"Ladies alemen, today we are live from the red carpet of the premiere of [Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]. My name is Kristie Dougs and we are waiting for the cast of the film to arrive," a brue middle-aged woman wearing a champagne-colored dress spoke on a mic.

  In the background, hordes of fans were shouting and waving their hands frantically, trying to get into the frame of the camera, but most were unsuccessful in that endeavor.

  "Let's talk to a few of the fans of the books to see their reas," Kristie said while walking towards the closest group of fans.

  "Hello," Kristie politely greeted a young girl around 13 years of age who had mao gain the front spot in the crowd. "Tell us your name."

  "Hi!" The young girl squeaked out nervously. "I'm Jacqueline."

  "Why are you here tonight, Jacqueline?" Kristie asked.

  "To see Troy, of course," the girl didn't even have to think. "He is so cute in [The Sixth Sense] and the trailer of this film. I loved the first [Harry Potter] book so I was hoping to get lucky with a ticket tonight."

  Kristie smiled at the young girl. "It is indeed your lucky day, Jacqueline, because I just happen to have two tickets for the premiere that you watch live with Troy Armitage in the audiehe reporter hahe young girl an envelope that had two tickets to the premiere.

  Jacqueline screamed at the top of her lungs in delight at that news while clutg the envelope tightly.

  Suddenly, Kristie stopped from moving forward to other fans as she received the news in her earpiece. She turowards the camera, "It seems one of our stars has arrived for the premiere. Let's see who it is."

  The camera panned over to the car that had stopped just before the red carpet and out came a beautiful young girl with wavy brown locks.

  "And it is her than Emma Watson, the young new actress who pys Hermione Granger," Kristie announced, which led to screams of "Emma" and "Hermione" chorusing among the fans.

  Emma walked through the crowd, waving to the fans of the book series and signing a few autographs before posing for a few photos. Kristie waited patiently as Emma made her way towards her on the way to the theater.

  "Hello, Emma," Kristie greeted enthusiastically. "I'm Kristie."

  "Hi, Kristie," Emma greeted back.

  "So, Emma, your first film. Are you excited?"

  "Very. More than that, I'm a little nervous," she fessed. "I don't know how Troy ha all so… naturally."

  Sensing the direma had iently chosen, Kristie pounced on it. "And how did you find w with Troy?"

  "He is the best person to py [Harry Potter]," Emma said meticulously. "He is so helpful and good o. It was my first film, and he helped me through every se I had trouble with. I couldn't have asked for a better co-star."

  "That's good to know, Emma," Kristie smiled at the young girl. "Without taking too much of your time, I'll let you proceed to the premiere."

  Emma nodded with a smile before doily that. Kristie went baeeting different cast members of the film. Maggie Smith, An Ri, and Robbie Coltrane came one by one, and everyone had hings to say about the produ. As they usually do.

  "Our arrival is Hermione's partner in crime, Ron Weasley, pyed by Jamie Bell," Kristie announext.

  Jamie came into the se with a big smile etched on his face. His naturally dark hair was a stark trast to the ginger head he is seen sp in the posters and the trailer.

  "Hey, Jamie," Kristie greeted the young man and asked him the same question she had asked Emma. "Excited for the film?"

  "Very," Jamie replied in a cracked voice. Seems like someone was going through puberty.

  "So, what do you think about the film? Will it be a hit?"

  Jamie looked around at the croas still shouting and waving at him. "I think so."

  "So, how was your experience w with Emma and Troy?"

  "Emma is very sweet," Jamie replied. "We bicker a lot o, but it's all in good fun. Troy is the closest thing I have to a brother. He is such a good actor and alatient with me whenever I get a se wrong. We usually py video games together and have lots of fun on and off set."

  "What do you do off-set besides video games? Anything particur you'd like to share?" Kristie asked, sensing a story there.

  "This oime, Emma and I had a sleepover at Troy's pce. We pyed games into the night, and the day o, all three of us fell asleep. Chris bus, our director, scolded us for that a lot," Jamie chuckled, remembering good times.

  "Well, I'm sure you must have had fun. All the best for the movie, Jamie," Kristie wished him luck.

  "Thank you," he beamed back before moving into the theater.

  Kristie weled a few more actors like Michael Gambon and some kid actors with supp roles like Tom Felton and Matthew Lewis before weling the director of the film, Chris bus. If there was ohing Kristie noticed in tonight's interviews, it was how almost everyone unanimously praised Troy. Speaking with them, she couldn't help but wonder how good of a person this Troy must be to have everyone ed around his fingers so masterfully.

  "And finally, the moment everyone is waiting for has arrived. Please wele the star of the film, Oscar-winning actor, Troy Armitage!"

