Harry Potter actors look to the future - My Take on the Series and Movies as a Whole

Harry Potter actors look to the future

Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint talk Half-Blood Prince, Hallows and the future

By Tim Masters Entertainment correspondent, BBC News

With filming on the final two parts of the Harry Potter series under way, the young actors who have grown up on the set and become global superstars are now considering their next steps.

We asked them whether it would be a case of deathly silence after the Deathly Hallows...

The child actors were cast in the summer of 2000

As you might expect, Daniel Radcliffe - who has kept busy on both film and stage projects in between playing Harry - laughs off the idea that the rest of his life might be an anti-climax.

"No man, I've got kids to have yet!" he says excitedly, despite nursing a sore throat on the cold, cavernous film set at Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire.

"They're going to keep me busy if I do - which I hope I do at some point. I'm not planning on it soon - that's one of the things I'm really looking forward to doing."

The 20-year-old adds: "What's been cool is that I've been here when a lot of people here have had kids while on the film, and I've seen the change it's made in their life and how amazing it is."

His co-star Rupert Grint, 21, who plays Ron Weasley, says he has no doubt that Harry Potter will be the "biggest thing" he will be involved with.

"I make the most of it and enjoy it," he says.

Tom Felton on filming the saga's final films, what his future holds and how he has never seen Star Wars

"It is quite scary when this all ends because we're stepping out into the real world - it is quite a bubble I suppose, we've had these films to do every year and it's become quite a routine.

"I'm definitely going to miss it. It's been a great 10 years. I am quite keen to move on and see what else is out there."

Grint, speaking at the launch of the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince DVD, says he is interested in more parts like the "bad boy" role he gets to play in his forthcoming movie Cherrybomb.

The coming-of-age drama premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, but failed to find a distributor.

Fans set up an online petition for its release, and producers now say a distribution deal has been signed, and the Belfast-set movie should be in cinemas in 2010.

I think it's just because I'm ginger they throw me into the frame Rupert Grint

"It's nice because it's so different," says Grint. "That's what attracted me to it - it wasn't really a conscious thing to move away.

"It was really fun to be on a different set and experience a whole different budget - it was quite a shock. I really enjoyed it and hopefully I will get to do more films like that."

He dismisses press speculation that he's in the running to play Prince Harry in a film called The Spare that's due to shoot next year.

"I think it's just because I'm ginger they throw me into the frame, but I haven't really heard anything about it," he says.

Actress Emma Watson, 19, who plays Hermione Granger, began studying at an American university in September, though she hasn't ruled out acting projects out of term-time.

Fellow actress Bonnie Wright, 18, has just begun a degree course in film and TV in London. She has played Ron's sister Ginny Weasley since the first film in 2001.

Personally I think a greater project is out there Bonnie Wright

Speaking on the set at Leavesden, she points out that she's spent more than half of her life working on Harry Potter.

"Although it has been massive," she says, "personally I think a greater project is out there. That's what makes me keep working, knowing that there's this project out there that I'm yet to do."

David Heyman, who has produced all of the Harry Potter films, is confident that the global stars that he's helped create will go on to further success.

"They've had a good structure here and at home, they are pretty solid kids," he says.

"They are going to go and have great fun - they are going to have great success. I'm sure they will thrive."

He adds: "I think they all know I'm here to support them, and if they ever want a chat I'll be there for them.

"Ultimately they've got to leave the fold and take flight - and I know they will."

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is out on DVD on 7 December

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Commentary

I loved the books and re-read the 3rd, 4th, and 5th books to get ready for the 6th and 7th ones. What's funny is i started by reading the 3rd book after seeing the first 2 movies. Then I read the 4th book and then the 5th. After a while I went back and read the first and second book and decided to reread the series continuing onwards to prepare for the newest 6th book.

The movie that is truest to the books is probably the 2nd one, Chamber of Secrets, which follows the book almost to the tee. My favorite book is probably the 4th one, Goblet of Fire. That's really the climax of the story and where it becomes an adult book.

My favorite movie was probably the 3rd one because of the overall feel and the creepiness we really don't witness again in any of the other movies.

The actors are great and the best actor hands down is the one who plays Ron; Rupert Grint I think his name is. He feels so natural on camera and everything seems so unscripted.

My favorite character in the series is probably either Hermione or Hagrid. Snape was definitely the most interesting one.

