With the impending release of 'Deathly Hallows — Part 1,' the makers of the blockbuster series look back on what a rival calls 'the best-managed franchise that we've ever seen, top to bottom.'
On a sticky June night just outside London, the magic finally came to an end for the cast and crew of the "Harry Potter" movies. After a decade together, the small army that has been the busiest in British filmmaking wrapped the final shoot of the last "Potter" production.
The green-screen scene featuring the now world-famous main characters — a trio of young fugitive wizards named Harry, Ron and Hermione — required actors Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson to hurl themselves onto some off-camera mats to escape danger at the Ministry of Magic. It was an oddly slapstick finish for such a monumental franchise — but that didn't sap the emotion of the moment.
"I admit it, I did cry like a little girl," Radcliffe said, recalling the day. "There was a feeling that I had, that we all had, that it was the end of something very special."
It's doubtful that pop culture will ever see a phenomenon quite like this sprawling tale that for a decade cast a spell on the page, the screen and beyond. The fantasy epic begins its Hollywood fade-out Nov. 19 with the release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1" and finishes next summer with the eighth film, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2."
