NEWS > ENTERTAINMENT >TWITTER TO REPLACE OWLS IN NEW HARRY POTTER MOVIE

TWITTER TO REPLACE OWLS IN NEW HARRY POTTER MOVIE

April 18 2009

West Hertfordshire, England – Occasionally entertainment properties come along that grip the public’s consciousness and seem to never let go. Even more occasionally two such properties join forces to bring together two groups of fans in a kind of creative fusion. If rumours prove to be true, such a thing may be happening with two of the biggest entertainment entities of the last decade as Harry Potter and Twitter join forces.

The almost ubiquitous success of the Harry Potter books and films over the last decade has made it one of the most formidable and inevitably enduring of entertainment properties ever created. With legions of rabid fans and billions of dollars in the bank, little more can be said about the franchise that hasn’t already been said. Twitter on the other hand is a relatively new property with no money in the bank, but it’s use by multiple celebrities and it’s ever growing mindshare with the public point to a very bright future. Now it appears that Harry Potter will join the Twittering phenomenon that has taken over celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Oprah Winfrey as filmmakers look to replace the iconic owls with Tweets in the final movies in the series.

“It may seem anathema to Harry Potter fans but it makes perfect sense to fuse these two properties. The growing power of Twitter shows to many that it is not simply a flash in the pan kind of thing. I mean Oprah is using it. Ashton Kutcher is one thing but Oprah is something else entirely,” said Scrape TV Entertainment analyst Tracey Temple. “There’s also the bird connection. Owls and the birds of Twitter have an innate connection; one might even say a supernatural or magical connection that really can’t be denied. I think it’s fair to say that if Twitter had been around when J.K. Rowling was
first writing the novels she would never have used owls in the first place.”

Owls have long been associated with witchcraft so their inclusion in the series was long scene as a natural part of the mythos surrounding the storyline of the young wizards. Reportedly Ashton Kutcher’s success in gaining 1 million Twitter followers has inspired the change that has prompted filmmakers to go back and reshoot scenes for the already in production two part ‘Harry Potter and Deathly Hollows’.

“It’s not uncommon for productions to go back and reshoot scenes because someone has come up with a better idea. It is a little unusual
for a series to change its basic mythology midstream but other franchises like say ‘The Matrix’ did that quite successfully,” continued Temple. “Harry Potter is used to
change. They completely changed Dumbledore as an example and sure that was because of a death, but it shows that they aren’t afraid to make a change even if it upsets the fans. They very well could have recreated Richard Harris with CGI or pushed for a delayed burial but they made the hard decision that ultimately ended up being the right one and they may have done the same thing here.”

Some though aren’t as happy about the replacement of
the owls, seeing as a continuation of the prejudice that has plagued the animals for centuries.

“Owls have always been the most misunderstood of the animal kingdom and we felt that the Harry Potter franchise did wonderful things for the bird. Now it appears that
even they don’t regard Owls with any kind of real interest or compassion as they are perfectly content to just throw them overboard in favour of the newest and hottest
thing,” said a spokesperson for U.K. based ‘The Royalty Society for the Protection of Birds’ (RSPB). “Owls are a magnificent and glorious bird and this aggression towards this animal is not only totally unwarranted but criminal. We cannot and will not allow companies like Warner Brothers to exploit birds for their own financial well being any longer. We will continue the fight until we win.”

Reportedly all the characters in the two new movies will carry the equally trendy iPhones which they will use to send tweets amongst each other. Scrape TV News attempted to contact Twitter for comment but our questions were more than 140 characters long and could not be sent.          

Samantha Dryden, Entertainment Correspondent    

NEWS > ENTERTAINMENT >TWITTER TO REPLACE OWLS IN NEW HARRY POTTER MOVIE

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