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Spoilers (13)
Director Guillermo del Toro turned down the chance to direct this film so he could work on Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
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J.K. Rowling read through the script for this film, and found a line where Dumbledore mentions a girl he had a crush on when he was younger. After reading it, she informed the filmmakers that Dumbledore is in fact gay, and that his only romantic infatuation was with the wizard Grindelwald, whom he later had to defeat in a wizard duel. She later made this information public while promoting the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
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Helen McCrory (Narcissa Malfoy) had been cast to play Narcissa's sister Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but had to back out because she was pregnant.
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Jessie Cave beat over 7000 girls to win the role of Lavender Brown, Ron's "love-interest" from the book.
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Hero Fiennes-Tiffin has been cast as Tom Riddle, Age 11, while his uncle, Ralph Fiennes plays Lord Voldemort (formerly Tom Riddle). His parents are Martha Fiennes (Ralph's sister) and George Tiffin. Director David Yates says that he hired Hero because of his resemblance to his uncle, but not specifically because he was the actor's nephew. He liked the dark haunted quality about the young actor.
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Quidditch at Hogwarts makes a grand (and much publicized) return, after being completely absent since Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. A full game of Quidditch has in fact not been featured since Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
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Robert Knox, who plays Marcus Belby, was tragically stabbed to death on May 24, 2008, just days after filming wrapped.
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Christian Coulson, who played Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, expressed an interest in returning as Riddle for this film, but David Yates felt that Coulson was too old for the role, being nearly 30 in 2008/9.
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Naomi Watts was previously reported as having accepted the role of Narcissa Malfoy, only for it to be denied her by her agency.
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Thomas James Longley, James Lee Hunt and Andrew Clarke auditioned for the role of 'Tom Riddle', but lost out to Frank Dillane.
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Dame Maggie Smith completed filming this film whilst undergoing radio-therapy as treatment for breast cancer.
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Three new scenes were added that do not appear in the book: The collapsing Millennium bridge (at the beginning of the film, and which appears in the Third Trailer); Harry flirting with the waitress at the underground station before meeting up with Dumbledore; and the Death Eater attack at the Burrow (seen in the second trailer). An attack on a Muggle bridge is actually mentioned in the original opening of the book by Cornelius Fudge, but not shown.
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The original script included all of Dumbledore's memories about Voldemort as outlined in the source novel, but the director insisted on trimming them down as, according to Steve Kloves, "..he wanted to showcase Voldemort's rise without getting overly involved with his past as Riddle."
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The first Harry Potter film to be rated PG by the MPAA since Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
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According to production designer Stuart Craig, Tom Riddle's Orphanage is based on buildings from the Liverpool Docklands, and it is influenced by Victorian-Georgian architecture. In fact Orphanage's exterior uses original Victorian glaze bricks, to give the set a very hard structure.
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Tim Alexander described Dumbledore's ring of fire as "someone sprayed propane and then lit it." Then, to enhance the effect, the visual effects team spent a lot of research on molten volcanoes (which have a lot of heat but no actual flames), and other references, including flares that burn underwater. The whole fire scene was very time consuming, with computer graphics artist Christopher Horvath spending eight months on it.
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Over 7000 girls auditioned for the role of Lavender Brown, and read from a scene with Madam Pomfrey, Hermione and Ron. Ironically, Emma Watson recommended Jessie Cave for the role, although Cave hadn't attended any auditions.
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Jamie Campbell Bower hoped to be cast as a young Riddle. He was instead cast as the teenage Gellert Grindelwald in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.
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Terry Gilliam, who was J.K. Rowling's personal choice to direct Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, was approached to direct this film. However, Gilliam said, "Warner Bros. had their chance the first time around, and they blew it."
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Bill Nighy was hired to play Rufus Scrimgeour (Minister of Magic), but there was no place for the character in the film. Instead, the same role was reassigned to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.
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The night scenes were filmed in the quaint village of Lacock and the cloisters at Lacock Abbey for three nights, 25-28 October 2007. Filming took place from 5 PM-5 AM, and residents of the street were asked to black out their windows with dark blinds.
