| THE
SECOND YEAR BEGINS…
Warner
Bros. Pictures is pleased to announce the release of the feature
film adaptation of the second installment of J.K. Rowling’s
best-selling novel series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Published in 1998, Chamber of Secrets debuted at number one on the
U.K.’s Whitaker BookTrack best-seller list, as well as making
number one debuts on The New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street
Journal best-seller lists. Over 42 million copies of the novel have
been sold in more than 42 countries worldwide (including over 17
million copies in the U.S. and Canada alone).
Production
on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets commenced on November
19, 2001, at Leavesden Studios, Hertfordshire, and on location in
England, just three days after the release of Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer’s Stone, which shattered numerous box office records
at the time of its release and went on to become the second highest
grossing film of all time. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stone also garnered three Academy Award nominations and seven prestigious
BAFTA nominations, including Outstanding British Film of the Year.
For
most directors, completing the post-production phase of a feature
film is an exhaustive and all-consuming process. Chris Columbus
faced an even more daunting task throughout the summer and autumn
of 2001, as he simultaneously supervised the editing of Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer’s Stone and commenced a rigorous period of
pre-production and planning for Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets.
“It
was an intense time, but we’d learned so much on Sorcerer’s
Stone and I was very excited about taking all this knowledge into
the second film,” Columbus recalls.
“It
was challenging,” producer David Heyman concurs. “Fortunately,
we benefited from the experience of the first film and having many
of our original production crew continue on through the second film,
so we had a wealth of knowledge to draw upon.”
Another
benefit of this demanding Chamber of Secrets schedule was that it
kept the production team focused on the tasks at hand during a time
of sensational success and media attention.
“None
of us had the chance to sit back and think about the success of
the first film, which I think was good for everyone, particularly
the kids,” says Columbus. “By that point, the cast and
crew had become like one big family. It was great that we could
all share that sense of excitement, without losing our momentum,
and carry it into Chamber of Secrets.”
Despite
the hectic pace, from the outset Columbus and Heyman remained faithful
to their ambitious vision for Chamber of Secrets and how it would
differ from the first film – especially in terms of structure,
character and tone. “We devoted a good part of Sorcerer’s
Stone to setting up the world of Harry Potter,” Heyman notes.
“There was so much to introduce in terms of the magic, the
settings and the characters. With Chamber of Secrets, we jump directly
into the narrative and into the adventure.”
“Chamber
of Secrets is darker and funnier and it takes Harry’s character
to a new place,” Columbus explains. “The first film was
about Harry realizing that he’s actually a wizard. In contrast
to the colorful and larger-than-life characters that surrounded
him, Harry was somewhat passive and didn’t come into his own
until the third act of the film. In Chamber of Secrets, Harry exudes
a lot more confidence and strength right from the start.”
Star
Daniel Radcliffe relished taking on Harry Potter’s “more
proactive” Chamber of Secrets role. “The last line of
the first film is like the beginning of the second film,” observes
Radcliffe, who counts Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as
one of his favorite books. “Harry says ‘I’m not going
home, not really,’ because he’s discovered his home is
at Hogwarts and that is where he belongs. But when he returns to
Hogwarts at the beginning of Chamber of Secrets, he discovers there’s
a real threat to his school and home and he’s determined to
protect it.”
Radcliffe
also found that he was personally influenced by Harry’s growth.
“He had developed so much as a character, I had to develop
myself too and now I have two instincts – Harry’s and
my own. So when we were filming each scene, I asked myself ‘How
would Harry react to this?’ and I tried to get that feeling
across on screen.”
“Daniel
took on an enormous responsibility when he was cast to play Harry
Potter, and he has risen to the challenge and totally matured as
an actor,” Columbus enthuses. “He’s become a real
leading man in the truest sense of the word, as well as becoming
a real hero and probably a bit of a heartthrob!”
Over
two years have passed since the now 13 year-old Radcliffe and costars
Rupert Grint, 14, and Emma Watson, 12, were cast in their pivotal
roles of Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione
Granger. “One of the wonders of this process for me has been
to witness the maturation of Dan, Rupert and Emma,” says Heyman.
“The children seem more confident and able to draw upon a wealth
of new experience for their characters. Yet, at the same time, they
have maintained their enthusiasm, sense of wonder and their youthfulness.”
