Want to read the first review of the HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE movie?!

Here it is, courtesy of Ain't It Cool News.

It sounds terrible.

How terrible? According to this person, who saw an advance screening in Chicago over the weekend, the funeral scene is not in the film (yeah there were two funerals in the book but if you've read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince you know which one I'm talking about). It also has the Death Eaters attacking the Weasley house at Christmas (?!?) and apparently makes several other significant deviations from the novel.

Not jazzed at all about this movie now. I'm tempted to say that the Hogwarts Express has jumped the track on this one.

Maybe Warners should just wait a few years and "reboot" the film franchise with a clean start, now that we know where the story is going and how it ends, instead of mucking it up with the current series.

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HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE movie delayed 'til Summer '09!

Warner Bros. is pushing back the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from it's originally scheduled date of this November... to July 17th, 2009!

Why? Officially the word is that the writers strike several months ago means that there will be a dearth of "tentpole movies" next summer and Warners wants to make up for it somehow.

It also means that by the time the adaptation of Half-Blood Prince comes out that there will have been two years since its release and the previous movie in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. And it'll be two years still after that before the series finally wraps up with Part Two of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I'd hate to be the poor lady who's answering the phone at Warner Bros. when more people start hearing about this later this morning...

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First trailer for HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE just apparated online!

Harry: "Did you know, sir ... then?"

Dumbledore: "Did I know I'd just met the most dangerous dark wizard of all time? No."

Our first look at the child Tom Riddle. And Dumbledore fights the Inferi.

This one is gonna hurt when it comes to theaters this fall. Can't wait!

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Jim Broadbent is playing Horace Slughorn!

Dark Horizons is the first to report that award-winning actor Jim Broadbent has been cast to play Horace Slughorn in the upcoming film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (and no doubt this means we'll be seeing him again in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as well).

If you haven't read the books, Horace Slughorn is a fairly major character in the sixth book. Slughorn is a former professor of Hogwarts who Professor Dumbledore persuades to come out of retirement and teach again at the school. Slughorn also has a knack for getting attached to students who he believes (and often rightly so) will go on to excel. So naturally, Slughorn appreciates Harry's already-celebrity status.

Broadbent will also be seen this coming spring in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

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