Trivia for
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) More at IMDb Pro »

• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  

• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Naomi Watts was considered for the role of Narcissa Malfoy.
  
  
• 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 changing of the release date from November 21, 2008 to July 17, 2009 actually helped increase the number of IMAX theaters that Half-Blood Prince will be available in. The November release had only 40 IMAX theaters showing the film; that number has increase by 60 theaters for a total of 100 IMAX theaters releasing the film in July.
  
  

Related Links