World Science Fiction Convention

September 2-6, 2010 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

For more info: www.aussiecon4.org.au/

Muggle Mayhem 2

September 10-12, 2010 – Bedfordshire, U.K.

For more info: www.massiveevents.co.uk/mugglemayhem2/

FantasyCon

September 17-19, 2010 – Nottingham, U.K.

For more info: fantasycon2010

If you attend any of these events why not come back to the OBS Forums and tell us all about it!

WB releases nine high-res Deathly Hallows, Part 1 stills first seen in Entertainment Weekly, confirms Hedwig plot change

by Andrew Sims at Muggle Net

We’ve just received a nice treat from Warner Brothers! Nine high-res stills from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1.  These were first seen in the most recent issue of Entertainment Weekly.  Enjoy!

On Hedwig’s Departure: The image depicting Harry letting Hedwig fly away included the following description from WB: “Everyone mounts up and leaves Privet Drive.  Harry says goodbye to Hedwig.”  So this does confirm that Harry lets Hedwig go prior to his departure.

See the rest here

Where Harry Potter’s ‘Deathly Hallows’ Part I ends

via The Independent

The first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will hit theaters on November 19 and fans are counting the days. The following may contain spoilers about the story.

Entertainment Weekly magazine has revealed the split between the film’s two part version of the last book in the series. According to director David Yates, Part I of the Deathly Hallows will end around Chapter 24 with Voldemort obtaining the Elder Wand, one of the three Deathly Hallows.

Part I could end shortly after the chase scene in the woods when Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermoine (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) are captured by the Snatchers.

Read More here

British university to offer a course on Harry Potter

By Doug Stanglin at USA Today

A British University is offering a fall course on the world of Harry Potter to examine such social phenomenon as bullying, prejudice, citizenship, bullying, anarchy and the world of rituals.

Course reading for Harry Potter and the World of Illusion: the seven-book series by J.K. Rowling on the boy wizard of Hogwarts.

“It seeks to place the series in its wider social and cultural context and will explore some fundamental issues such as the moral universe of the school,” says Martin Richardson, head of the university’s department of education, the BBC reports.

Read More here

I would love to take a Harry Potter class. There are so many books out there discussing deeper themes of the series, and it would be nice to enjoy your homework. I love the new pictures, and I can’t wait to see the movie.

What do you think of the pictures? Do you think they picked a good place to split the two movies?

Did Scott Pilgrim Beat the World?

That is what we are here to find out. This is really a movie for someone who grew up in the late 80’s and the 90’s. it is full of subtle, and not so subtle pop culture references that few people outside of generation X will get.

The movie follows the story of the comic to a T, this is probably one of the most accurate comic book adaptations I’ve seen yet. More so even than Kick Ass in some regards.

The plot is relatively simple. 23 year old Scott Pilgrim is dating a teenager named Knives Chau, she’s a Chinese Catholic schoolgirl with the outfit and everything. Don’t worry, they don’t do it, they barely hold hands.

Cera plays Cera in every movie he’s in, except for Youth in Revolt, there he played Cera with a mustache. But surprisingly Cera works for the character. He isn’t who I would have cast for Scott, but he actually does a good job in the role. He owned the role, I’m honestly reaching for something to complain about for his performance.

The other lead was Mary Winstead as Ramona Flowers. She came across as very aloof and distant, more so than her comic book counterpart. I believe this to be because of the emotional baggage that she is carrying around. She was good, but this is probably the weakest performance I’ve seen her give. It didn’t feel like they used her to her full potential.

Read more HERE

Entire ‘Star Wars’ movie series to come to Blu-ray in 2011

The perfect time for someone to whip out one of these faux real lightsabers would be the unwrapping of the Blu-ray version of “Star Wars.” At Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, FL, that was the big news that George Lucas gave the crowd: that all six live-action “Star Wars” films will be released in 2011 on Blu-ray for the first time.

For those who have been forecasting the death of the optical disc, this alone could keep it alive for a while, no? There have been many pundits who say its only a matter of time (including us), what with the growth of streaming video. On the other hand, as we have also said, with bandwidth caps expected to become the norm across ISPs at some time in the future, who knows?

