Potter’s “Phoenix” Rising Next Summer
Muggles are going to have to crane their necks to catch this Phoenix.
Warner Bros. announced Wednesday plans to unspool Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the highly anticipated fifth film from J.K. Rowling’s epic fantasy saga, simultaneously in theaters and on Imax screens nationwide July 13, 2007.
The studio followed a similar strategy for the last two entries in the billion-dollar franchise, last November’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabhan.
“We’re delighted to be working with Warner Bros. Pictures,” Imax coheads Richard L. Gelfond and Bradley Wechsler said in a statement. “The last two Harry Potter films we released to Imax theaters grossed a combined $34 million…This new title gives us a powerful kick-start to next year’s film slate.”
The last installment, Goblet of Fire, broke the record for Imax ticket sales, conjuring up more than $20 million.
No word yet whether Harry’s latest supersize adventure will be digitally converted to Imax 3-D, as Warner Bros. is doing for several of this summer’s would-be blockbusters, including Superman Returns and the animated Ant Bully, and as Sony Pictures Animation has agreed to do with its computer-animated debut, Open Season, out in September.
“Obviously, the entire industry is thinking about 3-D, but each film is looked at and negotiated one at a time,” Imax spokeswoman Sarah Gormley told E! Online, noting that a decision on the eye-popping format will come once principal photography is complete.
Phoenix, helmed by acclaimed British TV director David Yates, finds our bespectacled orphan hero facing off against dastardly bureaucrat Dolores Umbridge (Vera Drake’s Imelda Staunton), who, at the behest of corrupt officials at the Ministry of Magic, schemes to take over Hogwarts and oust Professor Dumbledore, enabling the return to power of You Know Who.
Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint are once again returning as Harry, Hermione and Ron, respectively, backed by an all-star cast that includes Ralph Fiennes back as the evil Lord Voldemort.
Warner Bros. has already begun development on the sixth installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
As for the seventh and final chapter in Harry’s increasingly dark odyssey, Britain’s most famous (and wealthiest) author has confirmed she has started writing the story. But according to U.K. publisher Bloomsbury, the currently untitled tome won’t hit bookstores until 2007 at the earliest. Our guess is it will be on shelves just in time for a certain movie opening.
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