ShoWest 2010: Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Preview

One of the biggest films to hit theaters this year is Part I of the Harry Potter finale entitled, The Deathly Hallows. During the Warner Bros presentation at the 2010 ShoWest convention, they gave an exclusive first look at some never before seen footage from the film. This stuff is so new that parts of it was actually screened without any special effects.

Over at ComingSoon, they’ve given a thorough breakdown of what was shown during the Deathly Hallows presentation. It all started with an opening featuring Ralph Fiennes‘ character Voldemort, “in a clearing followed closely by his Death Eaters.” They noted that the footage appeared unfinished because the actor still had dots on his face where the CGI effects will be placed. The character then had an intense meeting with Potter himself and stated, “Harry Potter… Come to die.”

If that’s not a kick-ass way to introduce a preview, I don’t know what is. Here are some of the highlights they discussed that occurred during the screening and from the sound of it, Harry Potter will definitely go out with a bang!

• Much of what we saw involved Voldemort plotting with his Death Eaters how he was going to capture Harry Potter and how he wants to be the one to kill him when they do.
• One scene shows multiple Harry Potters, and we see a bit of Bill Nighy as Rufus Scrimgeour, looking very fierce, as well as quite a lot of Helena Bonham Carter’s Bellatrix Lestrange acting suitably crazy as she interacts with the kids after they’ve been captured and are being brought to the Death Eaters safe house.
• With all of this happening, the friendship is also having trouble withstanding all of the strain, and in one scene, we see Harry and Ron really going at it, even more than we’ve seen them arguing in the past.
• The footage ended with what might be the final confrontation with Voldemort as he asks Harry, “Why do you still live?” to which he gets the response, “Because I have something to live for.”

The general consensus is that The Deathly Hallows is being set up as the ultimate show down between good and evil. The big question is how much of this footage was from Part I and how much was from Part II?

What do you think of the ShoWest footage from Harry Potter? If you’ve read the book, do you have any insight as to where certain events might take place? What are your theories on the film version of the story?