  As soon as Troy came into view in his fiailored suit, the crowd went bonkers. Literal screams and shouts permeated the very air outside the theater. Troy spent a good ten minutes shaking hands and signing autographs. He even posed for a few quick photos. Thankfully, his bodyguard was right behind him to save him from some of the over-enthusiastis.

  "Troy! So o finally meet you," Kristie shook Troy's hand. Instead of a normal handshake, as she was expeg, the boy turned her hand and pced a chaste kiss on the back.

  "o meet you too," he said politely, and right in that instant, Kristie knew what made this boy better than other kids his age. He may look like a kid, but his demeanor was mature. She found it hard to believe that this was the same kid who starred in [The Sixth Sense] with all his ess.

  "Oh my," Kristie feigned shyness. "You'll make me blush."

  "Give me a few more years and I will," Troy joked back, and Kristie couldn't help but ugh at the boy's fidence.

  "So, how has your experience been w on this film?" Kristie asked the maiion.

  "It was a dream e true," Troy replied. "I fell in love with the books as soon as I read them a few years ago. Never in my wildest fantasies had I imagihat I would py [Harry Potter]."

  Kristie nodded, indulging. "Who is your favorite person ohe director? Any of your co-stars?"

  "That's easy, my Dad," Troy smiled mischievously, and Kristie immediately realized her mistake. Of course, his dad was the producer and the swriter of the film. Before she could correct her mistake, Troy said, "I think I spent a lot of time with the fans and should go in now."

  "All the best for the film, Troy," she gave her parting words, and Troy went in after giving her a heartfelt thanks.

  (Break)

  I wish I could say that the quality of the film was a big surprise for me. It wasn't. The film was very simir to what I remembered from my first time around. The only big difference was the ge of some actors, including me. Sihe first film has very few deviations from the first book in both timelihe film came out more or less the same. The CGI was a big improvement from what I remembered. Flight ses looked effortless, while other ses, like fighting with the troll, also looked less gimmicky than the first time around.

  All in all, I was happy to say that my involvement didn't diminish the value of the film, and I was relieved to know that. I had this intense fear in my mind that somehow my presence would spoil my favorite film franchise forever. Thankfully, it didn't.

  Even if the release time lessehe box office colle of the first movie, I wouldn't be sad. Not that I wahe film to bomb, but that was impossible. It had a rabid fahroughout the world, and it will only grow as years pass and more people read the books. That's the magic of [Harry Potter]. Even if I retire from ag after these eight movies, I would be tent with my life because a full geion of kids would remember me their entire lives.

  "Troy!" Mum shook me from my daydream. "You're ag weird."

  "Huh?" I asked intelligently.

  "Thought so," Mum shook her head. "The film's over. It's time for some media questions."

  "Ugh!" I groaned out loud. "I have been doing that for days already."

  "Just tonight," Mum promised. "No more press ju for you tomorrow onwards. Remember that the sed film will begin shooting in three days, so you rest till then."

  That sounded very tempting.

  "Alright," I caved. "Just tonight."

  (Break)

  I didn't eveo withe phenomenon that was [Harry Potter] with real fans because I was ba set just a few days ter to begin w on [The Chamber of Secrets]. Also, it would be weird if I were to watch it with fans, only to get mobbed because somenizes me. Adult actors easily blend in using rge hats and goggles, which just look stupid on kids. And, I do have a very reizable face, or so I'm told.

  This time around, the script of [The Chamber of Secrets] was a little different from what I remembered. For ohis script was written by Eric Roth, a swriter who had worked on many accimed scripts like [Forrest Gump] and [The Insider]. The best part about Eric was that he didn't act affronted when I made some suggestions to the script.

  (Fshback)

  "Why do you wao add more bonding ses between Harry and Ron?" He looked genuinely curious as he asked me face-to-fa respoo the e-mail I had sent him a few days ago. I hadn't expected him to e all the way over to the set of [Artificial Intelligeo talk to me about it. It helped that he was based out of LA, where I was shooting at the moment.

  "Have you read the test released [Goblet of Fire] book?" I asked.

  "Of course," he said matter-of-factly. "It's the best book in the series so far with that Shoour ard everything."

  I blinked owlishly before asking, "You watime?"

  He grinned before raising his hands in surrender, "Guilty."

  I nodded slowly, taking in that fact before saying, "If you have read the book, you'll know what will happen with Ron when he abandons Harry. In the book, Ron has a lot of s time, and readers will five him for doing what he did. But movie watchers who haven't read the book will hate him forever. So I want you to make him the best character you from the seovie itself. I don't want you to give him a lot of extra lines, just small things like Harry and Ron doing silly things that best friends do together. It will serve the dual purpose of adding humor and making Ron's character more human. People should ugh with him, not at him. So much so, that his betrayal shouldn't just hurt Harry, but all the audieg it."

