meddow

So Jim Broadbent’s playing Slughorn (how many Oscars is that between the adult cast now? I can think of at least five). Which illustrates why I adore Harry Potter casting, they always get it right with the adults. It’s always a shame though that the adult characters get so little to do in the movies. It’s always the adult roles that get the most cut. For obvious and good reasons of course, but still, I generally find the older generation characters more interesting than Harry’s generation.

Meanwhile I discovered the casting link between Pirates of the Caribbean and New Who. I have this theory that you cannot watch anything which has a sizable amount of British actors in these days and not find at least one who has shown up in the new Doctor Who or one of the related spin-offs, and PotC was defying this theory. Until I found out that Young Elizabeth Swann from Curse was in School Reunion (as the “Kenny blew up the school!” girl) Ha ha!

Seriously though, they crop up when you least suspect. I’ve been going on a hunt for Richard Armitage features and so was watching the Shakespeare Retold MacBeth with James McAvoy and Keeley Hawes (incredibly good BTW, it’s set in a kitchen with the three witches being bin men), and there was Maria’s hot Dad from The Sarah Jane Adventures playing Banquo. And then I was watching North and South and it has Suki from The Long Game and the lead actress was one of the bad guys in an episode of Torchwood.

Though more importantly than casting games, why had I not discovered North and South earlier? I’d never heard of it before which is terrible considering it’s up there in the guilty pleasure costume drama stakes with the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice. In fact, it might be even better because it’s got commentary on the social, political and economic conditions of the time, particularly with the battle between the Masters and the Unionists. And I know my family was working in the cotton industry in Manchester at the time, so bonus points for being personally relevant (guess who spent her childhood going through old cotton mill museums). And on a much shallower note: Richard Armitage dressed in black and strolling through the white cotton dust filled cotton mill FTW.

Anyway, Elizabeth Gaskell has rocketed to pole position on my big list of authors I must read when I have the time.

I may have lost my marbles just a little bit, but there just happens to be a rumour floating around the net that Jack Davenport, along with Naomi Watts and Stephen Rea (yay, I adore Stephen Rea, he would make such an awesome Scrimgeour) are in negotiations for HBP. And since as you all probably know, I'm a bit of a fan of Jack Davenport, I like this rumour a lot. But it does beg the question who could be possibly play? There's Slughorn (too young, too thin, too much hair), Bill Weasley (not enough ginger & too old), Rufus Scrimgeour (too young), Fenrir Greyback (too young) Marvolo Gaunt (too young, again), Morfin Gaunt (far too hot) and finally Tom Riddle Snr, which actually would work, but it would be all of five seconds of screen time.

But, just but, there is the shadow of a possible another character.

( I'm just saying… )

Okay, it maybe a bit long shot and maybe it's just the very similar hair and we don't even know if RAB would turn up in the final book, never mind the sixth movie, but it could work. And with DH to be released before the HBP movie, it could be possible to have storylines spilling from one to the other.

Here's my rather superficial look at the OotP spoilers over at Leaky( In case you didn’t want to be spoiled (Sirius Is Gunna Die!) )

I can’t wait for July

Umbridge reminds me of my dead Grandma. This for me is really disturbing.

I picked up a copy of The Whitcoulls List today while buying stationary, which is the top 100 best books as voted by people of New Zealand and The Da Vinci Code was number one. Come on people! IMHO, the only way you could possibly think The Da Vinci Code is the best book ever is if you have never actually read another book in your life. Screw International Puppyshipper Day or Gratuitous Sam Neill PicSpam day (I hope you haven’t forgotten gunderpants, I've been looking forward to it); what we really need an International Attack Dan Brown day.

However, if this is what the majority of the country thinks that is a good book, it could explain why National is leading in the polls.

This may be quite possibly the stupidest thing I ever say, but I really hate writing introductions for academic essays. My lecturers demand that I put my conclusion in them. But it’s so counterintuitive. If I give away the ending in the first paragraph, then why would anyone bother to read the rest of it? (You know, other than the fact that they are getting paid to mark it).

I want to be Emma Thompson when I grow up. She just rocks so much.

When I was as busy, I had three rabid plot bunnies gnawing at my brain. Now I’m not, suddenly they don’t want to be written. My good mood is apparently bad for creativity.

With all the photos coming out of Tonks on the OotP sent does anyone else think that Tonks is going to be given an expanded role in OotP? Look what happened with Hermione; they found a female lead and decided that Hermione wasn’t just good enough as the bookworm, she had to be smarter, prettier, she had to have special physical butt-kicking abilities and got all of Ron’s good lines. Probably all in the name making her a better female role model, which is shit for women since if our female characters are flawless, then it makes human females feel like crap because we have flaws and can never live up to that level of perfection. They completely missed the point the canon-Hermione is awesome just the way she is.

But getting back to my point, the filmmakers now have a female character that fights crime and saves the world and all that for a living, which makes me wonder if they will expand the role somewhat. Whether or not this will be a good thing, I don’t know. Same could go for Ginny.

According to mugglenet, Emma Thompson is going to be in OotP! Woo freaking hoo people! Trelawney’s firing is my favourite bits in the whole book series. Plus I so want to see the prophecy being delivered via flashback.