The press release that followed the announcement gave an approximate timeframe: Fall 2011. 2011 is the 35th Anniversary of the original film, now renamed “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.”

In addition to the Blu-ray announcement, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill joined Lucas onstage to debut a scene that had been cut from the “Return of the Jedi” episode.

Read more HERE

Jason Flemyng is Nightcrawler’s Dad in X-Men: First Class

Yet another British actor in Jason Flemyng, seen earlier this year in Clash of the Titans and in Matthew Vaughn’s latest movie Kick-Ass has joined the cast of X-Men: First Class as another mutant character. Flemyng will play Azazel, a demonic mutant who happens to be the father of Nightcrawler – the blue teleporting mutant who played a key role in X-Men 2.

In the books, Azazel impregnates Mystique (played by Jennifer Lawrence in X-Men: First Class) and she gives birth to Nightcrawler, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see some sort of story arc involving their relationship in First Class. Azazel is very similar to Nightcrawler in that he can teleport as well but in the X-Men comics, he also possesses other powers such as the ability to shapeshift and fire bolts of energy. I would expect he’ll be de-powered quite a bit for the sake of the movie and be restricted to teleportation like his son.

Created by writer Chuck Austen and artist Sean Phillips, Azazel has an otherworldly history, which may or may not be a bit extreme for the X-Men prequel movie. In the comics, Azazel explains that back in biblical times the Neyaphem, demonic mutants such as he, fought with the Cheyarafim, angelic mutants who were far too zealous for their own good (think Angel but with an attitude). Azazel went around impregnating lots of women and eventually taking control of his children (including our very own Nightcrawler) and using them to open a portal to his dimension to release his demonic mutant brethren.

Read more HERE

Team Potter, forget Edward vs. Jacob

Sparkly vampires, teenage romance, Hollywood clichés … gag me.

For the past few years, ever since production of the first Twilight movie began, it seems every teenage girl feels the need to ramble on about the book-turned-movie, and quite frankly I’m sick of it.

Over this past summer, the pop-culture craze turned into an unhealthy obsession as young girls and their unenthused boyfriends lined up for the movie premiere of Eclipse, bickering over Team Edward versus Team Jacob.

Seriously, give me originality and adventure, like in the Harry Potter series, then I’ll be happy.

Really though, if the Twilight films were just bad movies, I wouldn’t complain. Unfortunately, I’ve had the misfortune of seeing many bad films in my day, but that series has gone way beyond just being bad.

The worst part about this whole debacle is that these insane Twilight fanatics think their sorry excuse for a film series is better than the glory that is Harry Potter.

Read more HERE

So what did you think about today’s movie news? Have you seen Scott Pilgrim VS the World yet, what did you think..is it like the comic? Are you excited to have the complete Star Wars series on Blu-Ray? Are you excited for the new X-Men movie, does the new back story seem interesting? Lastly, Team Potter or Team Twilight, which movie franchise is more exciting and entertaining?

Open Book Society wants to congratulate the fictional wizard Harry Potter to his birthday!

Harry James Potter was born July 31, 1980 to James and Lily Potter. He is the only known survivor of the Killing Curse, as Lord Voldemort tried to murder him when he was an infant, which led to Voldemort’s first defeat and the end of the First Wizarding War. When Harry Potter began attending Hogwarts he was sorted into Gryffindor house, there he became best friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. He was the youngest Seeker in over a century and captain of his house’s Quidditch team. Harry protected the Philosopher’s Stone from Voldemort, saved Ginny Weasley from the Chamber of Secrets, won the Triwizard Tournament, founded Dumbledore’s Army and fought in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, during which he lost his godfather. Harry also played a significant role in many other battles of the Second Wizarding War and hunted down and destroyed Voldemort’s Horcruxes together with Hermione and Ron. That’s why Harry Potter is one of the most famous wizards in modern times.

From morning till night
May your birthday be bright
And nicer than ever before!
And as years come and go
May your happiness grow
And your dreams be fulfilled
Even more
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Harry Potter!

You also want to send birthday wishes to brave and smart Harry Potter? Feel free and left comments!