Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Something evil has returned to Hogwarts!
Country
Production
Budget
$100 000 000
Revenue
$927 068 901
Director
Actors
Producer
David Heyman, Chris Columbus, Mark Radcliffe, David Barron, Michael Barnathan
Operator
Roger Pratt
Composer
Artist
Stuart Craig, Christopher Minos, Peter Dorme
Audition
Karen Lindsay-Stewart
Editing
Peter Honess
All team (197)
All team (197)
Short description
Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts for his second year, but the term begins badly. A house-elf named Dobby warns him that terrible things await him at the school and tries to keep him from going back. Harry ignores the warning, and soon strange attacks leave students petrified and a message written in blood on a wall announces that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened. With Ron and Hermione, he sets out to find who is responsible.
The film is the second adaptation of J. K. Rowling's novels, directed by Chris Columbus, the tenth of the seventeen features he has directed in chronological order, following the first instalment a year earlier. Steve Kloves wrote the screenplay and David Heyman produced. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson lead a cast of seventy-seven credited performers, among them Kenneth Branagh as the vain new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid, and Toby Jones as the voice of Dobby. It was a large production, with a budget of 100 million US dollars and a worldwide gross of 927 million.
Audience response has been consistently positive: on IMDb it holds 7.5 from around 761,000 votes and on TMDB 7.7 from roughly 24,000. The critics' rating of 7.3 from 236 reviews is close to those figures, so professional and general viewers broadly agree on the film.
What's left behind the scenes
- At the beginning of the final battle scene with the Basilisk, in the Chamber of Secrets, Tom Riddle (Voldemort) raises Harry Potter's wand and doesn't return it. After the battle with the Basilisk, when Harry Potter takes the diary from Ginny's hands and stabs it with the Basilisk fang, Tom Riddle begins to disappear emitting light; he does not have Harry Potter's wand in his hands, but in the next shot it is in his hands, and in the shot after that it's gone again.
- To get an idea of how unpleasant and repulsive his character should be, Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) rewatched scenes featuring Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) from the first film.
- Among the many portraits hanging throughout the school, you can also notice portraits of executive producer Mark Radcliffe and set decorator Stuart Craig.
- Filming began on November 19, 2001, three days after the release of the first film, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." The filming process was completed on July 26, 2002.
- The film's fake title, used to mislead fans and locals, was "Incident on 57th Street." This was the name of a popular Bruce Springsteen song written in 1973.
- The film was Richard Harris's last role; he passed away on October 25, 2002, three weeks before the film's release.
- In scenes where the school students were frozen, specially constructed life-size models were used instead of actors.
- All four of director Chris Columbus's children appear in cameo roles in the film. Eleanor Columbus, as in the first film, played Susan Bones, Brendan Columbus played a boy in the classroom doing homework, Violet Columbus played a little girl with flowers, and Isabella Columbus played a little girl in the bookstore.
- The film is based on J.K. Rowling's novel "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (1998).
- Ticket sales for the film began in Britain more than a month before the official premiere.
- To realistically depict knitting needles knitting in mid-air in the Weasley family home, one of the crew members convinced his mother to allow him to observe and film her knitting for several hours.
- The role of young Hagrid was played by the same actor who was used as his stunt double in all of the franchise's films. However, to ensure a better match, his voice was dubbed by Robbie Coltrane.
- Mr. Weasley's car is a Ford Anglia, the same color and model that J.K. Rowling and her best school friend drove many years ago. Thanks to memories of how the author drove it, the car made it onto the pages of the book, and then into the film.
- The role of Tom Riddle ultimately went to 23-year-old Christian Coulson, although only young men between the ages of 15 and 17 were invited to open auditions for it.
- The neighboring St Pancras railway station was actually used for filming the interior of King's Cross station. The producers felt its architecture looked more visually appealing.
- According to Daniel Radcliffe, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" is his favorite book in the Harry Potter series.
- 37-year-old Shirley Henderson, who played Moaning Myrtle, became the oldest performer to play any of the Hogwarts students.
- The only one of the first four Harry Potter films to receive no Academy Award nominations.
- To properly film the scene where Harry and Ron fly in the Weasley's car, fourteen Ford Anglia cars had to be completely wrecked.
- Due to commitments to other projects, John Williams was unable to fully complete the film's soundtrack. Composer-arranger William Ross was specifically invited to adapt John Williams' material and finish the music for the film. He subsequently conducted the orchestra during its recording.
- During the filming of scenes involving Dobby, the actors looked at and spoke to a tennis ball fixed to the end of a long wand, which indicated where the character should be at each moment, and which was later added using computer graphics.
- Hugh Grant was initially offered the role of Gilderoy Lockhart and gave a preliminary agreement, but later declined the offer due to commitments to other projects. The actor has since repeatedly expressed regret over his decision. After his refusal, the role could also have gone to Alan Cumming.
- The welcoming salute exchanged by Harry and Draco Malfoy before their duel is a slightly modified version of a fencing salute.
- The tapestries hanging in the Gryffindor common room are copies of a set of six Flemish tapestries, "The Lady and the Unicorn," dating from the late fifteenth century. The originals are currently located in the Cluny Museum in Paris.
- The line 'I'm certain Mr. Potter will always be around to save us,' spoken by Lucius Malfoy, was a complete improvisation by Jason Isaacs and Daniel Radcliffe.
- The license plate number of Mr. Weasley's car is 7990 TD.
- The scene in Flourish and Blotts bookstore was filmed on the same set as Ollivander's wand shop in the first film, but with altered decorations.
- The film's trailer appeared in cinemas along with the film 'Scooby-Doo' (2002). Many fans of the Harry Potter adventures bought tickets to this film solely to see the trailer on the big screen.
- Initially, the lead actor, Daniel Radcliffe, was offered a very modest fee of £125,000 (approximately $181,500). This injustice prompted the British actors' union to intervene, and after negotiations with their participation, the actor's salary was raised to £2 million (around $3 million).
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