HP Countdown Day 3: Did You Know...? Movie Trivia!

Think you know everything about Harry Potter? Are you ready for the ULTIMATE test that'll make you sweat blood and tears from sheer wizarding world knowledge exhaustion? If you have what it takes, travel down this road to test your HP knowledge in fun trivia. Look back for the HP Countdown Day 1 that'll have trivia from the books instead of the movies! (info from IMDb)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/ Philosopher's Stone

Richard Harris only agreed to taking the part of Albus Dumbledore after his eleven year old granddaughter threatened never to speak to him again. Patrick McGoohan was originally offered the role but had turned it down due to health reasons.

The movie is known as "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" everywhere except the USA and so every scene in which the Philosopher's Stone was mentioned was filmed twice, once with the actors saying "Philosopher's" and once with the actors saying "Sorcerer's".

Among the portraits on the shifting staircase, you can clearly see a painting of Anne Boleyn (King Henry VIII's second wife, mother of Queen Elizabeth I), who was condemned to death as a witch.

The inscription around the Mirror of Erised says: "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi". Reading the inscription backwards it says, "I show not your face but your heart's desire."

Rosie O'Donnell and Robin Williams were two of the celebrities who had asked for a role in the movie without pay. However they did not film any scenes for the movie.

In the script, the flashbacks to Voldemort killing Harry's parents were written by J.K. Rowling herself. The producers knew she was the only one who knew exactly what happened.

Alan Rickman was hand-picked to play Snape by J.K. Rowling, and received special instruction from her as to his character. Rowling even provided the actor with vital details of Snape's back story not revealed until the final novel.

The filmmakers attempted to go the extra mile of matching the kid's appearances to how the novel describes them, by fitting Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) with green-colored contact lenses, and similarly make Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) wear fake buck teeth. But when Dan's eyes reacted strongly to the contacts, and Emma couldn't talk clearly with the fake teeth in her mouth, these ideas were dropped.

 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Fourteen Ford Anglias were destroyed to create the scene where Harry and Ron crash into the Whomping Willow.

Filming began three days after the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

To get a sense of how nasty his character should be, Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) had to go back and watch Tom Felton's (Draco Malfoy's) performance in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Nurses were drafted into the production when an outbreak of head lice occurred among the young cast.

The salute that Snape and Lockhart, and Harry and Draco, make during their Dueling Club session, is a modified version of the salute made in fencing.

Richard Harris (Dumbledore) died a few weeks before the film's release.

Daniel Radcliffe was initially only offered £125,000 (approximately US $181,500) for this film. The actors' union, Equity, stepped in and negotiated new terms which increased his salary to roughly £2,000,000 (US $3,000,000).

Many Harry Potter fans went to see Scooby-Doo just to see a trailer for this film.

When Hagrid is escorting Harry out of Knockturn Alley, and again when Lockhart turns to show his other profile to the photographer, hardcover editions of Harry Potter books can be seen on the shelves.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Emma Thompson accepted the role of Professor Trelawney to impress her four-year-old daughter, Gaia Wise. Tilda Swinton was originally offered the role but declined.

The tattoos on Sirius Black's body and hands are borrowed from Russian prison gangs. They are markings which identify the person as a man to be feared and respected.

Alfonso Cuarón coached Daniel Radcliffe in one scene where the latter had to act awed: "Pretend you're seeing Cameron Diaz in a G-string". It worked.

Alfonso Cuarón had never read the Harry Potter books or seen the first two movies when he was offered the job of director.

Ian McKellen turned down the role of Dumbledore. Having appeared as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, he said, "I had enough trouble living up to one legend. Two would be too much to hope for."

Alfonso Cuarón had an idea for there to be tiny people inhabiting Hogwarts, and jumping on piano keys in one scene. J.K. Rowling firmly vetoed it, saying tiny people were completely foreign to the world of her books.

A clause in Alfonso Cuarón's contract forbade the director from cursing in front of the kids on set.

In order to acquaint himself with his three lead actors, director Alfonso Cuarón had each of them write an essay about their characters, from a first-person point of view.Emma Watson, in true Hermione fashion, went a little overboard and wrote a 16-page essay. Daniel Radcliffe wrote a simple one-page summary, and Rupert Grint never even turned his in.

The last Harry Potter film to be released on VHS.

Michael Gambon admitted later on that he saw "no point" in reading the books, so during the whole course of playing the role of Dumbledore, he never read any of them.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Over 3,000 girls turned up at the auditions for the role of Cho Chang in London on 7 February 2004.

At least one full-scale dragon was constructed on set, which could even blow real fire.

Mike Newell only received $1 million to direct (whereas Chris Columbus received $10 million plus a percentage of the gross to direct Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone).

Safety divers swam in with scuba regulators to allow them to breathe without having to surface. These scenes were shot in a huge purpose-built tank with a blue-screen background. Daniel Radcliffe alone logged around 41 hours 38 minutes underwater during the course of filming. At one point during training he inadvertently signaled that he was drowning, sending the crew into a huge panic to bring him back up to surface.

