USA: Los Angleles premiere of film "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"

The cast of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" film at the Los Angeles , California premiere on Sunday (July 8) weighed in on what will be the highly anticipated seventh and last installment of the book. The Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final book about the schoolboy wizard Harry Potter and his Hogwarts friends by best-selling author J.K. Rowling . The books have spawned a successful film franchise that has earned around $3.5 billion in global ticket sales from the first four movies. Anticipation for the new movie is peaking with Potter's first on-screen kiss with fellow actress Katie Leung. "The kiss the kiss um the kiss was fine. Everyone sort of expected it to be bigger deal than it possibly was you know there was, neither me or Katie (Leung) were particularly dreading it, I don't think. Well I can't speak for both of us, she might have been absolutely terrified but it was fine from my experience. She is a very good kisser,"said Daniel Radcliffe who portrays Harry Potter in the film told Reuters. The fifth, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", will be released July 11 and the final picture is due for release in 2010. "There is this hacker who was claiming that Hermione dies so and someone told me in an interview and I was actually surprised at how much I felt. I was like 'No! No! that's not meant to happen. No, no, that's awful' cause I kind of like in my head I kind of like had her and Ron (Weasley) going together and like I don't know, her having some amazing career using like her really good heart and her intelligence or something so like some really good cause. I don't know. I had all these things I thought would happen. If she dies, I will be kind of gutted," Watson said wearing a white Chanel dress on the red carpet. Radcliffe, Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) lead the cast, along with Imelda Staunton, who steals the scenes she appears as the sinister control freak Dolores Umbridge. "Well Dan's first kiss was a great day when we filmed it, it was very tender. I cleared the floor from anybody no crew sent them all off so we could be with just Katie and Dan and there were both very bashful and shy. But it was really enjoyable shooting day and they both enjoyed it a lot I think particularly Dan," said film director David Yates about Radcliffe's kiss. Rowling has said that at least two characters will die in "Deathly Hallows", but has been careful not to name them. "Well I don't anything really but yeah it supposed to be two people that are going to die so I don't know so it's going to be.. I am really looking forward to it. We are all pretty desperate to know who is going to go. But I don't know know. I think Ron will survive but probably Harry (Potter) is going to go but we will have to wait and see," said actor Rupert Grint who plays Ron Weasley in the film. The final book in the series has become online retailer Amazon's most pre-ordered product, with almost 1.6 million copies bought globally ahead of the book's release on July 21. "We are on email contact which is really nice and I saw her at the premiere and occasionally she comes to set and stuff and she is so nice. But it's really strange because I know what it's like when people are always asking me about Harry Potter so when I see J.K. Rowling I always try and ask her about other stuff or whatever cause I don't want to be pestering her. I mean she must have like hundreds of people everyday be like 'what happens? Please tell me the ending please tell me !' She must get so sick of it so I try not to ask "said Watson who plays Hermione in the film. The plots have taken a darker turn and Rowling has in the past revealed that she would kill off at least two of the main characters. "Well I think the books are growing up Harry and the kids are growing up. I mean there are darker forces. Voldemort is back and before he arrives she arrives, so it's a different film," said actress Imelda Staunton, who portrays Dolores Umbridge. More than 325 million copies of the first six books have been sold world-wide, helping to turn Rowling into the first dollar-billionaire author. "She is lovely you know Jo is just wonderful and she is a great person to be around and you know on one level you are sort of sitting there being really cool and sort of thinking we are just chatting. The other part of you is going she wrote the books. This is incredible I am talking to her," Radcliffe said about Rowling coming to visit on set. Amazon said on Monday that demand for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" passed the previous record of 1.5 million copies ordered online before the release of the previous book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". The figures underline the huge international demand among readers for the final adventures of the boy wizard, which has been heightened by speculation over which characters Rowling will kill off at the end. Hollywood, London, and Tokyo premieres of the film kicked off a month-long outbreak of Pottermania, with the release of the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series set for July 21. Royal Mail produced a commemorative Harry Potter stamp set and Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe has become the youngest actor to have his wax figure done at the famous Madame Tussauds. On Monday (July 8) Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint will be immortalized at one of Hollywood's most famous landmarks when they place their hands, feet and wands in cement in the forecourt of the world-famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

ITN Source | July 12, 2007

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