The ABC special J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life, premiering Thursday at 8 pm/ET, sheds light on the beloved Harry Potter author's world and work by chronicling the 12 months leading up to the release of the seventh, final entry in the bestselling series: Harry Potter and the Deathy Hallows.
ABC's inside look at Rowling's origins and career comes as the latest big-screen adaptation, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is enchanting fans in theaters, conjuring up $22 million in its first night at the box office.
Elizabeth Vargas, the host of A Year in the Life, sat with TVGuide.com to share a peek at its many revelations. Among the topics covered ...
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J.K. Rowling by Mike Marsland/WireImage.com; Daniel Radcliffe courtesy Warner Bros.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers have won a copyright lawsuit that challenged the publication of an unauthorized Potter compendium.Rowling and Warners went to court earlier this year in an effort to stop the publication of Steven Vander Ark's Harry Potter Lexicon by RDR Books. The tome was to be based on a website for fans of Rowling's massively popular books.New York judge Robert Patterson ruled that the planned compendium would infringe Rowling's copyright, says the Reporter. Patterson also issued an injunction to halt the Lexicon's publication, and argued that it borrowed too much from Rowling's work to be considered acceptable for fair use.He awarded Rowling and the studio $6,750 in statutory damages."I took no pleasure at all in bringing legal action and am delighted that this issue has been resolved favorably," Rowling said. "I went to court to uphold the right of authors everywhere to protect their own original work."RDR Books, meanwhile, said was not thri...
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J.K. Rowling b yMike Marsland/WireImage.com
How much are 800 handwritten words worth? When they're in the form of an ersatz prequel to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, nearly $50,000. On Tuesday night at a London auction house, a bid of 25,000 pounds (or $48,855) claimed someone a two-sided page on which Rowling wrote a preface to the mega-hit series of books and movies. The auction's proceeds will benefit a dyslexia charity and the writer's organization PEN. Twelve other authors and illustrators, including Nobel winner Doris Lessing and novelist Nick Hornby, offered similar short-form items for auction. Lest anyone hope that Rowling's charitible scribblings might lead to something bigger (and bound), it should be noted that the document's final 12 words were: "From the prequel I am not working on — but it was fun!" — Anna Dimond Related:• 20/20 Special Will Bewitch Harry Potter Fans• Judge Urges Rowling to Make Lawsuit Disappear
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ABC News and RDF Media Group, who recently partnered to bring 20/20 a high-rated profile of the royal family, are reteaming for a behind-the-scenes look at the life of Harry Potter auteur J.K. Rowling.An RDF crew tailed Rowling for more than a year for a piece that includes interviews, the Deathly Hallows book tour and a look at locations that inspired Potter characters and events. The 20/20 special also will offer a hint as to what's next for the beloved franchise (besides, that is, a mound of legal bills). According to the Reporter, a November sweeps airing is planned. — MWM
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J.K. Rowling by Mike Marsland/ WireImage.com
Who's got an Invisibility Cloak handy? Following three days of emotional testimony, a New York judge presiding over J.K. Rowling's copyright case has urged the author to stop litigating and start settling.Judge Robert Patterson Jr. told the Harry Potter author and coplaintiff Warner Brothers that copyright infringement has a lot of gray areas in American law, and that the litigation could go on for years of appeals, according to the Reporter. "I think this case, with imagination, could be settled," he said.As previously reported, Rowling filed the suit against a publisher that plans to print the Harry Potter Lexicon, an encyclopedia compiled by Steven Vander Ark, who has a website with similar content. Vander Ark's publisher, RDR, asserts that the encyclopedia would be used for scholarly use, and would not impact Rowling's sales.If some of the publishing experts who testified at the case are any indication, the book may find plenty of readers, but probably wouldn't be making the New...
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J.K. Rowling by Eamonn McCormack/WireImage.com
J.K. Rowling will appear in a Manhattan court today to testify in her lawsuit against a publisher hoping to print the Harry Potter Lexicon. The Lexicon is an encyclopedia — compiled by Steven Vander Ark, who runs a website of the same title with similar content — dedicated to the magical world Rowling created in her seven wildly popular Harry Potter novels. In her lawsuit against Vander Ark's publisher, RDR Books, Rowling claims the book is simply "a rearrangement of her own material."Although RDR is not challenging Rowling's claim of copyright infringement, the judge will hear testimony to determine if the use of the material in a scholarly pursuit should be deemed legal, according to the AP. Rowling, who has previously praised the website, will testify about the multiple similarities between her texts and the planned Lexicon book. The case is expected to last most of the week. Do you think Rowling will/should win her case? Is there a difference between using the content ...
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Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
Harry Potter fans at the edge of their seats in anticipation of the final film installment are getting two movies instead of one. Warner Brothers said Wednesday that the series' final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is so long — tallying 784 pages — that the filmmakers decided to split it into two pieces. According to the Reporter, instead of compromising the storyline with excisions or making an exceptionally long movie, the flick, to become parts one and two, will be shot back-to-back for releases in November 2010 and May 2011, respectively. J.K. Rowling's Hallows sold more than 11 million copies in its first 24 hours on bookshelves last fall, so the film version x 2 seems to = excellent profits for Warners, plus extra thrills for filmgoers (especially since teen superstar Daniel Radcliffe's signed on). Are you excited for Harry times two? Or ready for Hogwarts to wrap it up? — Anna Dimond
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Michael Gambon as Professor Dumbledore courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
At a Friday-night appearance at Carnegie Hall, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling confirmed that which many fans had suspected: Albus' wand leans the other way. According to the AP, during a question-and-answer following a brief Deathly Hallows reading, Rowling responded to a query about Hogwarts' headmaster finding true love by saying, "Dumbledore is gay." The writer proceeded to elaborate that Dumbledore was smitten with Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle. Upon seeing his good friend go bad, she says, Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down."My Dumbledore/Uncle Arthur-from-Bewitched slash fiction just got a lot more interesting.UPDATE: I went to see The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee on Broadway Saturday, not long after this story hit the AP, and they worked a Professor Dumbledore joke into the script. Ha.
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book cover courtesy Scolastic, Inc.
Memo to the Old Gray Lady: You do not mess with a woman well versed in potions and spells. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is Quidditching and screaming over an early, rather spoilery "review" of Deathly Hallows published earlier this week by the New York Times. "I am staggered that some American newspapers have decided to publish purported spoilers in the form of reviews, in complete disregard of the wishes of literally millions of readers, particularly children," the scribe reacted. With but a day to go before the series' finale goes on sale, all Rowling will say is, "Harry's story comes to a definite end." Yet "students" of Hogwarts may not have seen the last of its familiar trappings. "Because the world is so big, there would be room to do other stuff," Rowling tells the AP. "I am not planning to do that, but I'm not going to say I'm never going to do it."
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J.K. Rowling by Eamonn McCormack/WireImage.com
In her only television interview after Saturday's highly anticipated release of the seventh and final installment in the Harry Potter series, author J.K. Rowling will sit down with NBC's Meredith Vieira in Edinburgh, Scotland. This exclusive interview marks the first time Rowling will talk about the worldwide reaction to the series' much-anticipated and speculated-about finale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. (Spoiler alert) Voldemort is a sled.The interview will air on Today on Thursday, July 26, and Friday, July 27 (before day camp), and during a one-hour Dateline special airing Sunday, July 29. (Parents, cut some slack on bedtimes.)
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