"Our reasons for shifting 'Half-Blood Prince' to summer are twofold: we know the summer season is an ideal window for a family tent pole release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment. Additionally, like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers' strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films--changing the competitive landscape for 2009 and offering new windows of opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of. We agreed the best strategy was to move 'Half-Blood Prince' to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tent pole release for mid-summer."

The evolution of Neville
Matthew Lewis: It really is surprising. At the same time, I knew that Neville would have his moment of glory before the end of the series. I had that feeling since the beginning, in fact... But I was surprised it was such an intense moment in the last book. I wasn't expecting to see him sort of become the leader of the resistance, for sure! (Laughs) I really liked this book and I can't wait to shoot the last movie. (...) He is a very interesting character to play; there's his relationship with Harry, because they've both lost their parents, and also the action scenes that we saw in the fifth movie and which will be even more intense in the seventh... And there's the comedy, too. It's awesome to make people laugh. There are so many challenges and different things to do with Neville.