Developers Speak On Upcoming Harry Potter Movie

The sixth Harry Potter movie, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," will arrive in theaters on July 15. Fans are eagerly counting down the days until its release, and many who have previewed screenings of the film have given it rave reviews.

Hollywood.com's Paul Dergarabedian said that although he had not been much of a fan of the franchise, "The Half-Blood Prince" blew him away "like a Quidditch player on a supercharged broomstick."

Production designer Stuart Craig used CGI for most of the effects, much more than he used on the first movie nine years ago.

Craig told the Los Angeles Times: "Obviously the actors would prefer a physically real set to react to and respond to as directed. The CG effects encourage you to be bigger and more ambitious and scale things up, so what we try to do is build a physical set -- which is always limited by the soundstage it's on or the corner of the soundstage you have available -- and then the CG extension becomes hugely important."

He was also very exited about the scenes in Professor Slughorn's house and in the cave where Voldemort has hidden the Horcrux, which were the most challenging sets to make and are also his favorites.

Craig said: "[O]ne of the biggest challenges is to create the stage and environment for that new character, and Slughorn is a rather theatrical character who enjoys an eventful social life. He kind of lives in the reflective glory of some of his more famous students and invites them constantly to dinner parties. And he's very into lavish parties.... So creating his house, his classroom, his study ... they were the fresh new challenge."

Screenwriter Steve Kloves called the latest Harry Potter addition more mature and quite powerful and moving at times.

Kloves told the San Francisco Chronicle that moviegoers can expect a new scene prior to the Snape and Dumbledore climax: "There is something we added that you can look forward to, a short scene between Harry and Snape prior to the big event. It'll be interesting to see how it plays to the audience. It should be a haunting moment for Harry."

Although many things in the book must be changed or omitted due to time constraints, Kloves said he worked to ensure that the film makers stayed true to the characters.