“It’s
remarkable to see how far they’ve grown not just physically,
but in their acting,” Columbus adds. “The kids’ performances
are more mature and, quite frankly, they are even better than they
were in the first film.”
Emma
Watson is pleased to note that she has grown both personally and
professionally as a result of her experience working on Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer’s Stone. “I’d never done any professional
acting before the first film and I was extremely nervous and didn’t
know anyone,” she admits. “Now I know the people and my
surroundings and I know what I’m doing, so I feel a lot more
relaxed and can have a really good time. I’ve definitely improved
as an actress and feel happier with what I’m doing on screen.”
For
precocious Hermione Granger, the second year at Hogwarts brings
about a marked change in her relationship with her fellow wizards-in-training.
“Hermione becomes more friendly with Harry and Ron and she’s
definitely more easygoing,” Watson discloses. “She is
less obsessed with books and schoolwork and settles down a bit.
And even though she softens, Hermione is still as fiercely loyal
to her friends as ever.”
Like
Harry Potter, the irrepressible Ron Weasley finds himself at the
center of much of the Chamber of Secrets action. “I got to
do a lot more fun things in this film, particularly with the flying
car,” Rupert Grint declares. “The scenes in Spiders Hollow
were particularly scary as I have a big fear of spiders. When I
saw Aragog [an enormous ancient spider who lives in the Dark Forest]
for the first time, I wasn’t acting – I was genuinely
scared!”
CONJURING
A STELLAR ENSEMBLE
In
keeping with the family tradition established on Harry Potter and
the Sorcerer’s Stone, the filmmakers reunited not only the
original child cast for Chamber of Secrets, but also their stellar
ensemble of the U.K.’s greatest adult actors.
Reprising
their roles from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone are
acclaimed actors John Cleese (The World is Not Enough, A Fish Called
Wanda, Monty Python) as Nearly Headless Nick; Robbie Coltrane (Nuns
on the Run, GoldenEye, The World is Not Enough) as the gentle giant
Hagrid; Warwick Davis (Willow) as the Charms teacher Professor Flitwick;
Richard Griffiths (Sleepy Hollow, Naked Gun 2, King Ralph) as Harry’s
Uncle Vernon Dursley; Richard Harris (Gladiator, Unforgiven, Camelot)
as Hogwarts’ all-knowing Headmaster Albus Dumbledore; Alan
Rickman (Truly Madly Deeply, Sense and Sensibility, Die Hard) as
the enigmatic Potions Professor Severus Snape; Fiona Shaw (My Left
Foot, The Butcher Boy, Franco Zeffirelli’s Jane Eyre) as Harry’s
Aunt Petunia Dursley; Dame Maggie Smith (Oscar-nominated for her
role in Gosford Park; Tea With Mussolini, Richard III) plays Dumbledore’s
loyal deputy Professor Minerva McGonagall; and Julie Walters (Billy
Elliot, Educating Rita, Personal Services) as Mrs. Molly Weasley.
Perhaps
the most prominent of the new and exciting characters introduced
in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is Gilderoy Lockhart,
the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, played by the multi-talented
actor, writer and director Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet, Much Ado About
Nothing, Dead Again, Shackleton).
According
to Columbus, Kenneth Branagh was the only man for the job. “Ken
is one of the great stage and screen actors of our time, and a great
filmmaker,” Columbus attests. “He’s a perfect fit
for our all-British ensemble, and he’s one of the few younger
actors who can hold his own against the likes of Richard Harris,
Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman. I couldn’t conceive of anyone
else playing Gilderoy Lockhart.”
“Lockhart
is amongst the most challenging roles in either of the two films,”
Heyman elaborates. “We needed someone who could be both annoying
and charming, who would embrace Lockhart’s narcissism, be hysterically
funny, and still keep him grounded in reality. Ken did all we asked
of him and more. He’s absolutely fantastic.”
While
he relished playing the part of the ostentatious phony, Branagh
did not take the role lightly. “It was nerve-wracking, because
I was aware that Chamber of Secrets is a major film with huge audience
expectations and that fans already had a very established idea of
who Lockhart is,” Branagh says. “He’s very flamboyant,
rather vain and terribly narcissistic. So he’s a delicious
character to play, ferociously irritating and charming, but we had
to convince audiences that he could have done all the things he
claims. We had to make him plausible. I trusted Chris Columbus and
his comic timing implicitly.”
