Oscar winner Patricia Arquette will be joining "Troll: The Rise of Harry Potter, Jr.," an animated revival of the 1986 cult classic horror film "Troll" to voice a witch.
Boyhood star Patricia Arquette is the first person to be announced as part of the voice cast of the animated follow-up to 1986 oddity "Troll", with a title "Troll: The Rise of Harry Potter, Jr." She will be joined by up-and-coming child actor Baxter Bartlett who is lined up to be the voice of young Harry Potter, Jr.
There are already plans on who are slated for other characters. Cast members in the original 1986 live-action feature included Noah Hathaway (The NeverEnding Story) as Harry Potter, Jr., along with Michael Moriarty, Shelley Hack, June Lockhart and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
It's not a new story set in J.K. Rowling's world as there are confusions among fans on the origin and story of this movie. It has nothing to do with the Harry Potter most are familiar with today.
Eleven years before J.K. Rowling's first Harry Potter book was published, the film "Troll" focused on the Potter family, including the patriarch Harry Potter and his son Harry Potter Jr. So the new movie is merely using the names of characters that existed before the popular book series made Harry Potter a household name for very different reasons.
And the press release is very smart to point that out:
"The reprise of "TROLL: The Rise of Harry Potter, Jr." has not been prepared, approved or licensed by any entity that created or produced the J.K Rowling series of Harry Potter books or the Warner Bros. series of Harry Potter motion pictures. TROLL: the Movie LLC is not affiliated with J.K.Rowling or Warner Bros nor has this motion picture been endorsed or authorized by J.K.Rowling or Warner Bros. The characters "Harry Potter" and "Harry Potter, Jr." depicted in TROLL are not related to, or inspired by, the book and film characters of J.K.Rowling and Warner Bros. Harry Potter and Harry Potter, Jr. and his family were characters in the 1986 motion picture "TROLL" which was independently created and distributed 11 years before J.K. Rowling's first Harry Potter book was written and published."
John Carl Buechler, director of the original "Troll" movie and now producer of the new animated version stated: "The original 'Troll' film has achieved cult status, and based upon its success we believed that the timing was right to produce an updated 3D animated version for a whole new generation of filmgoers."
"Troll: The Rise of Harry Potter, Jr." will be distributed internationally by London-based SC Films International, which is in final negotiations with 3D animation studios in Canada and China to provide production services for the project.
The film is for release in early 2017. An animated TV series is also expected to go into production for release next year.
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