I hope all these actors do really well in the future and I wish them all the best. I also hope the writer of Harry potter starts up a new series that has nothing to do with Harry or magic.

Obama 'to lay out Afghan exit plan for US troops'

Support for the Afghan mission among the US public has been falling

President Barack Obama is to tell the American people that US troops will start to leave Afghanistan within three years, a senior official has said.

He will outline the rough withdrawal plan in a speech to the nation, when he will also announce a rapid six-month deployment of 30,000 extra troops.

Mr Obama has also asked Nato allies to send up to 10,000 more combat soldiers.

But France has refused, while Germany postponed any decision. The UK has agreed to send 500 more soldiers.

In Tuesday evening's much-anticipated speech at West Point military academy, Mr Obama will outline how his troop surge will take on the Taliban.

MARDELL'S AMERICA The danger for the president is that this middling figure will annoy hawks, while annoying those who think any new build-up is undesirable Read Mark's thoughts in full

A senior administration official told AP news agency President Obama would tell the American people that US troops will start leaving Afghanistan "well before" his first term ends in 2012.

The US currently has 68,000 troops in Afghanistan, with foreign forces overall totalling more than 100,000.

A senior Pentagon official told the BBC the new troops would be made up of 9,000 Marines and 21,000 regular soldiers, including trainers.

Mr Obama has reached his deployment decision after more than three months of deliberations and 10 top-level meetings with advisers.

The BBC's Paul Adams in Washington says for all the sense of deeper engagement, this hugely important speech will also be about how the US president intends to get out of Afghanistan.

The rising violence - more than 900 US soldiers have died in Afghanistan - and the chaos that followed August's discredited elections have fanned mounting American opposition to the eight-year-old war.

OBAMA's SCHEDULE 2100 GMT: Meets Congressional leaders at White House 2230 GMT: Departs for West Point, New York 0100 GMT Weds: Address to the nation 0340 GMT Weds: Arrives back at the White House Marines train for Afghanistan Afghans sceptical on new troops Mixed feelings in Afghanistan

Earlier this year, the US military commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, warned America risked failure unless troop numbers were increased. He requested 40,000 more soldiers.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told MSNBC on Tuesday: "This is not an open-ended commitment, what we are doing is putting forward a comprehensive strategy and an end-game in Afghanistan."

He said the deployment would be accelerated to "deliver a punch quickly".

The US president has outlined the new military strategy to Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai. He is also thought to have briefed the leaders of Russia, France, Britain, Germany and China.

The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says that while the speech will probably receive a cautious welcome from the Afghan government, many people in the country do not want any more foreign forces.

They say every time America sends more troops the security situation gets worse, and some question why the US is spending billions of dollars on the military - and not on aid and reconstruction.

An unnamed Nato diplomat told AP news agency on Tuesday that President Obama had asked European allies to contribute between 5,000 and 10,000 new troops to Afghanistan.

But President Nicolas Sarkozy's special envoy to Afghanistan told AFP news agency that France had ruled out sending more troops, although he said Paris might send military trainers.

In Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel told a news conference Germany would wait until after a 28 January conference in London on Afghanistan before deciding on any troop increases.

Italy has also said it will increase its force, although without saying by how much.

On Monday, Britain confirmed it was sending 500 more troops, taking the UK's total deployment there to 10,000.

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Commentary

I honestly don't know what the right decision is. On one hand the Afghans don't want us there and believe us to be bullies. On the other hand, realistically we're all that stands in there way between actual anarchy.

On one hand we've bombed hundreds of innocent people with drone attacks and enraged large parts of the country. On the other hand we've helped to stem the tide of the Taliban and train thousands of Afghan security forces.

But one of the most important facts here is that America can not afford the bill for Afghanistan, plain and simple.

So what do we do? Leave a country we're hated in and save billions of dollars we can invest in Healthcare? Stay in a country where we keep order and stability and reap the benefits of our labor maybe 2 decades or more onward?

As my friend once told me, "You don't have to have a position on everything." He's right. You assume you have all the facts in every case which I obviously don't.

On Afghanistan I'm completely clueless as to the answer and steps we should take. Obama's middle of the road approach seems proper and seems to support the Hawks and the Peace lovers.

At least in 2012 we'll be out of both wars and back in our country. Lets hope Iraq and Afghanistan can stand strong like Vietnam did.