“Whereas
Ken Branagh is the nicest man on earth, Lockhart is a show-off and
a fraud,” says Radcliffe of the newest addition to Hogwarts’
eclectic teaching staff. “Girls love him and boys hate him
because they know that something about him is not quite right.”
Indeed,
Lockhart casts his charismatic spell on Hogwarts’ female students,
especially the typically single-minded Hermione. “She is absolutely
dreamy about Lockhart,” confesses Emma Watson, who calls the
arrogant professor “the Brad Pitt of his day. Hermione is obsessed
with him, as are the other girls. And Kenneth Branagh is so down
to earth and he’s such a fantastic actor that he made the scenes
really easy to do.”
“Lockhart
knows how to work his charm and to be poetic, particularly with
females,” Branagh explains. “Hermione is one of the few
people who can actually keep up with him.”
Another
major new presence in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is
that of Lucius Malfoy, the father of Harry’s Slytherin nemesis,
Draco Malfoy. For this crucial role, the filmmakers cast Jason Isaacs
(Black Hawk Down, The Patriot, The End of the Affair), the internationally
acclaimed actor Columbus describes as “one of the greatest
villains in modern filmmaking. Jason’s performance in The Patriot
was truly blood-chilling, and I thought he would be terrific as
Lucius Malfoy, who personifies the underlying darkness and evil
of the Slytherin house.”
For
all his considerable experience playing despicable characters, Isaacs
found the role to be quite challenging. “It’s my first
film about wizards, and I don’t get to wear waist length blond
hair and walk around with a snake-headed cane very often!”
he jokes. “For me, the fun and challenge of playing this character
was making Lucius as grotesque as I could but somehow keeping him
real.”
“Jason’s
performance in this film is truly evil and insidious,” Heyman
says. “There are few people who can play a villain as well
as Jason, which is rather ironic given that he’s such a warm
and generous person.”
Unlike
the other villains Isaacs has portrayed, Lucius Malfoy is utterly
devoid of redeeming qualities. “Lucius is a very dark character
and a thoroughly unpleasant man,” Isaacs notes. “He’s
the most confident person I’ve ever stepped inside and completely
supreme in his arrogance and ruthlessness. He is pure evil.”
Lucius’
relationship with his son Draco, a role reprised by 14 year-old
Tom Felton (Anna and the King, The Borrowers), is vital to the story,
as well as the key to understanding why Draco is such an antagonistic
bully. “Draco has a monstrous home life,” says Isaacs.
“Lucius bullies him, which makes Draco bully others. He’s
a chip off the old block.”
The
true nature of Lucius and Draco’s relationship was surprising
to young Felton. “I always thought that theirs would be quite
a loving relationship, since Lucius and Draco are both really mean
people, but I think there’s actually something quite scary
going on between them,” Felton observes. “Draco always
gets the rough end of the stick and is quite afraid of his father.
I was a bit daunted when I heard Jason Isaacs was going to play
my Dad, but he’s the nicest guy you’d ever meet and we
just clicked!”
Isaacs,
in turn, found Felton’s performance in Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer’s Stone to be so convincing, he arrived on set “expecting
him to be this thoroughly unpleasant, slimy kid. In fact, Tom is
a tremendously charming young man and very professional.”
Two
other key roles in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets are Ron
Weasley’s younger sister Ginny, played by 11 year-old Bonnie
Wright, and his mother Mrs. Molly Weasley, played by Julie Walters.
Both characters appear in one scene in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stone [seeing Ron off to catch the Hogwarts Express at Kings Cross
Station], but Ginny and Mrs. Weasley are much more integral to the
story in Chamber of Secrets.
“When
we were casting the first film, I was so overwhelmed by the process
of finding our Harry Potter and Ginny was such a small part that
I really hadn’t considered how much acting Bonnie was going
to have to do in the second film,” Columbus reveals. “But
she is absolutely amazing. Ginny is a challenging and demanding
role and she does it beautifully.”
“Some
of my scenes, particularly in the Chamber itself, were very tough
to do, but I enjoyed every minute of it,” Bonnie Wright says.
“I feel very lucky to have had this experience at such a young
age.”
