Potter “prequel” nets £25,000

JK Rowling’s short story for charity raised £25,000 (that’s about $50,000) at an auction held at the Waterstone’s bookshop in Piccadilly, London. Not bad for 800 words. You can watch a BBC reporter read part of the story here.

The stories by JKR and the other authors who participated will be available starting June 11 at the Waterstone’s website. A print version of the stories will be for sale on August 7 from Waterstone’s.

In the Potterverse…

The short, handwritten prequel that JK Rowling penned for charity will be auctioned off today in London. The story features the misadventures of the Marauders and is set three years before the birth of Harry Potter. According to the BBC, the story ends with the words: “From the prequel I am not working on – but that was fun!”

The money from JKR’s story, plus those of Nick Hornby, Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Lauren Child, Sebastian Faulks, Tom Stoppard and Irvine Welsh will go to two charities — English PEN (an “international fellowship of writers, working together to promote literature and defend the freedom to write”) and Dyslexia Action.

In other news, Warwick Davis talks about his role as Professor Filius Flitwick.

McAvoy to get hairy feet?

Rumour has it that Guillermo Del Toro and Peter Jackson have agreed on their choice for the actor to play Bilbo Baggins in the upcoming Hobbit movies. But whether that actor is James McAvoy remains a source of speculation.

Meanwhile, no decision yet on whether Christopher Tolkien has been successful in his attempt to stop the production.

Finally, a few LOTR, SW and other sci-fi actors (including Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Natalie Portman, Leonard Nimoy, and Kristen Bell) are up for PETA UK’s Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity award.

Transformers 2 blowing stuff up in a neighbourhood near you

Or near Yav anyway. Footage for Michael Bay’s sequel to the wildly popular Transformers movie will be shot early next week on the deserted grounds of Bethlehem Steel.

Notices were sent to neighbors and nearby business owners Tuesday warning them about the upcoming noise, glare and road closures that will come along with the filming of one of the movie’s opening scenes, which will feature the computer-generated robots alongside Steel’s instantly-recognizable blast furnaces.

”It is essentially going to be a simulated war,” [Bethlehem mayor] Callahan said.

Practice explosions went off all throughout Yav’s yoga class this morning, shaking the building and making downward-facing dog slightly more challenging than usual.

The folks over at seibertron.com are discussing the whole thing at length and apparently have covert pictures.

More Hobbit

The Frodo Franchise’s Kristin Thompson discusses the recent online Q&A hosted by Weta and featuring Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro. A PDF file of the chat is available from the fine folks at Weta. There are hints about the mysterious “Film 2.”

Not so fast, Hobbit fans

Tolkien’s son is making one last-ditch effort to block the production of The Hobbit:

… at a hearing on June 6 Christopher Tolkien will ask a Californian judge to back his claim that he can “terminate” film rights to The Hobbit. He is said to be furious with the New Line studio, which earned £3 billion from the Rings trilogy. Tolkien’s lawyers accuse New Line of “accounting chicanery”. Warner Bros, owner of New Line, declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Jackson and del Toro are moving forward with production, announcing that Sir Ian McKellen will return as Gandalf the Grey, Andy Serkis will be back as Gollum, and that Viggo Mortensen has been asked to reprise his role as Aragorn (even though Aragorn wasn’t in The Hobbit).