Information goes out to play

SOURCE: David McCandless

Serious information used to be relayed in words, graphs and charts - pictures were just pretty window dressing. That's all changing, says David McCandless. E-mails. News. Facebook. Wikipedia. Do you ever feel there's just too much information? Do you struggle to keep up with important issues, subject and ideas? Are you drowning in data? In this age of information overload, a new solution is emerging that could help us cope with the oceans of data surrounding and swamping us. It's called information visualisation. The approach is simple: apply the rules of visual design to information - make information into images, rather than text. So, instead of listing the mind-boggling billions spent by governments, show them graphically - like The Billion Dollar O Gram image at the top of the page. The image arose out of a frustration with the reporting of billion dollar amounts in the media. They're reported as self-evident facts, when, in fact, they're mind-boggling and near incomprehensible without context. Or, in another example, instead of explaining the connection between say, mercury and the influenza jab, depict it visually. SOURCE: David McCandless And instead of leaving your data just sitting in a spreadsheet, let it out to play - use it to structure a visual image. Obvious but effective - telling geographical stories using maps Enlarge Image I've spent the last year exploring the potential of information visualisation for my website and a book. I've taken loads of information and made it into simple, colourful and, hopefully, beautiful "visualisations" - bubble charts, concept maps, blueprints and diagrams - all with the minimum of text. I don't just mean data and statistics. I love doing this with all kinds of information - ideas, issues, stories - and for all subjects from pop to philosophy to politics. Personally, I find visualisations great for helping me understand the world and for sifting the huge amounts of information that deluge me every day. Instant overview - troops in Afghanistan Enlarge Image I love information. I want to stay current. I don't want to be under-informed. But I'm busy. Sometimes, I need an instant overview of a situation that I can grasp in a second. But this is not a new subject. Information Design has been around since the 1970s. Pioneers like Yale University design guru Edward Tufte and design agency Pentagram have long known and used its power. But now with the rise of the internet, it's having something of a second birth. Seeing patterns emerge Enlarge Image Today, there's huge amounts of data out there. Visualisation helps spot important patterns in this data that might otherwise be missed. Already governments are seeing the potential. The American and Australian governments are fast democratising their data and releasing it for free to the public. As an added incentive, they're offering massive cash prizes for the best visualisations. The UK government plans to follow this example in December by opening up all its data for public perusal. They feel it could improve accountability and transparency. Disease Case Fatality Rates Enlarge Image It may also just be enjoyable to see information, rather than read it. In an endless jungle of websites with text-based content, a beautiful image with a lot of space and colour can be like walking into a clearing. It's a relief. So how is it done? A wide variety of online tools are emerging which can help those without design experience to start playing with visualisation. Wordle is a popular tool [See internet links, above-right, for this and other links]. It allows you to make 'word clouds' out of the most frequent words in a document. SOURCE: David McCandless ManyEyes, from IBM, is another great site which auto-generates bubble charts, semantic maps and other types visualisations out of spreadsheets and data that you upload. Beyond the internet, artists and programmers are using information as an artistic material to create amazing pieces of art, films and even real life objects. Leading the charge of this "information art" movement are people like Aaron Koblin who directed Radiohead's generative video House Of Cards, visualisation guru Ben Fry and Marius Watz who creates real life objects out of financial data. Simultaneously, on an even more experimental level, companies are beginning to use information visualisations to overlay or "augment" reality. Data from the web can now be graphically superimposed over a view of a real life space via your phone's camera. When performed in real-time, this creates a mixed or augmented reality. Games companies are already using the technique to hide virtual worlds on top of reality. It's all getting a bit sci-fi, I think all this is a sign of the times. In a subtle but steady way we're all becoming visualisers now. Daily exposure to the internet is creating an incredibly visually literate generation. We're looking at visual design and information visualisation every day. (Or, if you're like me, every minute of every day). So we're used to having, and we're demanding, information in colourful, designed, visual forms. In comparison, reading text like this, in linear paragraphs and columns, can seem pretty dour. Like watching black and white TV. There can be a directness and clarity to visual information that cuts through the noise, the smoke, and the walls of information around us. It can help us zoom in and see what really matters. Or what might be being hidden from us. And that, I think, is beautiful. Information is Beautiful will be published in the UK by Collins in February. It is published as The Visual Miscellaneum in the US by HarperCollins.

