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Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

By Sean Lynch
Photo Gallery: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince (click for larger image)

It's the only franchise, in the history of franchises, to continually get bigger with every release. And there have been a hell of a lot of them!

Let's face it - next to the Harry Potter series, the only other film franchise that has churned out as many sequels as this was Police Academy. And I think we can all agree that there is no chance in hell we are all eagerly anticipating the return of High Tower and Mahoney as much as we are anticipating Harry and Hermoine.

J.K. Rowling's sixth novel about the boy wizard was set to hit screens in 2008 (but was delayed until mid 2009) in this film from David Yates, the director of Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix.

Joining the coolest four eyes in the globe, Daniel Radcliffe, as well as Rupert Grint and Emma Watson this time around will be Oscar winner Jim Broadbent who joins the cast as Horace Slughorn.

Yep, a new year - a new teacher. And I think we can pretty much guarantee he will be have something to do with the shenanigans that evolve at Hogwarts.

The big question is (well, at least for those of us who refuse to read the books) - what the hell is going to happen this time around?

As the situation stands, Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds, with Hogwarts no longer the safe haven it once was.

Harry, as always, suspects that dangers lie within the castle but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching.

Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemort's defenses, hence Dumbledore recruiting his old friend and colleague - Professor Horace Slughorn.

As always, the Potter series isn't simply about wizardry, it's thinly veiled metaphors about teenage life. In that regard, Half Blood Prince is certain to stir up some controversy with a strong push on sexuality and drug use (but, in the form of "dark magics"... of course).

There is no doubt about it - this one is going to be huge, so big in fact, the series' producers have decided to split the final film Deathly Hollows into two films. They say it's "to allow as much detail to be included as possible", but if you take a quick look at the box office receipts of the previous films - it becomes quite clear why stretching the series a little longer is now part of their game plan.

There are also early rumours that this will be the darkest of the entire series. A recent interview with Radcliffe saw him state that "the lighter bits are funnier than ever, while the darker bits are darker than ever". The film is set to be so grim, at one stage 'King of Grim', Director Guillermo del Toro, was signed onto direct - but turned down offer so he could work on Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

This film also stands as quite a historic event, as it is the same film script which forced Rowling to publicly "out" Dumbledore. The story goes that while reading through the script for Half Blood Prince, Rowling 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.

It is a film that is bound to stir up some controversy, but more importantly, a film which is bound to excite any Potter fan.

This one is going to be huge!

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HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE flies into cinemas December 11, 2008.

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