Harry Potter and the Ordeal with the Delayed Movie Sequel

 

Harry Potter fans are going to have to wait a bit longer than expected to see the next film starring the bespectacled wizard. Warner Brothers announced today that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth Harry Potter film, has been delayed from it's previously announced November 21st release. The film will not come out now until July 17th, 2009?

 

What's the cause for the delay, you wonder? Was there a production accident? Was a star injured? Are the special effects taking longer than expected to get made? Actually, it's none of the above. The main reason for the delay is cold hard cash.

 

The move comes as Warner Bros. is looking for ways to beef up its summer schedule, which had been light on major tentpoles — a result attributed mostly to the writers strike, which kept the studio from developing big-budget pics.

 

The last-minute move comes as Daniel Radcliffe appears this week on the cover of Entertainment Weekly’s fall movie preview, published by WB parent Time Warner.

 

Outside of "Terminator Salvation," which it is distributing for Halcyon, Warners had a summer lineup that featured mostly small comedies and genre fare like the Todd Phillips laffer "Hangover," Robert Rodriguez’s "Shorts" and "Final Destination 4 3-D."

 

So there you have it. The film was moved because Warner realized that it had no big summer blockbusters in the works. And with the amazing summer Hollywood experienced this year thanks to us geeks going out to see films like Batman, Iron Man, the Hulk and Hellboy in droves, Warner would be stupid not to have a geek-centric film waiting in the wings for next summer. So they did what they felt they had to do to maximize the profitability of Mr. Potter and his friends.

 

Even though I can understand the logic, I'm still saddened that Harry's been delayed so long. I was looking forward to seeing the Half-Blood Prince this November. I've gotten used to the Potter films being released in the fall. I sort of see them as Christmas movies now. Going to see the new film in July just isn't going to feel right. The summer months are Will Smith's stomping ground, not Harry Potter's.