Bringing
a wealth of experience to the role of the indomitable Mrs. Weasley
is the versatile and highly respected actress Julie Walters. “The
Weasley family is totally dominated by Mrs. Weasley, but she’s
a very warm and loving person,” says Walters, who wears a heavily-padded
wardrobe to complete her transformation. “She’s drawn
to Harry and he to her, because she feels deeply maternal toward
him, knowing that he is an orphan and that his parents were killed
in an awful way. She’s a mother hen who instinctively takes
Harry under her wing and makes him one of the family.”
Taking
on the role of Mrs. Weasley’s husband, Arthur Weasley, is new
cast member Mark Williams (Shakespeare in Love, The Borrowers, 101
Dalmatians). “Arthur works for the Ministry of Magic, which
keeps him busy because there are a lot of wizards playing tricks
on non-wizard folk, and the Dark Arts are rising,” Williams
says portentously.
Also
joining the Chamber of Secrets ensemble is Miriam Margolyes (Cats
& Dogs, Romeo and Juliet, The Age of Innocence) who plays green-fingered
Professor Sprout, whose most important task is to nurture the school’s
crop of magical mandrake plants. “Mandrakes are extremely dangerous
creatures and, as legend has it, if you hear them scream as you
pull them out of the pot – you will die!” Margolyes cautions.
“So, Professor Sprout wisely provides earmuffs to all her pupils.
It’s been great fun both working with the Mandrakes and the
children. They show that you can remain unspoiled in this industry.”
Other
new additions to the adult cast include: Shirley Henderson (Bridget
Jones’ Diary, Trainspotting, Rob Roy) who plays the ghostly
figure of Moaning Myrtle; Gemma Jones (Bridget Jones’ Diary,
Wilde, Sense and Sensibility) as Madam Pomfrey; Sally Mortemore,
who makes her feature film debut as librarian Madam Pince, Christian
Coulson (The Hours, Four Feathers), who takes on the key role of
Tom Riddle, and Robert Hardy (Thunderpants, An Ideal Husband) as
Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge.
These
talented performers are joined by child newcomers Hugh Mitchell,
who plays Colin Creevey, a first year student with a love of photography;
and Edward Randell, who plays the distrusting Justin Finch Fletchley.
THE
WIZARDRY OF CREATURE CREATION
The
challenge of creating many of the fantastical creatures who inhabit
the world of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets fell to visual
effects supervisors Jim Mitchell (Jurassic Park III, Sleepy Hollow,
Mighty Joe Young) and Nick Davis (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stone, Pluto Nash, Entrapment) and the talented artisans at ILM.
“With
Jim and Nick, we found a team that really understands what I call
the reality of visual effects,” Chris Columbus remarks. “They
understand our desire to transport people to a place they’ve
never been before, but at the same time, make certain that they
absolutely believe what they are seeing.”
Mitchell,
Davis and their team are responsible for rendering approximately
950 shots in the film, bringing to life such characters as Dobby
the House Elf, the Basilisk, the Cornish Pixies and the Spiders
(with the exception of Aragog). “From the very beginning, Chris
was quite keen not to use a puppet and to create Dobby through CGI,”
Davis explains.
“Dobby
is a major character in this story, and Chris wanted to be able
to direct him just like any other actor in a scene, which is more
thoroughly achieved through CGI,” adds Mitchell.
“I
wanted Dobby to be a character that felt very real and one that
the audience would fall in love with,” Columbus says. “Jim
and Nick created an adorable character who feels like he genuinely
inhabits this special world.”
Also
working alongside the visual effects team in the creation of this
magical world is creature effects supervisor Nick Dudman, who devised
all-too-tangible incarnations of the Petrified people, Fawkes the
Phoenix, the Basilisk, the Mandrakes and…arachnophobes beware…Aragog,
an ancient spider the size of a small elephant!
“Aragog
represented a significant challenge to the Creature department,”
Dudman explains, “as we were asked to create a walking, talking
nine-foot spider with an 18 foot leg span. Each leg had to be manipulated
by a different team member, and the whole contraption operated on
a complex combination of aquatronics [pneumatic air rams] and a
series of computers with video monitors. The entire creature weighed
three quarters of a ton!”
“Nick
Dudman’s creature shop did a stunning job with Aragog,”
says Columbus, who attests that creating the giant arachnid was
one of the most challenging aspects of bringing Harry Potter and
the Chamber of Secrets to the screen. “I’m delighted that
the scenes involving the spiders are incredibly frightening and
some of the scariest of the film.”