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Commentary

I've been looking at visual Data for a long time now and I've enjoyed it tremendously. Here are some great sites to check out if you love visual Data:

http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/
http://chartporn.org/
http://www.mint.com/blog/
http://www.wallstats.com/deathandtaxes/
http://www.wallstats.com/blog/visualizing-one-billion-dollars/

Wallstats is a very good site and the links above goes to their greatest charts. One shows you where your taxes are going and the other helps you visualize a billion dollars.

http://www.gapminder.org/videos/

Gapminder is an AMAZING site where tons of amazing videos of interactive working charts are on display. They even offer their interactive chart for free!
Here is the interactive chart: http://graphs.gapminder.org/world/

Enjoy those sites and keep your eye on the look out for more like the above.
Visual data is the wave of the future.

Georgia concerned by 'link between gambling and drugs'

With just weeks to go until a controversial new law on casinos takes effect in Georgia, health workers in the capital, Tbilisi, say they have uncovered a worrying link between gambling and drug addiction. Tom Esslemont reports.

Gia Shengelia finds gambling a much stronger addiction than drugs

It's the middle of the afternoon and Tbilisi's busiest casino, the Ajara, is already packed with gamblers.

It is full of grizzled chain-smoking men. They sit hunched at tables under gaudy crystal chandeliers chatting over the din of lounge music and the constant whirl of roulette wheels.

Managers at the Ajara say they receive 1,100 clients every day.

Gia Shengelia has just embarked on another night in search of luck. He takes a long drag on his cigarette before telling me that gambling is not his only addiction.

"Gambling is a much stronger drug than real narcotics," he says. "I used to take all kinds of hard drugs. You can stop using drugs - like I did - but it is impossible to stop gambling."

Gia, 55, says it took him years to give up drugs: Others are finding it equally hard.

Fees slashed

Across town, therapists at the Anti Violence Network - one of the city's best known drugs NGOs - say the gaming trend is fuelling the city's drugs problem. And the new law, they say, could make the problem worse.

From 1 January 2010, licence fees for new casinos will be slashed from as high as $3m (£1.8m) to as little as zero in designated locations.

Worries over Georgia gambling

Drug counsellor Manana Solokhashvili says that will be bad news for the clients of her drop-in clinic and for the 13% of Georgians who are officially unemployed.

"The problem faced by gambling addicts and drug addicts is the same," she says. "The disease is addiction. More than 90% of the people who come to our clinic looking for therapy are addicted to both."

The new law will encourage more people to fall on harder times, rather than encourage them to try to find a job, she adds.

Statistics show there are 270,000 drug users in Georgia, which has a population of 4.3 million.

Popular pastime

Soso, one of Ms Solokhashvili's patients who says he is in his thirties, says gambling perpetuated his drug habit.

Had I stopped gambling I would have stopped using drugs sooner Soso Former drug and gambling addict

"If I hadn't gambled I would have seen things differently," he says. "The addiction is the same. Had I stopped gambling I would have stopped using drugs sooner."

You don't have to spend much time in the streets of Tbilisi to realise how popular gambling is in this society.

Although there are only three casinos in the city, there are more than 300 amusement arcades.

In one central street the colourful hoardings of five or six of them light up the street with their bright red and yellow neon lights advertising their alluring names - Las Vegas, Jackpot, Monte Carlo.

Few of them will let me in, largely because the managers say they are angry at being portrayed in the media as drugs havens and crime spots.

After some negotiating the manager of Maxi Slot club - who asks to be called Irakli - accepts the offer of an interview.

State income

Inside the dingy room there are a dozen slot machines, where a couple of young men are busy trying their luck.

We want to see more tourists not only come to Tbilisi but to our Black Sea towns too. That is why we have dramatically cut casino start-up costs Lasha Tordia United National Movement

I ask Irakli whether he thinks he has a responsibility towards young people, given the allegations made by the Anti Violence Network.

"People come here for entertainment or maybe to win money," he says. "It has nothing to do with drugs. In any case, one business leader like me is not responsible for the whole trend.

"But, gambling is a good income for the state - so that's probably why the government wants to encourage it."

He has a point. Just as Georgia is liberalising its gambling laws, others in the region are tightening them.

Azerbaijan banned gambling in 1998. Armenia has also announced that it intends to restrict gaming to three regions. Earlier this year, Russia confined casinos to far-flung parts of the country.

No downside?

Clearly, the Georgian government has the economy in mind as it prepares to sign into law the amendments. It says its new legislation will attract foreign gaming companies and much-needed investment to less visited resorts and towns.

