Weekly Round-Up: Daniel Radcliffe Talks ‘Harry Potter’, Evanna Lynch Narrates Thriller Audiobook & More!

The first full week of the new decade was a spellbinding one in the Wizarding World. Producer David Heyman took home a Golden Globe and Leaky announced the winners of the 2019 Golden Cauldron Awards, we announced our giveaway of the new Harry Potter: Knitting Magic book and shared news from MinaLima about their illustrated Pinocchio. London’s Natural History Museum announced the coming of a new Fantastic Beasts exhibition and documentary, and we learned the first ever Harry Potter flagship store will be opening in New York this summer! We also reported on some Wizarding World nominees at the upcoming BAFTA awards, with more Oscar nominations for Wizarding World cast and creative expected to be announced tomorrow…

This week in Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts actors news Daniel Radcliffe’s next film Guns Akimbo gets a release date, a new look at Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doolitte voiced by a gaggle of Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts actors, Zoe Kravitz dons the February cover of Elle, Evanna Lynch narrates her first-ever audiobook, Daniel Radcliffe appears on Graham Norton with Miriam Margolyes and more progress appeared to have been made on a Willow series, but Warwick Davis set the record straight.

New Trailer for Dolittle, Starring Wizarding World Actors

Emma Thompson, Ralph Fiennes, Jim Broadbent and Carmen Ejogo, Frances de la Tour, and Ralph Ineson will all star (well, their voices, anyway) as animals alongside Robert Downey Jr. in a Dr. Dolittle reboot arriving in cinemas this month. A new trailer for the fantasy adventure movie about a doctor who can talk to animals. Watch the new trailer below: 

The film releases January 17. Read more here.

Daniel Radcliffe’s Guns Akimbo & Escape From Pretoria, Plus a Harry Potter Reunion on the Graham Norton Show!

Action-comedy movie (that looks, quite frankly, insane) starring Daniel Radcliffe will release February 28th, 2020, Saban Films has finally announced.

The film tells the story of a video game developer who ends up being cast as the next contestant in SKIZM, a gang live-streaming death matches. Guns Akimbo sees Miles (Radcliffe) attempting to outrun and outlast top killer, Nix (Samara Weaving). Read more here, and stay tuned for a trailer!

Radcliffe will also star in Escape From Pretoria, and Tim Jenkins, one of the two former anti-apartheid activists (the other being Stephen Lee) that the film is based on, spoke about Radcliffe being perfect for the role. The duo were jailed for 20 years in 1978 for supporting the African National Congress, and escaped by creating wooden copies of guard’s keys. Jenkins told the Evening Standard:

“He is a very good actor, and I think he’s politically motivated himself which helped. Some modern actors they aren’t that way inclined, and you had to be politically motivated to play the part, that’s the only kind of actor I would have wanted to play myself. Without the right attitude and the right politics you can’t do that person you’re playing justice.”

Escape From Pretoria releases in the UK on March 6th.

Finally, Radcliffe appeared on the Graham Norton Show to promote Escape From Pretoria. His interview, which happens to be on the red sofa with Miriam Margolyes (Professor Sprout) involves the pair recounting their days on Potter, and Radcliffe attempting to change the subject on multiple occasions for Margolyes’s very NSFW comments throughout the show!

Radcliffe, whilst discussing being recognised in public, said he was once chased out of a science museum in Spain by fans, and also once mistaken for a homeless man in New York City:

“I saw this guy looking at me and then he walked past me, but then he came back and handed me five dollars and said, ‘Get yourself a coffee mate.’ Apparently, I need to shave more often!”

Watch a hilarious clip of the pair reminiscing their days on Harry Potter below:

Zoë Kravitz Discusses High Fidelity & More With Elle

Fantastic Beasts star Zoë Kravitz (Leta Lestrange) discussed new Hulu series High Fidelity in a new interview for the February edition of Elle, with a cover by Kravitz.

Photo: Elle magazine, photographed by Paola Kudacki

High Fidelity is based Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel, and Kravitz serves on the 10-art series as executive producer and also stars as Rob. The vintage costumes are also designed by Academy Award winning Fantastic Beasts designer, Coleen Atwood!

It tells the story of a record-shop owner with miserable luck in his love life and career, but the series will gender-flips this story and focuses on Rob, who, after her boyfriend breaks up with her, goes on a mission to discover where she went wrong in her top five relationships through music and pop culture. Kravitz says on the role:

“The part of Rob is the closest thing to me I have ever played […] I know Rob so well. I, too, found being a teenager and young adult hard to navigate, and music was a refuge for me, somewhere to hide. I made playlists and would lie on the floor of my room listening to Jeff Buckley, learning the lyrics to songs that were the emotional soundtrack of my life.”

She opens up about her strong connections to music and the integral place of this in the series, which features music from David Bowie, Frank Ocean, Nick Drake and Ann Peebles.

