It's rainin' OotP pics! This time, we have a pic of the Dursleys.

Is it weird that the thing that strikes me the most about this pic is Petunia's micro-mini sundress?

Okay, so judging from past experiences with waiting for HP films, we should get a few more pics (I'm thinking 4 or 5) from OotP in about a month. According to Leaky, we can expect the first trailer in November. And around that time we should get a teaser poster.

Soon after that, we'll hopefully be overcome with excitement over BOOK news, and be on our way down the Squee Spiral Vortex.

But my question is ... why haven't we heard who's directing HBP? Is the book so awful that no filmmaker wants to touch it? :P

Now that I have your attention, some tidbits from recent life and fandom events:

* Though I would not have declined a War and Peace-length Book 7, I'm rather glad that Rowling quashed ("Oh pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease.") the "750-page" rumor. The "not close to finishing it" part is expected, as it is only September. As much as I would love to have the thing tomorrow, I want as much as she wants to give us. :)

* I went to roughly a bajillion movies this past weekend. Okay, four - but three in the same day. I saw Hollywoodland on Friday (review here, if you're interested :P). [ETA: Yay for Ben Affleck's "Best Actor" triumph at the Venice Film Festival for this movie!] I also did a marathon of Stanley Kubrick films at the local arthouse theater on Saturday. A Clockwork Orange was as wonderfully disturbing as I remembered, I saw Dr. Strangelove for the first time and giggled like mad at the reason they "learned to love the bomb" :D, and 2001: A Space Odyssey was SOOOO much more amazing on the big screen (but I was highly annoyed at the people who insisted on conducting "Sprach Zarathustra" and giggling at the first few minutes). 2001 is SUCH a deep and inpenetrable film that I could probably talk for days about it, but don't worry - I won't. ;)

* I had a busy night Friday night. We did a child care event at work, and in addition to manning the door for it and another event, I spent a good deal of time trying to get babies to stop crying. Crying babies - especially when they're really small and can't express in ANY way what you could do to make them stop - just break my heart. GAH!

* Five years ago today I was working in the cash office of KMart when the news hit about the terrorist attacks. I took frequent breaks to go back and watch the proceedings on the TV in the break room, and spent the entire evening in front of the television watching the clips of the planes hitting and the buildings falling over and over and over.

* Speaking of September 11th, tonight I'm going to be participating in a "Service of Remembrance and Hope," happening at my church and organized by the American Guild of Organists. We had a rehearsal Saturday morning and I got to do a LOT of sight reading (including a piece by Leonard Bernstein that's written in Hebrew). Our guest conductor is from NY and told us about taking a walk through Central Park on the morning of 9/11 and seeing limousines lined up on the street and people crowding around the vehicles' open doors, listening to the news. He hadn't even glanced downtown until someone pointed and he finally saw the smoke coming out of the still-standing towers. Gah, what a day.

* I read a very encouraging review of the new Bond film Casino Royale here, from someone who caught a test screening. I think he makes a great point about the decision to cast someone who didn't "look" like Bond, as well as the idea that Craig doesn't need to be The-Bond-We-Know-and-Love yet, because in Casino Royale even BOND isn't The-Bond-We-Know-and-Love yet. I'm getting so pumped for this movie I can hardly stand it. :D

* Wow! We've gotten more HP movie news in the past couple of weeks than we have in the last several months! We're getting the first set reports now, and endless pics of King's Cross are becoming what the endless pics of Magnolia Crescent were for PoA and the endless pics of Virginia Waters for GoF. This is all very well and good, of course, but ... trailer or some "real" pics, plz!

* Young Mr. Radcliffe is making it VERY difficult not to perv over him. Coo-coo-ca-choo.

I suppose it's rather exciting that someone from Veritaserum was able to get fairly close to some of the OotP filming and get lots of pictures. But these videos? Not that informative. And to tell the truth, I feel a bit creepy and stalkerish watching them.

How nerve wracking must it be to go out and film in a place as public and busy as King's Cross and know that so many people are obsessed with what you're doing and will stop what they're doing and watch you?!

I think I'm ready for officially released stuff.

There's a great new article on the OotP movie here (courtesy of TLC, dr.com, and dr.co.uk). Lots more about filming, especially Teh Kiss. And this comment from David Yates made me absolutely melt:

Most of the crew working on these films has been working with Daniel (Harry Potter) since he was little and the day we shot the kiss, they gathered around the monitor.

They needed to see this moment, experience it, because for them, Daniel was really as much a son, because they’ve seen him go through all these changes as he’s growing up.

And they got quite emotional watching his first kiss, it was a very interesting experience and I wanted make it feel as real and truthful as possible. We did many, many, many takes and it’s very tender and loving, as the first kiss should be.

How SWEET is that about the crew gathering around and sharing that moment?!

And asdfh;kajhfakshf;aksfh;ksfh at the thirty takes! I just hope Cho is crying all over the place like she's supposed to. :P

First, today is obviously a day of imminent evil. When you're named after Satan, dark things are afoot!

Happy birthday, themorningstarr!

*loves teh Kellie* Hope you have a super-duper-maxi-extreme-ultra-wonderful day, sweetie!

In other news, YAYYYYY for long-awaited announcements about OotP casting.

First and foremost ... Evanna Lynch as Luna - Totally cute. I pictured Luna as looking a little older, but this girl has GREAT eyes, which is the most important physical feature for Luna, I think. It's hard to tell much from just one picture, but I can't wait to see her in action. (ETA: Here's the most recent pic taken of her, taken at the HBP release this past summer.)

Helen McCrory as Bellatrix - Haven't seen her in anything (though that Charles II movie is in my Netflix queue), but she looks great.

Natalia Tena as Tonks - Am seeing Mrs. Henderson Presents (hopefully) this weekend, so I'll report back with what I think. The pics I've seen online have convinced me that at the very least she LOOKS the part.

Kathryn Hunter as Figgy - Again, I haven't seen her in anything, but she has a very interesting face. She looks way too young in RL to play the batty old cat lady, but in the movie stills it looks like she can be made up to look older pretty believably.

And last, but certainly not least...

The AMAZING Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge - YES!!!! This woman was the person I pictured as I was first reading the book. Don't get me wrong, I think Imelda is quite an attractive person (and I'm not just saying that :P), but something about the way Mary Grandpre drew Umbridge reminded me of Staunton's face shape, and then I totally pictured her Mrs. Palmer voice saying "You won't be needing any ink." I have loved her in everything she's done. And - dude! - she's been married to Hugh Laurie twice onscreen (*offers tantalizing link to angua9 ... Hello, envy!). She is going to be AWESOME!