The buyer of the new Harry Potter prequel, which you can read online via this link to Waterstone’s or this new link, says he purchased the special note card donated by J.K. Rowling in hopes that he will be able to do more for charity. Bloomberg.com reports the new owner of the Harry Potter prequel note card sold last night at a charity auction in London, England, is Hira Digpal, president of a Tokyo-based investment-banking consulting company, Red-33. The article notes that the new owner “who originally had a closed bid of 50,000 pounds before halving his offer, said he faxed a letter to Rowling’s publisher asking for the author’s cooperation to use the story in a way that would raise more money for charity. He declined to give details of the proposal. “Here I am, owning a piece of literary history,’’ said Digpal in a phone interview from Tokyo. “I think I got a bargain. Hopefully, we can raise much more than the sale.’‘
As we’ve reported several times previously, this note card featuring a short story involving Sirius Black and James Potter 3 years before Harry was born, along with the 12 other cards from various authors such as Tom Stoppard, Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood among others will be published on August 7 by Waterstones, with proceeds to benefit English Pen and Dyslexia Action in the UK. At this time we do not know what other efforts may be made with the card for charity, however pre-orders for the book containing the Harry Potter prequel card are available via this link.
Last night proved to be an exciting time for the auction. Bloomberg continues to describe how Mr. Digpal ended up winning the card, saying “Digpal’s bid topped the offer of one of the crowd of 100 guests who attended the event, conducted by Sotheby’s auctioneer Edward Rising at Waterstone’s branch in Piccadilly. The Rowling lot attracted interest from only one bidder in the room. “I told them, if it gets past my limit, call me—wake me up,’’ said Digpal, 36, a Briton who received the news that he’d won at 5:27 a.m. “I was thinking of buying stocks, but the market’s been very volatile. It’s a good investment for when I kick the bucket in 30, 40, 50 years’ time.’’
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Asked why the auction had been an invitation-only event, without participation from the general public, Johnson said: ``We felt this was the best way to do it. This was a charity auction. It wasn’t exclusively about making money.’‘
MovieGal and Scully don’t give me facts on highest grossing films of the year, its the point im making with critics. OOPT did the worst according to critics and that is all that matters. You come here and give me worthless facts on popularity. OOpt did so well in getting the cash rollin in because so many people went in expecting a great film and got a major dissappointment. The Harry Potter series has built up its highly successful film reputation over the years that so many expected OOPT to be good. Thats why it did so welll in the Box office.
I forgot to mention as well to the comment of MovieGal, Spiderman 3, I Am Legend, 300, Alvin and the Chipmunks were all in the top 10 for highest grossing films of 2007. That just goes to show that today society has no taste when it comes to choice of film. No Country For Old Men won Best Motion Picture of the year, but it was no were to be seen on that list.
Ed Tom, it is clear you do not rate the film adaptation of OotP and that, as a fan, is your right.
Most of the UK reviews I saw were respectful rather than jubilant but I think that the majority recognise that the fifth book is difficult to adapt as even fans would admit it’s rather long-winded and obfuscating. As I’ve mentioned before, Jo has said that, in hindsight, there are sections of the book she would trim down. I think it boils down to quite a simple story and Michael Goldenberg did a fairly good job in that respect.
Above all, I believe most fans felt that the spirit and essence of the book had been maintained and that, really, is all a film adaptation can aim for.
Half-Blood Prince is a superior book and I’m confident David Yates will deliver the film we all yearn for.
You’re right that a film’s box office total alone is a poor indicator of its quality and you’re also correct that OotP performed well as it came off the back of Mike Newell’s Goblet of Fire, which was very well received critically. On the flipside, I think that Prisoner of Azkaban performed comparatively poorly at the box office because it followed Chris Columbus’ stodgy, overlong and uninspiring Chamber of Secrets.
But, for the record, Alvin and the Chipmunks was not one of the top ten highest grossing films of last year.
@ Ed Tom
Firstly, I’ve never claimed box office success equates to a movies quality. Secondly, critics view of a movie has no influence on me ( I make up my own mind ). Thirdly, calm down mate – you’ll give yourself an heart attack.
I think it’s very awesome that that much money was donated to charity… and we STILL get to read the card! It’s the best of both worlds, in my opinion.
Great short story! Very much in line with how I imagined James and Sirius back in “the day.” :) I do wish she had plans for an entire sequel, but I’m happy she even gave us this.
sorry guys, this is probably a really stupid question, but I can’t read JKR’s story. It says on Waterstones’ site to click on the Author but nothing happens. Has this happened to anyone else?
na it was no good! written like a child. unisex- that was funny five years ago.
Yeah those hundred rich people were invited because they were rich. yet still-only one out of hundred was intersted in harry potter!
The investment guy bought it to make even more money out of it- for charity? who knows.
The whole phenomenon was a kind of investment for WB scholastic and bloomsberry.
“Asked why the auction had been an invitation-only event, without participation from the general public, Johnson said: ``We felt this was the best way to do it. This was a charity auction. It wasn’t exclusively about making money.’‘
Since when is a charity auction not about “making money?” Does anyone else find this comment strange?
...Ron [was] goggling at the twins' new clothes.[br]"What are [i]they[/i] supposed to be?" he asked, pointing at the jackets.[br]"Finest dragon skin, little bro," said Fred, giving his zip a little tweak. "Business is booming and we thought we'd treat our
Hey Hira…. you got your last name wrong.