Maybe Harry Potter should give birth brought a note from his parents saying he would be missing school.
Warner Bros. gave Harry the school year off, announcing last week it was bumping the sixth pic in the series from fall to next summer. But Entertainment Weekly - which shares the studio's parent company, Time Warner Inc. - was unaware, featuring "Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe on the cut through of its Aug. 22-29 fall-preview issue.
The magazine leads off the issue with a six-page spread pegged to "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," which Warner Bros. on Thursday moved from its Nov. 21 going date to July 17, 2009.
The studio had been considering the date change for trey or four-spot weeks, "merely it truly didn't kind of have on the front burner until old within the last seven days," Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. head of dispersion, said Sunday.
Entertainment Weekly's "deadline must make been in the first place than the decision, than when we started to get life-threatening about making the decision," Fellman said.
An Entertainment Weekly spokeswoman did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment.
The magazine's online edition added a preface about the date change to the "Harry Potter" story. It also had a laugh or two approximately the lack of communicating between iI Time Warner outfits.
"In an irony sure to set blogger black Maria beating light-headedly, the motion picture graces the cover of EW's newfangled fall preview issue," reads an entree on the magazine's Hollywood Insider blog. "EW and Warner Bros. share a parent company, but they clearly do not plowshare, you know, important ... information."
The blog goes on to joke that the date change volition leave Entertainment Weekly "readers in ownership of a 'Dewey Beats Truman' collectible." It besides notes that British plastic film magazine Empire features Harry Potter on its current cover, though that issue touches on big 2009 releases, as well.
Warner executives said the date change was a business decisiveness and non due to any production delays on "Half-Blood Prince." A recent Writers Guild of America strike had delayed production on some films, going away a lighter lineup during 2009's busybodied summer season, Fellman said.
The July 17 release - the like weekend Warner Bros. debuted its blockbuster "The Dark Knight" this summer - offered better box-office potency for "Half-Blood Prince," Fellman said.
The change left a hole in Hollywood's boilersuit schedule for Nov. 21, the calendar week before Thanksgiving, one of the busiest weekends for theaters.
But fantasy fans will not have to do without: A day later "Half-Blood Prince" moved out, Summit Entertainment's vampire romance language "Twilight," based on some other best-selling series of books, moved in, switched from its scheduled Dec. 12 release to Nov. 21.
More info