Some argue gambling provides a good income for the state

Lasha Tordia, a member of the ruling United National Movement, does not see a downside to the law.

"I personally don't see the link between gambling and drugs," he says. "What we are looking to do is encourage regional development.

"We want to see more tourists not only come to Tbilisi but to our Black Sea towns too. That is why we have dramatically cut casino start-up costs."

There is no proven link between Georgia's drugs culture and its people's gambling habits. Of course, the new law might sustain addictions like Gia's by simply offering more places and more towns in which to have a flutter.

But back at Tbilisi's most popular casino, no player looks ready to quit. As they fiddle nervously with their pink, brown and blue plastic gambling chips the spinning roulette wheels whirl round adding to the cacophonous, intoxicating atmosphere.

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Commentary

To say gambling isn't addictive is a mockery; it's a joke. Any lay man with experience who has live passed the age of 15 has seen the effects Gambling has had and will understand it's addictive nature.

Gambling is simply a tax on ignorance and a fools game. The rush of the win will ruin your life and will become as addictive as any drug out there on the market.

Don't take my word for it, ask an experienced gambler. Hear the truth from the mouth of the fallen. I'm simply a warner, hoping you don't fall for their trap. Now at least if you fall in the pit you can't say you weren't warned. Gambling is as much a drug as cigarettes.

Switzerland votes on Muslim minaret ban

By Imogen Foulkes BBC News, Berne, Switzerland

There are only four minarets in Switzerland

Swiss voters are going to the polls to decide on a proposal to ban the building of minarets in their country.

The proposal is backed by the Swiss People's Party, the largest party in parliament, and by Christian groups.

They say minarets would be the first sign of the Islamisation of Switzerland.

The Swiss government is urging voters to reject a ban. There are 400,000 Muslims in Switzerland, and just four minarets across the country.

Islam is the most widespread religion after Christianity, but it remains relatively hidden.

There are unofficial Muslim prayer rooms, and planning for new minarets is almost always refused.

The proposal is for a one-line addition to the Swiss constitution, stating that the construction of minarets is forbidden.

Supporters of a ban claim allowing minarets would represent the growth of an ideology and a legal system - Sharia law - which are incompatible with Swiss democracy.

I have a real problem with Islam, with the Islamic law, with the political and legal aspect of this religion Oskar Freysinger Swiss member of parliament Pointed argument

Opinion polls ahead of the vote are close, with signs that a small majority would reject the ban.

That would be a relief to the Swiss government which fears banning minarets would cause unrest among the Muslim community, and damage Switzerland's relations with Islamic countries.

Amnesty International has warned that the ban would violate Switzerland's obligations to freedom of religious expression.

Swiss Muslim Elham Manea points to the recent construction of Sikh temples and Serbian Orthodox churches and says a ban just on minarets is discriminatory.

"If you are telling me that we are going to ban all religious symbols from all religious buildings, I would not have a problem with that.

"But if you are just telling me that we are going to target only the Muslims, not the Christians, not the Jews, not the Sikhs, only the Muslims, then I have a problem with it because it is discrimination."

Muslim respect

Most of Switzerland's Muslims come from former Yugoslavia, and there is no history of Islamic extremism, but supporters of a ban say minarets are far more than religious architecture.

They claim allowing them would be a sign that Islamic law is accepted in Switzerland.

Member of parliament Oskar Freysinger rejects the charge of discrimination.

"The Muslims as normal human beings are worth my respect - it is not a problem.

"I have a real problem with Islam, with the Islamic law, with the political and legal aspect of this religion."

In recent years many countries in Europe have been debating their relationship with Islam, and how best to integrate their Muslim populations.

France focused on the headscarf; in Germany there was controversy over plans to build one of Europe's largest mosques in Cologne.

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Commentary

A true secular governments role with religion is neutrality, tolerance, and aloofness. When the state interferes with religion it starts clashes with large groups of people.

A governments job goes back to the social contract and trying to protect it's people and preserve their rights. Mingling in religion and amending the constitution to stop the creation of minarets does not protect the people NOR does it preserve the Swiss public's rights.

People don't believe in the slippery slope argument because it's often cast out as extreme and overplayed. But when France bans headscarves and the U.K and Germany stop the construction of Muslim churches(mosques), and you then hear of this constitutional amendment, you know something has slid down that slope and we're headed for more severe consequences.

Lets hope secularism is not being re-written into Anti-Theism. They are two completely separate ideologies.