Harry Potter fans can never seem to get enough of either the beloved book series or the hit movie franchise it spawned. Fortunately, they don’t have to. Warner Bros. has proven to be happy to provide more of the magical universe, from its upcoming spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (based on a book by Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling) to a revamped viewing experience of the original films. The studio has teamed up with CineConcerts to launch an upcoming series of Harry Potter film concert tours, according to Variety.
The tours will present a reformatted version of each Harry Potter movie in which a live symphony orchestra will perform the film’s entire score as viewers watch on a 40-foot hi-def screen. As one would expect, the first movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, will be the first of the bunch to get the CinceConcerts treatment. Additional tours are intended to follow in the future.
“The original dialogue and sound effects will be kept intact,” CineConcerts president Justin Freer told Variety. “All the music is pulled out of the film, so that’s one of the interesting challenges — mixing the live music against the dialogue and the effects.”
The inaugural Harry Potter tour is scheduled for 2016, with the premiere set for June 23 at Philadelphia’s Mann Center for the Performing Arts, featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra. The North American tour will also include stops in which the San Diego Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Grand Rapids Pops, and Symphony Silicon Valley will provide the music. The concert series will serve as both an interesting, new way to watch the films, and as Freer pointed out, expose younger generations to a style of music they may otherwise not see live.
CineConcerts has previously presented iconic films like The Godfather, It’s a Wonderful Life, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Gladiator, and Star Trek. Tickets for the Harry Potter Film Concert Series will go on sale on February 20 through Ticketmaster and Mann Center’s website and box office.
