Word: potter
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Seems ages ago--but it was less than 2 1/2 years--that folks were seriously debating whether The Lord of the Rings or the Harry Potter films would make the more enthralling adaptation of fantasy literature. That competition was over--declared a forfeit, really--as soon as the respective first installments appeared: the Gandalf wizard movie vanquished the Harry wizard movie in thrills and technical splendor, artistry and maturity. But in the values Hollywood understands, worldwide box-office income, the first two films from the J.K. Rowling books outperformed the first two Tolkien films, $1.84 billion to $1.78 billion. Reason...
There's another reason. As the new Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban proves, these can be smart, enjoyable films if the stars are properly aligned. It helps that Azkaban has one of the strongest plots in the canon thus far. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), now 13 and in his third year at Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is challenged by the escape of the notorious Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) from Azkaban, the Alcatraz of the wizardly world. With a new danger, a new protector: Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Lupin (David Thewlis), a wise, kindly gent with...
...this third film, overseer Chris Columbus, who directed Sorcerer and the first sequel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, has handed the reins to Alfonso Cuaron, the Mexican director best known for the too-hot-for-an-R sex comedy Y Tu Mama Tambien. Cuaron, however, also made the English-language children's film A Little Princess, so he knows his way around precocious kid actors...
...through the nuts and bolts of the mise-en-scene of the party before tackling gatherings like tailgates and barbecues. And publicists Lara Shriftman and Elizabeth Harrison bring their expertise in planning bashes for clients like Mercedes-Benz and Cartier to the rest of us with Fete Accompli! (Clarkson Potter) in September. But the best advice of all may be from Elsie de Wolfe's 1913 classic, The House in Good Taste, to be reissued by Rizzoli next month. "The color of [the dining room] should be selected with due consideration of its becomingness to the host or hostess...
Kids don't much care about such things, but legions of adult Harry Potter fans are annoyed that author J.K. Rowling is dismissed by the world's literary gatekeepers, maybe because she happens to be the highest paid author ever and because she writes books that children love. But no one need worry that this rather quiet, funny, passionate writer won't get her due. Even as Rowling maintains her reclusive lifestyle, writing her sixth Potter book while her baby sleeps, her power has become too great to ignore. You can measure it in the numbers--254 million books sold...