Daniel Radcliffe was originally offered just £125,000 (about $181,500) for the film. The actors' union Equity stepped in and negotiated revised terms, raising his fee to around £2 million ($3 million).
While filming, Emma Watson often brought her pet hamster Millie onto the set. Sadly, Millie died shortly after filming began. The set department had a bespoke hamster coffin made, complete with a velvet lining and the name "Millie" engraved on the lid. "I don't suppose a hamster has ever had a finer send-off," Watson said.
Like his character, Rupert Grint suffers such severe arachnophobia that he still hasn't watched the whole scene in which Ron and Harry are in Aragog's hollow. In that sequence, Ron's frightened expression and awkward squirming weren't acted — they were Grint's genuine reaction to the mere thought of spiders.
This was the last Harry Potter film to include Richard Harris as Hogwarts' headmaster, Professor Albus Dumbledore. Harris died of Hodgkin's disease a few weeks before the film's US release. Both Chamber of Secrets and its sequel Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) were dedicated to his memory.
Lucius Malfoy wasn't originally intended to have long hair. However, when Jason Isaacs was cast in the role, he requested longer hair so he could be distinguished from his son Draco. To stop the hair falling into his face, Isaacs had to keep his head tilted back, which further emphasised the character's air of snobbery, making him "look down his nose at everyone."
Despite being adapted from the second-shortest book, this film is the longest in the series. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), which was adapted from the longest book, is the second-shortest film in the series.
Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle) is the eldest actress, aged thirty-seven, to have portrayed a Hogwarts pupil.
The animatronic phoenix built to portray Fawkes looked so lifelike (even though phoenixes are mythical creatures) that Richard Harris (Professor Albus Dumbledore) believed it was a real, living bird when he first saw it. Creature-effects artist Nick Dudman later recalled that Harris came over to him and his chief Fawkes operator, Chris Barton, and told them how amazed he was at how well the bird appeared to be trained. Dudman said he told Harris that Fawkes was, essentially, a puppet, but Harris wouldn't accept that; Dudman then pressed a control button to bring Fawkes to life, leaving Harris utterly astonished. Dudman added that he didn't think he could have received higher praise.
(at around 2h 25 mins) The original script called for Hermione to hug both Harry and Ron in the closing scene. As the eleven-year-old Emma Watson felt awkward hugging the boys in front of the whole cast, Chris Columbus allowed her to amend the staging so that Hermione hugs Harry, then moves to hug Ron, but both youngsters become embarrassed and they settle for a handshake. Watson also said in a recent interview that she repeatedly let Daniel Radcliffe go too soon, so the shot was held for a few seconds to make the embrace appear to last longer than it actually did. Fans have also read her hesitation with Ron as an early hint of the relationship that later develops between the two characters.
(at about the 20-minute mark) While chatting with the Grangers in the bookshop, Mr Weasley says, 'I understand that other Muggles are afraid of you.' The implication is that those Muggles are dentists. This recurring joke from the books is not explained in the film.
(at around 15 minutes) The opal necklace, which plays an important role in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), can be glimpsed briefly in a display cabinet at Borgin and Burkes' shop in Knockturn Alley as Harry first steps in.
At around 2 hours 5 minutes in, Tom Marvolo Riddle's name had to be altered in foreign-language editions so that a fitting anagram could be formed: in Spanish it becomes "Tom Sorvolo Ryddle", which anagrams to "Soy Lord Voldemort". In French he is rendered as "Tom Elvis Jedusor", producing "Je suis Voldemort". In Italian the name is "Tom Orvoloson Riddle", which makes "Son io Lord Voldemort". In German it appears as "Tom Vorlost Riddle", yielding "Ist Lord Voldemort". In Dutch he is "Marten Asmodom Vilijn", an anagram of "Mijn naam is Voldemort". In Turkish the name is "Tom Marvoldo Riddle", giving "Adim Lord Voldemort". In Brazilian Portuguese he is "Tom Servolo Riddle", forming "Eis Lord Voldemort". In Swedish the name is "Tom Gus Mervolo Dolder", which becomes "Ego sum Lord Voldemort" (which is actually Latin). In Danish he appears as "Romeo G. Detlev, Jr.", producing "Jeg er Voldemort". In Icelandic the name is "Trevor Délgome", yielding "Ég er Voldemort". In Hungarian he is "Tom Rowle Denem", which makes "Nevem Voldemort".
The Weasleys' car is a Ford Anglia. It's the same colour and model of car that J.K. Rowling and her school friend used to go for rides in when they were younger. She featured the car in the book, and later in the film, because she cherished fond memories of travelling in it.
(At about two hours and twenty-five minutes) Near the end, when Lucius Malfoy attempts to curse Harry he mutters "Avada..." As mentioned in the fourth book, this is the start of an Unforgivable Curse called "Avada Kedavra", the killing curse. That makes it appear as if Malfoy were foolish enough to try to kill a child in the middle of a school crowded with pupils and staff, with no way to get away. However, as Jason Isaacs has explained in several interviews, the novel did not specify a particular spell for the scene and, having only just read the fourth book, it was the only curse he could recall. Consequently, Dobby is actually the one who saves Harry's life in this scene.
A total of fourteen Ford Anglias were wrecked during filming of the sequence in which Harry and Ron collide with the Whomping Willow.
Executive producer and director Chris Columbus asked cinematographer Roger Pratt to give the film a darker look to mirror the story’s gloomier tone. As a result, the sets were lit with more restrained lighting and the colour palette was toned down slightly. Those choices continued throughout the franchise, with each subsequent film becoming darker and progressively less saturated.
Nurses were brought into the production after an outbreak of head lice spread amongst the young cast.
