The 'Harry Potter' sex scene
Are family audiences ready to see Daniel Radcliffe bare all in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"?
Harry Potter fans are abuzz this week with news that the final film installment, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," will likely include a dream sequence featuring Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Hermione (Emma Watson) in a "very sexy" nude scene. The film, slated for release in two parts -- the first opening in late 2010 -- includes "mature" content that director David Yates created exclusively for the big screen, while axing parts of author J.K. Rowling's original manuscript. Is it wrong to sex up a childhood icon like Harry Potter?
Potter is just taking cues from the competition: Next to the perpetually shirtless Twilight vampires, Harry Potter looks "a little staid," says Stuart Heritage in Britain's Guardian. By showing a little skin, Harry is just trying to keep up with the competition. Let's just hope this doesn't set a precedent for other big-screen adaptations of children's books — nobody wants to see "the Very Hungry Caterpillar's nipples."
"Harry Potter enters the Twilight zone"
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Showing Harry Potter nude is just wrong: Fans may be intrigued by celebritites baring all, says Charlotte Martin in Britain's The Sun, "but there are some stars we never want to see in that way." Harry Potter is one of them. Just yesterday Potter was a "wee lad waving his wand to cast spells" — it's far too soon to picture him waving his other "magic wand."
It's an amateurish move: It's no longer safe to assume that "just because these movies are made for children, they won't go there," says James Brady Ryan in Nerve.com. Director David Yates calls the Harry Potter nude scene "intriguing" and "sexual," but in reality it just sounds like he "brought in a 15-year-old fan-fiction writer" to fiddle with the script.
"Daniel Radcliffe (And maybe Emma Watson?) will be naked in Deathly Hallows"
Don't worry, parents. It will still be rated PG-13: The first three Harry Potter films were rated PG, says Joseph Baxter in G4tv.com, and the next batch slipped to PG-13 as the plots grew darker. "I seriously doubt" this film, which hasn't been rated yet, will go far enough to earn an R rating. It's hard to know what the creative team is up to -- unless they really think Harry Potter fans have grown up.
"Harry Potter: First image of Deathly Hallows, Harry to get nude?"
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