Following the interview, Elle says Kravitz went to the Jazz Cafe in London, to meet up with Ben-Adir (who stars as Rob’s ex in High Fidelity) and Callum Turner, who plays Leta’s fiance in Fantastic Beasts – as filming will start on the third movie soon, we wonder if this brings us any closer to a Leta return? Though Kravitz is currently  filming as Catwoman alongside Harry Potter‘s Robert Pattinson in Matt Reeve’s upcoming The Batman!

Read more here. High Fidelity will premiere on Hulu on Valentine’s Day, February 14th.

Evanna lynch Narrates Thriller Audiobook

Evanna Lynch has narrated her first full length audiobook, released this week! The book, Keep Your Eyes on Me by Irish author Sam Blake, released on January 2nd, whilst the audiobook, produced by Bolinda, released January 9th. Keep Your Eyes On Me is a feminist psychological thriller, and is summarized as follows:

“When Vittoria Devine and Lily Power find themselves sitting next to each other on a flight to New York, they discover they both have men in their lives whose impact has been devastating. Lily’s family life is in turmoil, her brother left on the brink of ruin by a con man. Vittoria’s philandering husband’s latest mistress is pregnant.

By the time they land, Vittoria and Lily have realised that they can help each other right the balance. But only one of them knows the real story…”

Blake said on Evanna’s recording:

“I’m absolutely thrilled Evanna agreed to read Keep Your Eyes on Me—this is the first time she’s done a full audio book narration and it’s Sam Blake’s first psychological thriller, so it’s doubly exciting. I flew to London to meet her while she was recording and loved everything she brought to the script, the characters and their accents.”

Yay my first time narrating a full length audiobook! Had no idea how much fun this would be 🙂 https://t.co/JYTFcKHhfd

— Evanna Lynch (@Evy_Lynch) January 8, 2020

Find the print, audio and eBook versions here.

Warwick Davis Sets Record Straight On Willow Series 

This week Willow fans were excited as it appeared a Willow series really was in the works, as producer John Kasdan, and Warwick Davis, who starred in the original movie, appeared to suggest as much in tweets:

The office is open. pic.twitter.com/wty5ENi3He

— Jon Kasdan (@JonKasdan) January 6, 2020

“Forget all you know, or think you know…” https://t.co/y71HzMcEBq

— Warwick Davis (@WarwickADavis) January 7, 2020

Discussions on the series was announced in early 2019, with Ron Howard (the original director) on board, as well as Warwick Davis himself. Not much more has been said, but Davis says that although pre-production has started, nothing yet is set in stone. In an exclusive interview with ComingSoon.net, Davis said:

“At this stage … the excitement of the fans and the internet, and what have you, has been overwhelming and has actually got a little bit ahead of the reality of things at this stage, which is very flattering […] “But all the right people are kind of aligned – it’s like the stars have aligned in the heavens for Willow.”

It look like we’ll be seeing the series on Disney+ if the series does indeed become a reality, and with so much support behind it, it’s hard to imagine this not being a possibility – so keep the hype levels high and keep cheering on Kasdan, Howard and Davis, Willow fans! Read more here.

A First Look at Jim Broadbent in The Duke

This week we got a first look at Jim Broadbent,, in the upcoming art heist comedy The Duke opposite award-winner Helen Mirren. Broadbent, who Potter fans know as Potions Master Horace Slughorn, plays the lead described in this synopsis Deadline, 

 (The film)”is based on the real-life story of 60-year-old taxi driver Kempton Bunton who, in 1961, stole a Goya painting from the National Gallery in London. Bunton sent a ransom note saying he would only return the picture on the condition that the UK government agreed to provide free TV for the elderly. However, it turned out he was spinning a web of lies, with the full story not emerging for another 50 years. The incident was the first, and still only, theft in the National Gallery’s history.”

No word yet on a release date yet for The Duke, which sounds like a fascinating role for Broadbent. We can almost imagine his character Bunton alluding authorities hiding out in an armchair!

Tom Felton Plays in Sony Open in Hawaii

Fans that follow Tom Felton on Instagram know that he spends almost as much time on the golf course as he does making music and playing with his canine pup Willow. This week he took his drives and putts across the Pacific where he played in the Sony Open, a Pro Am tournament at the Waialae Country Club on the Island of Hawaii. Take a look at the fun that was had by our favorite Slytherin and his teammates posted by the PGA Tour:

🏈 @RayLewis
🧙‍♂️ @TomFelton
🎙️ Chris Berman
🎥 Neal Moritz
⛳️ @SamRyderSU
⛳️ @BrandtSnedeker

Talk about a pro-am group for the ages. pic.twitter.com/lOXoJUlMlw

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 10, 2020

That’s all for this week, folks! Read up on last week’s news here.