Sun is on Hold and Harry is Delayed
This is a bit late, yes, but I really wanted to post my thoughts on this. I have to warn you, I am standing behind Stephenie on this and if you’re going to get all pissed off about that, just stop reading. Anyways, my thoughts…
Like I mentioned, I agree with her decision. I have to state now that I refused to sign any petition for her to finished the book. Because 1) it’s her choice whether she writes it or not and she didn’t even have to write this in the first place. 2) it’s a waste of time. Really, if you think about it, if she’s really this upset about it being leaked; do you think making her feel guilty will make her feel any better? Even if she did put it on hold, she did post the first twelve chapters online, so maybe everyone should suck it up and get over it.
I personally won’t be reading Midnight Sun until it come out in book form, simply because if I read some of it now, it seems like a waste of money to have to buy it later. And might have something to do with the fact that I’m weird, but that has nothing to do with this…
While I’m here and in a “ranting” sort of mood, let’s talk about the Half-Blood Prince delay. Surprisingly, I really don’t care. I do enjoy going to see the movies, but I sort of the books and movies differently and hold the book in a higher respect.
Our reasons for shifting ‘Half-Blood Prince’ to summer are twofold: we know the summer season is an ideal window for a family tent pole release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment. Additionally, like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers’ strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films—changing the competitive landscape for 2009 and offering new windows of opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of. We agreed the best strategy was to move ‘Half-Blood Prince’ to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tent pole release for mid-summer.
-Alan Horn, President and Chief Operating Officer, Warner Bros
Okay , I don’t think this is a crap excuse. First of all, people are complaining they want to make more money. Well isn’t that obvious? They aren’t thinking about what’s best for the actual fans – they know we’re going to see it anyways – they’re think about themselves, about what’s best for business. That is the point of having a business/company/corporation/whatever, to make money.
People are saying they’re going to boycott it, well good for you, but that doesn’t mean everyone who doesn’t want to just suck or are playing into their hands. It’s our choices whether we see it or not. And honestly, I don’t think have the people claiming they’re going to boycott it would actually do it. And really, I don’t think they need to depend on hardcore Potter fan for ticket sales. There are huge amount of people who wants to get in on some of the “action” who would go see it, how’d you think there was a little girl behind me during the Order of the Phoenix movie and didn’t even know that Voldy was back?
All in all, I just want to say, just give it up with the petitions. It’s not going to work. Right now because of the announcement of it being pushed back, it’s getting a whole bunch of publicity, which would make more people want to go see it. I doubt WB would want to change their minds now because of that. And really, if they are going to change their mind, what’d you think they’d say? Just kidding? We weren’t really going to push it back. If they change their minds again, it’s going to look bad for the whole company. Making the general public think of them as untrustworthy and people who go back on their words.
The same goes for Midnight Sun, once you make a statement in writing (typing) you really can’t just change your mind. And look, the Harry/Giant Squid or Hermione/Harry petitions didn’t work on J.K. Rowling, and it’s her story. To quote Ben Schoen, “Give me a Butterbeer!”