Mike Newell staged a brawl with one of the twins, both to demonstrate what he wanted for a scene between the twins, and also to undermine his own "authority figure" status ("They were calling me 'sir'!") The fight got so intense that he fractured a rib in the process.

Stanislav Ianevski, who plays Viktor Krum, has only two lines in the entire film totaling 20 words.

The tune you hear the teens sing to the school song, "Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts" was written by Mike Newell. The lyrics first appeared in the first novel, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". (Traditionally the song can be sung to any tune the singer happens to like.)

Katie Leung hadn't intended to audition for the role of Cho Chang. Her father had told her where the audition was being held and she decided to go before her shopping trip.

The rock band at the Yule Ball is comprised mostly of members of Pulp and Radiohead.

In one of the first takes of Hermione's "Cinderella moment", Emma Watson actually tripped in that fancy dress and fell down the stairs.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Evanna Lynch beat 15000 girls and 29 finalists for the role of Luna. When it came to viewing the finalists, she was the ninth person in the audition videos and one of the producers, David Barron stopped viewing after her saying, "She is Luna." Unknown to them, Lynch actually wrote a letter directly to J.K. Rowling.

The Department of Mysteries was the first completely computer-generated set used in the series. Building the set practically was too expensive since an estimated 15000 crystal balls would have been needed, and it would have taken take a lot of time to clean and set them up again between takes.

Helen McCrory was originally cast as Bellatrix Lestrange, but due to pregnancy she had to be replaced by Helena Bonham Carter. McCrory was later cast as Narcissa Malfoy, who is Bellatrix's sister, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

The radish earrings worn by Luna Lovegood were actually made by Evanna Lynch (the actress portraying her).

Daniel Radcliffe came up with the idea that, as a gesture of respect to a teacher that Harry most certainly looked up to, he would wear a certain type of clothes that resemble the outfit worn by Prof. Lupin in his lessons from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, during his teachings. The director liked the suggestion, so that became the basis for his look during those scenes.

Harry's, Ron's and Hermione's signatures for the Dumbledore's Army roster are the same signatures seen in the US version of the books.

In the scene where Harry, Ron, and Hermione are discussing Harry's kiss with Cho, the three begin to crack up near the end of the scene. This was all real laughter from the three actors. The director thought it was good for the scene and kept rolling.

J.K. Rowling provided over 70 names for the Black family tree tapestry, complete with details of relations between each and every member, whose were to be scorched and so on.

According to Daniel Radcliffe, Devon Murray (Seamus) has the record of most prop wands broken on set with ten during filming.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Over 7000 girls auditioned for the role of Lavender Brown, and read from a scene with Madam Pomfrey, Hermione and Ron. Ironically, Emma Watson recommended Jessie Cave (the girl who actually landed the part) for the role, although Cave hadn't attended any auditions.

At the beginning of the film, the Death Eaters destroy the Millennium Bridge in London. In the Book it is actually the Brockdale Bridge that is destroyed. The book is set in 1995 - 1996, according to the Canon time line. The Millennium Bridge was not constructed until 1998, and opened on 10 June 2000.

In one of a number of occasions in the book in which Prof. Slughorn gets Ron's name wrong, he refers to the character as 'Rupert' - Chapter 22. Of course Ron Weasley is played by actor Rupert Grint.

Professor Slughorn says that he taught the entire Black family, except for Sirius. As Hogwarts only has one teacher for each subject, it may seem a bit odd that he would not have taught Sirius. The book explains this differently, however. In addition to teaching Potions, Slughorn was also head of Slytherin House, where all of the Blacks were sorted, except for Sirius. So while Slughorn taught Sirius, he never had him in Slytherin.

Production designer Stuart Craig revealed that the Three Broomsticks' design was constructed for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park first. Subsequently, the film crew constructed an exact replica during filming.

Although all the teachers at Hogwarts are addressed as "Professor", Harry Potter authorJ.K. Rowling has said that there is no university for wizards. This revelation has two implications: first, that the professor salutation is an honorific; second, that those who wish to learn more than standard schooling must apprentice themselves to experts in any given field, just as was done in the Middle Ages.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 1

At first, this was meant to be only one film, but due to the size of the book, and the decision that nothing could be left out to squeeze into one movie, the producers decided to split it into Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

Jason Isaacs originally considered not returning for this film, fearing that his character's arrest and imprisonment at the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix would mean very little if any screen time in the finale. Upon meeting J.K. Rowling, he begged to be let out of prison. She told him "You're out. Chapter one." This immediately convinced him to sign on for the film.

One of the posters in the café where the trio ends up after Apparating into London is from Daniel Radcliffe's play 'Equus'.

First of the films to have J.K. Rowling as producer.

Linguist expert Dr. Francis Nolan devised the Parseltongue language for this and the other Harry Potter films which feature the serpent speak.

Upon seeing the set for Hermione's bedroom, Emma Watson told the set decorators that there should be more books, which they happily accommodated.

Favorite bit of trivia? Which movie is your favorite?