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The second film to NOT open with a "Harry-centric" event. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire opened with a scene from a chapter of the fourth book, "The Riddle House". Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens with an event which is mentioned in the first chapter of the sixth book, "The Other Minister", where the Death Eaters collapse the Millennium Bridge in London. (Although the first images in this film are of Harry and Dumbledore at the Ministry of Magic after the battle with Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the first legitimate and complete scene is the Death Eater attack.)
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The tapestry seen near the Room of Requirement is the last of seven in "The Hunt of the Unicorn" (or the "Unicorn Tapestries") series, called "The Unicorn in Captivity." The real tapestry can be found at the Cloisters in New York City.
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Mr Weasley's shed of Muggle artefacts contains, among other things, two Remington Noiseless Portable Typewriters and an HP Laserjet 4.
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Timothy Spall plays Wormtail (Peter Pettigrew) for the fourth time, and is credited on the poster for this film, but in both Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and this film, he does not have a single line of dialogue.
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This is the first Harry Potter film that does not feature any aspect of Defense Against the Dark Arts classes on screen, either direct (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets through Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) or indirect (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone). The only mention of the subject occurs when Dumbledore announces Snape's appointment to the open teaching position.
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At the beginning of the film, the Death Eaters destroy the Millennium Bridge in London. In the Book it is actually the Brockdale Bridge that is destroyed. The book is set in 1996 - 1997, according to the Canon time line. The Millennium Bridge was not constructed until 1998, and opened on 10 June 2000.
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Much like the first book, some differences exist between the British and American editions of the text. One such difference is in the scene where Dumbledore takes Harry to meet Slughorn. In the American edition of the book, Dumbledore excuses himself to use the bathroom. In the film, he uses the more British term, "loo." This is in contrast to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, in which such references were shot twice to accommodate American and British audiences.
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This is actually the second time Tom Felton and Jim Broadbent have worked together on film. The first time was on the 1997 film The Borrowers as members of the four-inch tall family; son Peagreen Clock and his father Pod Clock respectively. Also, Mark Williams (Arthur Weasley) played the part of Jeff the Exterminator.
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In one of a number of occasions in the book in which Prof. Slughorn gets Ron's name wrong, he refers to the character as 'Rupert' - Chapter 22. Of course Ron Weasley is played by actor Rupert Grint.
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Even though they are mentioned in the book, the Dursleys do not appear. This is the second film they have been left out of, with the first being Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
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Bob Hoskins was also considered for the role of Slughorn. Jim Broadbent started work on this film after filming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
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Originally to be released on November 20 2008, the studio decided to postpone it to July 16 2009. Officially, the decision, according to studio chief Alan Horn was largely due to the writer's strike at that time, but unofficially and know to most, the decision was following the massive earnings made by another studio movie, The Dark Knight that released on that week of July. With that, Twilight, which was supposedly to be released on December 12 2008, moved to fill in that vacant release slot.
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The entrance to "The Leaky Cauldron" and, behind it, Diagon Alley is shown to be on Great Newport Street, just off Charing Cross Road, between the bookshop and number 12.
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Professor Slughorn says that he taught the entire Black family, except for Sirius. As Hogwarts only has one teacher for each subject, it may seem a bit odd that he would not have taught Sirius. The book explains this differently, however. In addition to teaching Potions, Slughorn was also head of Slytherin House, where all of the Blacks were sorted, except for Sirius. So while Slughorn taught Sirius, he never had him in Slytherin.
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As an homage to J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, a fan of hers, included a reference to the series in his novel 'Wolves of Calla', featuring Snitches as flying grenades. 'Wolves' was published one year before the 'Half-Blood Prince' novel. Rowling, in turn, returned the favor: the Gaunts (Voldemort's maternal family though Dumbledore did not mention in the film) is alluded to Leland Gaunt - the lead antagonist in King's novel 'Needful Things' (played by 'Max von Sydow' in Needful Things).
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was extensively color graded and due to the film's overly dark tones, Warner Bros. asked director David Yates and cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel to add more colors to the film, as they could barely see a thing on screen. After retouching some of the scenes Delbonnel realized that he had overused the grading and the final product was better. Yates remarked Delbonnel's work on the film as "The choice of angles, the extreme close-ups, the pacing of the scenes...It's very layered, incredibly rich." It was the first film in the Harry Potter series to be nominated for a Cinematography Oscar.