Apparently,
Aragog was just as fearsome in the flesh. “I remember the first
shot we did in the Spiders Hollow,” Daniel Radcliffe remembers.
“Rupert and I went over this ledge and suddenly there’s
a gigantic spider waiting for us! It was so realistic, we were both
genuinely terrified!”
As
Columbus emphasizes, he didn’t rely on the visual and special
effects departments to merely create new characters for Chamber
of Secrets – he also wanted to perfect elements established
in the first film, particularly the frenetically-paced game of Quidditch.
“I felt that the backgrounds could be more integrated with
the foregrounds,” Columbus muses, “so this time we made
certain that the lighting of the game was an identical match with
the atmosphere outside the Quidditch stadium. We made the whole
stadium feel a little more weathered, a little earthier. And we’ve
also managed to perfect the speed and the movement of the players,
making it a much tougher and more exciting game.”
THE
SECRETS BEHIND THE CHAMBER
Three-time
Academy Award winning production designer Stuart Craig (The English
Patient, Dangerous Liaisons, Ghandi), who garnered Academy Award
and BAFTA nominations for his artistry in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stone, reprised his crucial role in the elaborate Chamber of Secrets
production. “There was a big overlap as we began preparing
for the second film during production of the first,” Craig
says, “but it gave us the opportunity to improve on the quality
of the established architecture, particularly with Dumbledore’s
office and Lockhart’s classroom.”
The
production visited many of the locations established in Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer’s Stone, but the majority of filming again
took place at Leavesden Film Studios, and involved building a vast
range of new sets and situations, the most sizeable of which was
the Chamber of Secrets itself. At 250 x 120 feet, the vast Chamber
set is by far the largest Harry Potter set created to date, dwarfing
the Great Hall, which stands at an impressive 140 x 40 feet.
“J.K.
Rowling states very clearly in her book that the Chamber is an enormously
high and very cavernous place,” Craig explains. “But,
because Leavesden was originally an old aircraft factory, the tallest
soundstage is only 28 feet high. We could have achieved a greater
height with visual effects, but instead we built downward to create
the illusion of depth. The result is a Chamber that appears to be
hundreds of feet tall and flooded. In reality the water is only
a foot deep and dyed black to give it that sense of tremendous depth.”
In
addition to designing, constructing and dressing the Chamber of
Secrets, Gilderoy Lockhart’s classroom and Professor Dumbledore’s
office, Craig and his team – including 300 construction workers,
25 art directors and draftsmen, 4 set dressers, 4 sculptors, 2 scenic
artists, 5 portrait artists, 20 propmasters and numerous specialists
– created environments like the Weasleys’ home, the Burrow,
the greenhouse, the hospital wing, numerous corridors, Knockturn
Alley and the girls’ bathroom.
For
Craig, the two most challenging sets to design were the Spiders
Hollow and the Whomping Willow. “In some ways the Spiders Hollow
was the most difficult set because it isn’t architectural,
it’s completely organic, like a big sculpture,” Craig
notes. “To design something with no obvious structure was a
huge challenge. I fashioned the set like a big amphitheatre where
the children walk in and are ambushed by spiders coming out of every
crevice. We filled the set with tree roots and implied a subterranean
world beneath which the spiders inhabit.”
Similarly,
Craig and company rose to the challenge of constructing the Whomping
Willow, the enchanted tree with attitude that attacks Harry, Ron
and the flying car when they have the misfortune of landing in its
branches. “The idea that this flying car lands in a tree, falls
through its branches and then is beaten up by it is such a magical
sequence, I always imagined it would be computer generated,”
Craig admits. “But in the end we resolved this practically
by building the tree in several parts, which when put together stand
85 feet tall. This sequence involved a great deal of collaboration
between the art department, visual effects and special effects teams.”
The
flying car, a blue Ford Anglia, was engineered by special effects
supervisor John Richardson and his crew. “We needed a total
of 14 cars that we could dress in various stages, from mint condition
when the boys first steal the car and rescue Harry, until it lands
in the tree and finally ends up going wild in the forest,”
says Richardson, who scoured England looking for old Ford Anglias
for this purpose. “Most of the cars we found were not road-worthy
and many were headed for the scrap heap, so we didn’t destroy
any vintage vehicles!”