  I got the idea from a se I remembered from [Half-Blood Prince] where Harry and Ron were fighting over a book in Slughorn's . It erfect se to show their friendship. If such ses are sprihroughout the sed and third movies, then it would be perfeake Ron a more lovable character.

  I always felt that the movies did Ron a great injustice by showing only his bad sides, and not the good ones. It made sense in a way because movies had limited s time, and Rupert Grint wasn't the best of actors. I still remember watg a few behind-the-ses clips, and Grint was rebuked by his directors all the time fgling while shooting. Maybe it was for the best that Jamie ying Ron this time.

  "Okay," Eric agreed. "I'll see what I do. Now, what is this about developing Harry and Ginny's retionship? Do you perhaps know something that you shouldn't?"

  I grinned as I gave him my sed idea, "I talked to Rowling, and while she didn't say it out loud, she has strongly hihat Harry and Ginny would bee an item somewhere around the sixth book."

  "Seriously?" Eric stood up abruptly from the chair he was occupying in my trailer. "Why the heck didn't she tell that to me when I asked?"

  "I have my ways," I said mysteriously. "If you go and ask her now, she'll probably deny saying that to me, but this is legit firmed news."

  "Holy…" Eric paused mid-curse. "That ges a lot of things about how I would approach their iion in the film. Thank you, Troy. I will make the necessary ges to the spy as per ygestions."

  (Fshbad)

  (Break)

  [Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone] opened iers on November 3, 2000, alongside [Charlie's Angels] starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu, and [The Legend of Bagger Vaarring Will Smith, Matt Damon, and Charlize Theron. Of the three films, [The Philosopher's Stone] had the biggest budget at 125 million, but the other films weren't cheap by any measure. [Charlie's Angels] cost 93 million with Sony bia behind them, while [The Legend of Bagger Vance] cost 80 million, financed and distributed by DreamWorks. So one would think that a kid's film like [Harry Potter] would e out third behind bankable stars like Will Smith and Cameron Diaz, right? Wrong. There was one phenomenon behind the success of [Harry Potter] that would ge the movie industry forever: Intellectual Property.

  [The Legend of Bagger Vance] was a very average film based on a book of the same name, sg only a 43% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic rating of 47/100. With critics calling the spy bnd, full of bad characters and ft dialogues, people weren't very ied in watg the film. It helped that they had a lot of good alternatives avaible in the form of critically approved films. It had a very mediocre opening of just 7.5 million.

  [Charlie's Angels] was an above-average film, with a rating of 68% on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic rating of 52/100. It was based on an old TV show of the same hat inally aired in the US from 1976 to 1981 and already had a dedicated fan following. It was being hailed as the feminist movie of the year showing 'female empowerment'. Moreover, word of mouth was good and, as a result, it had a bumper opening of 35 million. For a female-led movie, that was a very good opening.

  Then there was [Meet the Parents], which had already grossed more than a hundred million at the US Box Office. This weekend, the film grossed 9 million, which was very good sidering this was the film's fifth weekend.

  Unfortunately for all these films, the champion of the week and many weeks to e was her than [Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stohe film had a staggering 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 7.8, while Metacritic gave it a score of 72 out of 100, indig 'generally favorable' reviews. Not only that, audiences surveyed by emaScave it a rating of 'A+' on an A+ to F scale, which is the highest score possible and achieved by only 33 films to date. That, along with the ret Oscar win of its lead actor, created a lot of buzz about the film. Not to mention the warm reception that the people had given to [The Sixth Seroy's performan particur.

  The film's success wasn't just due to the hype surrounding Troy Armitage. The adaptation of J.K. Rowling's beloved book series captured the imagination of audiences worldwide. The magical world of Hogwarts brought to life with state-of-the-art special effects and a stelr cast, resonated with both fans of the books and newers to the franchise. The meticulous attention to detail in recreating the Wizarding World, bined with a faithful adhereo the source material, earhe film accodes from critid fans alike.

  Furthermore, the marketing campaign for [The Philosopher's Stone] was a mastercss in building anticipation. From teaser trailers that revealed just enough to spark curiosity, to merdise that included everything from a figures to repliagical artifacts, the film was om in the months leading up to its release. The involvement of Warner Bros., with its extensive resources and marketing prowess, ehat [Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone] was not just a movie, but a.

  As the weeks passed, the film tio domihe box office, breaking records aing new benchmarks for fantasy films. Its success proved that well-executed adaptations of beloved literary works could not only succeed but thrive in the petitive movie industry. [Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone] was more than a movie. It was the beginning of a cultural phenomenon that would shape the eai ndscape for years to e.

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