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Production designer Stuart Craig revealed that the Three Broomsticks' design was constructed for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park first. Subsequently, the film crew constructed an exact replica during filming.
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David Yates and the producers asked Wally Pfister if he could do the cinematography for this movie. Pfister declined since The Dark Knight was shooting at the same time, citing schedule conflicts.
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Mark Day is the fifth editor the Harry Potter film series has had and the only one who has edited more than one film. He's been involved the Harry Potter project since Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
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Like many of the fashions at Hogwarts, Professor Slughorn's mortarboard cap has a rich history. It was used in the 14th and 15th centuries to identify humanists, students, artists, and the learned in general. Slughorn's tassel is black, signifying an advanced degree.
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Filming returned to Gloucester Cathedral for the first time since Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
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The drinking song that Hagrid and Slughorn are singing is titled "Odo the Hero". It was written by Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling, but only the last four verses are known.
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The set used for Professor Slughorn's office is a redress of the set that served as the Trophy Room in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The same set also served as the Room of Requirement in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as well as this film.
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Slughorn's trick of offering a prize for the student whose schoolwork is best is a popular teaching technique used in schools all over the world. It is called an extrinsic reward.
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Professor Slughorn's toast, "To life," is very similar to the Jewish toast, "La Chaim!", which means enjoying life and celebrating all of its amazing (and sometimes unexpected) happenings.
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Although all the teachers at Hogwarts are addressed as "Professor", Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has said that there is no university for wizards. This revelation has two implications: first, that the professor salutation is an honorific; second, that those who wish to learn more than standard schooling must apprentice themselves to experts in any given field, just as was done in the Middle Ages.
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The only 'Harry Potter' movie to be Oscar nominated for the Best Cinematography Academy Award.
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Many fans have expressed distaste in the fact that Harry is shown at a train station, saying it would make more sense for him to be at the Dursley's. This is actually a nod to the book because Harry said he liked riding trains, that it "helped him take his mind off things."
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Warner Brothers received death threats for pushing the movie's release date to 2009 when it was scheduled to be released in 2008.
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Kevin McKidd was offered the role of Fenrir but could not take part due to his commitments in other projects including the TV series Grey's Anatomy. McKidd has since stated that he was also glad not to take the role for his young children would not take kindly to his appearance on screen.
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Spoilers
There is a scene in this movie in which Death Eaters, led by Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) and Fenrir Greyback (Dave Legeno), attack The Burrow where Harry, the Weasleys, Lupin, and Tonks are staying. This particular scene was not in the book, but was made just for the movie to serve as a representative of all the news reports, which are scattered around in the source novel, about various attacks by Death Eaters on the wizard community. It was considered to provide better pacing for a movie to have Harry actually experience one such attack first hand, rather than hearing/reading about those that kept happening to some other students, or their relatives.
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Originally, the shooting script was written so that Harry takes possession of Dumbledore's wand after he is killed. Shortly before filming began, the final book in the series came out, in which Dumbledore's wand, and who possesses it, turn out to be major issues, so the script had to be changed.
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According to ILM visual effects supervisor Tim Alexander, completing the Inferius attack took several months: "It was much bolder and scarier than we imagined that they'd ever go in a Potter movie. David Yates was really cautious of not making this into a zombie movie, so we were constantly trying to figure out how not to make these dead people coming up look like zombies. A lot of it came down to their movement - they don't move fast, but they don't move really slow or groan and moan. We ended up going with a very realistic style." He also noted that Inferi are skinnier than zombies, as well as being waterlogged and grey.
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Dumbledore's fall from the tower filled Alan Rickman with nostalgic glee, as it harked back to his first hit Die Hard, where his character fell from a tall building. Rickman felt at least "he was on the other end in this film!"
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When Draco Malfoy goes to the Room of Requirement for the final time, you can see the harp that put Fluffy to sleep and the King from the game of chess from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
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When Harry is in Dumbledore's office at the end of the film, a bowl of sherbet lemons can be seen on his desk. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Dumbledore announced these to be his favorite Muggle candy.