For
Daniel Radcliffe, shooting the flying car sequence and the ensuing
crash into the Whomping Willow counts among his favorite experiences
on the Chamber of Secrets production. “Filming in the flying
car was like being on a fun fair ride, especially when one of the
tree branches shot straight through the window between Rupert and
I!” Radcliffe says. “It was amazing. I don’t think
we ever stopped laughing!”
A
DARKER TONE AND A COLORFUL FLAIR
Although
many of the key Harry Potter artisans participated in the production
of both films, new to the team are Academy Award and BAFTA nominated
cinematographer Roger Pratt (Iris, Chocolat, The End of the Affair),
who takes over from John Seale, director of photography on Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone; and prolific Academy Award-winning
costume designer Lindy Hemming (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Topsy
Turvy, Funny Bones), who assumes the position previously held by
Judianna Makovsky, who received an Oscar nomination and BAFTA nomination
for her costumes in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Director
Chris Columbus and producer David Heyman brought director of photography
Roger Pratt aboard to give Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
a darker and edgier feel than that of the first film. Says Columbus:
“We went for a moodier lighting scheme this time around. As
the story descends into darkness and Hogwarts is in danger of closing,
we wanted the film to get a little darker and creepier, where you’re
not certain what’s going to pop out of the shadows. Roger brought
this quality to the film, along with a sense of camera movement,
which is a departure for me as a filmmaker.”
“It
was very important that the second film have the same basic qualities
as the first, but that it stand out in its own right,” Heyman
points out. “To that end, Roger gave Harry Potter and the Chamber
of Secrets a much darker feel, which reflects the growth of the
characters and the story.”
Meanwhile,
costume designer Lindy Hemming played a crucial role in creating
the looks and color schemes for the cabal of new characters introduced
in the film. “Many of the characters already had an established
appearance and wardrobe, so my real role was to create the costumes
for Gilderoy Lockhart, Lucius Malfoy, Moaning Myrtle, Professor
Sprout, Madam Pince, Madam Pomfrey and Mr. Weasley,” Hemming
says. “But I must also give credit to my associate designer,
Michael O’Connor, who created the costumes for a myriad of
characters you see in Diagon Alley.”
Designing
the look for the dandyish Gilderoy Lockhart provided Hemming with
her most enjoyable and colorful challenge. “Lockhart is totally
self-obsessed and vain and his clothes and his appearance are everything
to him,” she observes. “While most of the other characters
in the film are dressed in dark, muted or somber colors, with Lockhart
we were able to give him outfits in green, blue, deep red and even
gold.”
“Chris
Columbus and Lindy had a very clear idea of how Lockhart should
look and wanted to introduce color into the film through this character,”
Branagh adds. “We wanted to create a hybrid between a period
dandy and someone who looked as if they could fit into Hogwarts.
Lockhart struts like a peacock, wears a different costume in every
scene…and of course there’s his hair!”
Hemming
also perfected the evocative wardrobe for the malevolent Lucius
Malfoy, played by Jason Isaacs. “Because Lucius is in a very
prominent position in the wizard government, one of the original
concepts for his wardrobe was to have me wear a pinstripe suit,”
Isaacs relates. “But Lucius is an aristocrat, living in a giant
old house in the country and all of his belongings have been in
the family for generations. And so I wanted his costumes to reflect
this sense of the old. He wears furs and carries this amazing snake
head cane and feels himself to be very regal and superior.”
A
MAGICAL JOURNEY
Furthering
the magic, action and adventure established in Harry Potter and
the Sorcerer’s Stone, as well as the themes of friendship,
knowledge and self-discovery, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
promises to be a cinematic journey audiences won’t soon forget.
“I
wouldn’t have swapped this experience for anything,” says
Daniel Radcliffe of the production. “It’s been amazing
and I know I’ve developed as a person. In fact, I think everyone
who has worked on these films has grown, even the adults! And the
bonds I’ve formed, particularly with Emma and Rupert, will
never be broken.”
“Harry
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a little moodier and the action
adventure set pieces are bigger, scarier and more exciting than
in the first film,” Chris Columbus summarizes. “It’s
funnier, the kids’ performances are even more compelling, and
quite simply, if you loved the first film, you are going to absolutely
adore this one!”
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