SUMMER OF FANTASY

The sixth Harry Potter film will bundle plot lines for a wider section of the ensemble and set the stage for the intense crescendos that will dominate the final two movies

Daniel Radcliffe has spent half his life in the role of boy wizard Harry Potter,so it’s difficult to imagine any surprises presenting themselves on the set of the sixth film,Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,which arrives in theatres July 15. But Radcliffe said “this time around the refreshing aspect was the adolescent romantic core of this film,which should be absolutely charming and very funny.”

The sixth Potter adventure was scheduled for release last November but,to the disappointment of fans,Warner Bros. executives announced last summer that they would postpone the film for eight months to maximise its market position.

The last film,Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,pulled in $938 million,making it the most successful edition since the first installment,Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in 2001,which pulled in $974 million. The franchise has brought in close to $4.5 billion.

There were seven Potter novels published,but the studio and filmmakers will split the final book into two films. The closing chapters are scheduled for release in November 2010 and July 2011.

While the fifth Potter film was dedicated largely to the title character,Half-Blood Prince will bundle plot lines for a wider section of the ensemble and set the stage for the intense crescendos that will dominate the final two movies. It delves into the creepy past of villain Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes),introduces a key newcomer in bon vivant Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) and also climaxes with one of the major characters giving up the ghost.

Despite that grim loss,there’s also charm and a sweetness,and romance too,as the students,now in their late teens,learn the bittersweet lessons of love. Emma Watson,who fills out the trio of pals as Hermione,said that after so many years of battling magical beasties,it was a treat for the students of Hogwarts to tussle with their own passions and enjoy some pratfalls.

Hugh Jackman’s X factor

Two months after hosting the Academy Awards,Jackman returns to his cinematic dark side with Wolverine,his fourth major film with the character at the centre

Two months removed from the dapper,soft-shoe duty as the host of the Academy Awards,Tony winner Hugh Jackman has returned to his cinematic dark side. And,with the release of the Fox’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine,the Marvel Comics character is at the centre of a fourth major film.

The first three appearances of Jackman in the Wolverine role were in X-Men films,a trilogy that pulled in more than $1 billion at theatres worldwide with each installment making more than the last. In this new feature,Wolverine’s previously murky past is explored with revelations about his family,his secret military career and the origin of those unbreakable shiny blades that pop from his hands.

Wolverine marks his first solo film franchise,but for the ragged Jackman it feels more like a finish line—very few movies have endured as many last-minute crises as Wolverine,chief among them a major act of piracy that sent a stolen copy of the film pinging around the world.

In Marvel Comics,Wolverine first appeared in 1974,the creation of Len Wein and John Romita,but many of his most intriguing shadings came a decade later with a solo print mini-series by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller. Jackman said he began studying the comics while filming 2000’s X-Men,despite director Bryan Singer’s ban on comics from the set to encourage a reality-based film. As a student of the history and producer of the film,he had no doubt that the crux of the film should be a struggle not between good and evil but between one man and his own rage.

Jackman moulded his body for the role,packing in calories—4,500 a day,all of them from fish,steamed chicken,tofu and the occasional steak—and then doing explosive-impact weight-lifting. The 6-foot-1 star reached 215 pounds and then came the lean-down process to reduce his body fat and start filming at 200.

“Part of you gets really into it,the extreme nature of it,” Jackman said. “I had a picture in my head of the character looking more like Robert De Niro in Cape Fear,I wanted him to be all veins and muscle. I wanted him to look dangerous.”

A new captain in Kirk’s chair

Chris Pine has taken on a big challenge: how to play James T. Kirk in the new Star Trek without imitating the role’s originator,William Shatner

Wearing a trucker hat,battered blue jeans and an air of breezy confidence,Chris Pine walked through the Paramount Pictures studio lot like he owned the place but felt no particular need to show anyone the deed in his pocket. It’s precisely that mix of fighter-pilot cockiness and surfer-dude Zen that you would expect from an actor who,as the leading man in Star Trek,has taken on the biggest challenge of any popcorn-movie star this summer: how to play James T. Kirk without imitating William Shatner?

He has apparently done just that,at least according to early reviews and a positive industry buzz that frames Star Trek as this year’s Iron Man,a sleek summer movie with intense action,wit and surprising buoyancy considering all the heavy equipment taking flight.

The film begins on the day Kirk is born—the same day his father dies 12 minutes into his first command as a starship captain. It follows Kirk through his daredevil youth and his Starfleet Academy career as a rakish Romeo. Then it’s off into space,where he and the rest of the crew must tangle with an angry Romulan named Nero. Paramount has already announced a sequel for 2011.

This Star Trek is not your grandfather’s starship. Director J.J. Abrams (Mission: Impossible III) grew up as a Star Wars fan and decided that Gene Roddenberry’s space-frontier epic could use a bit of the George Lucas mojo. This new version has intense dogfights,a sprinkling of exotic aliens and dollops of humour.

Zachary Quinto of NBC’s Heroes is in as Spock and,thanks to some time travel,Leonard Nimoy appears as the Vulcan in his advanced years. The cast includes Simon Pegg,Eric Bana,Winona Ryder and,startlingly,a cameo by Tyler Perry.

But Trek will fly or fail based on the man in the captain’s seat: Pine. “Shatner will forever be James T. Kirk. That actually takes pressure off me. I’m going my own way. My name is not William Shatner,” Pine says.