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The omission in this movie of the battle at Hogwarts between members of the Order of the Phoenix and Death Eaters was due to the fact that the writers did not want to seek repetition when they film the climactic battle of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
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Actor Tom Felton has stated in an interview that in the near end shot sequence of the film, after Snape kills Dumbledore and is leading the other Death Eaters out of Hogwarts and through the Great Hall, an accident had occurred on set a few minutes into the shooting: before the actors had started filming, Alan Rickman "turned around in this very sinister way and said, 'don't step on my cloak,'" (at the time of which it was unclear to his fellow co-stars if he was joking or not) as the director had instructed the other actors that when shooting began, they were to stay close behind Rickman as they followed him without looking at their feet - a difficult task due to the dragging length of Snape's cloak. As shooting began during the second take, Felton, being the closest person to Rickman in the scene, had accidentally dug his heel into the cloak, causing Rickman's neck to rip back. Felton had reported there was an awkward silence afterward, clear that Rickman was not in a good mood after the accident had occurred. Felton continuously apologized to Rickman afterward, in that Rickman did accept and made a joke of the accident later on.
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In the flashback scene in which Dumbledore visits the young Tom Riddle in the orphanage, a photograph on the wall of Tom's room depicts the same place that Dumbledore and Harry travel to in search of the third Horcrux (the locket). In the book, it is described as a place where young Tom Riddle once used magic to terrorize his fellow orphans while on a trip (hence the place has special meaning to him). There are also seven rocks on the windowsill, which is the same number of Horcruxes that Tom/Voldemort created.
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When the trio (Harry, Ron and Hermione) are talking about Dumbledore's age, Ron says "About 150, give or take a few years" and they start laughing as if it was a joke. This is also the exact number that J.K. Rowling provided during an interview. She later officially stated on her website that Dumbledore was 115 years old at the time of his death.
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On December 12th 2009, a special "BD-Live" screening event of the film was held for owners of the movie on Blu-Ray, a first of its kind. It allowed people to watch the film on Blu-Ray, while listening live to Daniel Radcliffe and producer David Barron (sitting in for director Yates, who was ill) who were watching and administering the event. There they discussed various aspects of the entire franchise, while the film was showing, and even had some questions from viewers to address. Among the all too few trivia bits on this particular film they revealed during this screening are:
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- The "Butterbeer" we see the students drinking in this film is actually a well known British fruit drink called J20, with fake foam added on top. However, an official "ButterBeer" is in the making for a planned Harry Potter theme park.
- The foam in Ron's mouth in one scene is made of egg white.
- Dan admitted he never tries to go for "real tears" in any such scenes, by advice he got from actor Kenneth Branagh. Instead he relies on acting and "tricks of the trade" to get the desired effect across.
- The strange "fluid" in Dumbledore's Pensive is entirely done with CG.
- That highly torturous fluid in the cave that Dumbledore drinks, this was really just some milk thinned down with water and then visually "tweaked" by the CG department.
- Barron commented that the film's director and the composer tried "for months" to create a specific "Phoenix song" score which they felt would do its book description justice, for the scene where this bird leaves Hogwarts. Several different things were composed and tested, before they pretty much gave up trying and settled on this very basic score we now hear at the end of the film.
The character Fenrir Greyback is a direct reference to Fenris the wolf as depicted in the Nordic mythology. In that myth, Fenris bit the arm of Tyr and was prophesied to be involved in Odin's death as will be killed by Tyr's brother Vidar during Ragnarok. The novel shares the similar mythology: Bill Weasley, Ron's brother was attacked, his face scarred during the skirmish with Fenrir like as Fenris bit Tyr's arm; like Fenris' involvement with Odin's death, Fenrir was among the group who was involved in Dumbledore's murder; Deathly Hallows resolves the story. An interesting fact that was never mentioned in the movie is that Fenrir was the wolf who infected Remus Lupin.
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Steve Kloves' script originally used all the six flashbacks of Voldemort. In the film, only two were used. Had all of the remaining flashbacks used, it would give more exposition such as how Merope Gaunt met Tom Riddle Sr in the 20s; how young Voldemort tracked down his uncle Morfin in Little Hangleton in 1943, subsequently resulting in the murder of the Riddle family; the origins of Hufflepuff's Cup being a horcrux - which pays off in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2; and finally, explaining why the Defense of the Dark Arts job gets jinxed with each teacher lasting no more than one year since 1956 - Dumbledore turned down Riddle's offer to teach.
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