Movie Trivia

Director Guillermo del Toro turned down the chance to direct this film so he could work on Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008).

Anand Tucker and Michael Hoffman were both rumored as possible directors for this film.

Helen McCrory had been cast to play Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), but had to back out because she was pregnant. She will play Bellatrix's sister, Narcissa Malfoy in this film.

Jessie Cave beat over 7000 girls to win the role of Lavender Brown, Ron's "love-interest" from the book.

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.

Quidditch at Hogwarts makes a grand (and much publicized) return, after being completely absent since the fourth installment. A full game of Quidditch has in fact not been featured since the 2nd film.

Robert Knox, who plays Marcus Belby, was tragically stabbed to death on May 24, 2008, just days after filming wrapped.

Director David Yates says that he hired Hero Fiennes-Tiffin to play the young Voldemort/Tom Riddle because of his resemblance to his uncle Ralph Fiennes (who plays Voldemort/Tom Riddle as an adult) but not specifically because he was the actor's nephew. He liked the dark haunted quality about the young actor.

Christian Coulson, who played Tom Riddle in 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 (he is close to 30).

Naomi Watts was previously reported as having accepted the role of Narcissa Melfoy, only for it to be denied her by her agency.

Thomas James Longley auditioned for the role of 'Tom Riddle', but lost out to Frank Dillane.

Dame Maggie Smith completed filming this film whilst undergoing radio-therapy as treatment for breast cancer.

Alarn Horn, President and Chief Operating Officer of Warner Bros. stated that due to "repercussions of the writers' strike" they were offered "new windows of opportunity that we (Warner Bros.) wanted to take advantage of." The film’s release date was then moved from November 21, 2008 to July of 2009.

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."

The first Harry Potter film to be rated PG by the MPAA since Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004).

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 Weasley's, 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.

Shipped to some theaters under the moniker "Candlelit".

'Bruno Delbonnel' was chosen to be the film's cinematographer by 'David Yates': "The choice of angles, the extreme close-ups, the pacing of the scenes...It's very layered, incredibly rich."

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.

According to VFX 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 Inferius are skinnier than zombies, as well as being waterlogged and grey.

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. Since the whole fire scene was very time consuming, with computer graphics artist Christopher Horvath spending eight months on it.

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.

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.

Terry Gilliam, who was J.K. Rowling's personal choice to direct the first film, was approached to direct this film. However, Gilliam said, "Warner Bros. had their chance the first time around, and they blew it."

Bill Nighy was interested in playing Rufus Scrimgeour, but there was no place for the character in the film.

The night scenes were filmed in the quaint village 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.

When Draco Malfoy goes to the room of Requirement for the final time, you can clearly see the harp that put Fluffy to sleep and the King from the game of chess that were in the first movie.

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 the fifth film, the first legitimate and complete scene is the Death Eater attack.)

The length of the 35mm film is 4194 meters.

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.

SPOILER: 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.

SPOILER: Two new scenes were added that do not appear in the book: The collapsing Millenium bridge (at the beginning of the film, and which appears in the Third Trailer) 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.

SPOILER: 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.