This Harry Potter has a sister named Wendy and may also be spun off as a 36-episode animated TV series.
By FilmStew Staff, FilmStew.com
A lot has changed since the movie Troll hit theaters in 1986. For one thing, back then, the Internet was still known as the ARPANET and was used primarily as a method of communication by scientists and government officials.
Today of course, the Internet is tapped into just about every household on the planet, enabling the director and producers of a belated remake of the adventures of (the other) Harry Potter to try and do their principal casting electronically. Teenagers who think they have what it takes to play the 12-year-old hero of the remake (or his sister Wendy) can download sides via the social networking site ShareNow.com and have until June 1st, 2008 to submit their audition tapes. Actors for both roles will be selected by July 15th.
The first posted audition script for Harry Potter Jr. has him playing a wizards game on his GameBoy while riding in the back of a car. But it is the second posted audition script that smacks of the more famous Harry Potter, with Jr. wielding a staff and being told by his fellow adventurers that he holds the world's fate in his hands.
In the wake of stern warnings from Warner Bros. to the filmmakers about keeping the pair of Potter's distinct, a whopper of a disclaimer adorns all elements of the casting call: today's press release, the ShareNow.com welcome page, etc. It ends with the words, 'The characters Harry Potter Sr. and Harry Potter Jr. as they appear in Troll are not related to - or inspired by - the book and film character of J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. Harry Potter and his family all appeared as characters in the original 1986 motion picture Troll, which was independently created and distributed before J.K. Rowling's first book was written and published.'
Says Troll producer Steve Waterman (Casper, Stuart Little, Alvin and the Chipmunks): "We are also pursuing the development of a 36-episode animated cartoon series. A line of toys and games is to be produced, based on all of the original characters from the Troll films, and the animated series would seem to be natural by producers of both the picture and the TV series."
Adds original and upcoming remake writer-director John Carl Buechler: "I was always a little disappointed that we could never give the original picture and its characters the full scope that I had originally envisioned. Due to budgetary restrictions, much of the action in the film had to be relegated to dialogue, and pretty much played for laughs. This time around we will be able to see the original characters with all the magic I had created."
In Theaters 