(at about the 17-minute mark) As Hagrid escorts Harry out of Knockturn Alley, and again when Lockhart turns to show the photographer his other profile, hardback editions of the Harry Potter books can be seen on the shelves.
(around the 2 hr 25 min mark) Daniel Radcliffe had to shave his leg for a scene in which Harry discovers he's missing a sock.
Hugh Grant had originally been lined up to play Gilderoy Lockhart, but pulled out at the last minute owing to a scheduling clash with Two Weeks Notice (2002).
Life-size mannequins were employed to stand in for the actors in scenes where their characters had been turned to stone.
Around the 55-minute mark, some of the music by John Williams that accompanies Harry and Draco's chase of the Golden Snitch during the Quidditch match was reused in the speeder-chase sequence in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002).
As revealed by J.K. Rowling, Moaning Myrtle belonged to the Ravenclaw House.
Numerous Harry Potter fans went to the cinema to watch Scooby-Doo (2002) purely to catch the trailer for this film.
Filming commenced three days after the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001). That makes it the only film in the franchise to have been shot and released within a year of its predecessor. Although Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) were released six months apart, they were filmed as a single picture.
Daniel Radcliffe has stated that "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" is his favourite book.
(At roughly one hour and sixteen minutes) When Hagrid barges into Dumbledore's office to defend Harry, he is holding a dead cockerel. This references a passage in the book (omitted from the film) in which Hagrid finds all the cockerels dead. The cock's crow is deadly to a basilisk.
(at around 2h 20 mins) Initially, after Dumbledore's implied accusations, Lucius Malfoy was meant to leave the office without comment. However, Jason Isaacs felt his character ought to say something, so director Chris Columbus told him he could come up with anything. Isaacs then improvised, "Let's us hope that Mr. Potter will always be around to save the day", to which Daniel Radcliffe spontaneously quipped, "Don't worry. I will be", much to Isaacs's amazement.
On Episode #24.3 (2002), broadcast around the film's release, the panellists discuss an article claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin was deeply upset and offended that Dobby the house-elf appeared to have been modelled on him. The resemblance is undeniable.
While the film was in post-production, producer David Heyman went to see Richard Harris in hospital. Although he had been greatly weakened by his illness, Harris was insistent that the role of Dumbledore should not be recast. Sadly, Harris died shortly before production was due to begin on the next film, necessitating a recast.
Christian Coulson was cast as Tom Riddle despite being 23, which placed him above the 15–17 age bracket specified for the auditions.
To gauge how unpleasant his character needed to be, Jason Isaacs revisited Tom Felton's performance in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001).
Eddie Redmayne, who went on to be cast as Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), auditioned for the part of Tom Riddle.
It is commonly believed that Professor Gilderoy Lockhart was modelled on J.K. Rowling's former husband. Rowling has made clear on her official website that Lockhart was drawn from an egotistical individual she strongly dislikes, but he is not her former husband.
When it was built, the set for Dumbledore's office was the most expensive set ever created for the films. Executive producer and director Chris Columbus and production designer Stuart Craig agreed that, as headmaster, Dumbledore deserved the most elaborate office possible. They were, however, advised that the proposed design—with its vast level of detail and eccentric touches—would be prohibitively costly. The producers eventually managed to secure the funding required to build the set.
At roughly the 21-minute mark, Lucius Malfoy pulls a single book from Ginny Weasley's cauldron, yet he drops two back into it; the second turns out to be Tom Riddle's diary.
(around 11 minutes in) To achieve a convincing shot of the needles floating and knitting in the Burrow, a member of the crew pressured his mother into allowing them to film her for several hours whilst she knitted.
The young Hagrid was portrayed by Martin Bayfield, who acted as Robbie Coltrane's height double throughout the Harry Potter films. Coltrane provided the character's voice to maintain continuity.
Jude Law was considered too young to portray Gilderoy Lockhart; he would later go on to portray a young Albus Dumbledore in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018).
Robbie Coltrane had to decline an appearance in The West Wing (1999) so he could return to his portrayal of Hagrid.
Jason Isaacs initially auditioned for the role of Gilderoy Lockhart, but Chris Columbus also suggested he try out for Lucius Malfoy. Isaacs was reluctant, feeling it was too similar to his portrayal of Captain Hook in Peter Pan (2003), yet too courteous to say no. When the part was offered he nearly turned it down, until his family persuaded him to accept.
(at about the 33-minute mark) Although the majority of the subplot involving Percy Weasley's girlfriend Penelope Clearwater was removed, Nearly Headless Nick, as he makes his way to the Great Hall, greets the pair with "Hello Percy, Ms. Clearwater" as they leave.
In the UK, it became the first film to sell one million DVD copies during its opening weekend.
A theatre manager in Stavanger, Norway said the film 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' (2002) was making his younger patrons unwell. Apparently, many children who had overindulged on sweets and popcorn were being sick during the scene where Ron begins to vomit giant slugs. "It's not a particularly pleasant task for our staff to have to clean up the sick," he said.
Chris Columbus wanted the camera to move in a serpentine way, echoing the basilisk's motion throughout the castle. Consequently, several sequences were filmed with hand-held cameras to allow for a smoother, more fluid movement. On one occasion Columbus even physically steered the camera operator by the shoulders to get the shots exactly as he wanted.
On set, a ball on a stick stood in for Dobby.
Jason Isaacs supplied the voice for the basilisk as it called out to its victims. Chris Columbus believed Isaacs excelled at voice-over work and asked him to devise an eerie-sounding voice for the basilisk, given that the book only depicts it as a hissing sound.
(at around the 1 hour 19 minute mark) During filming of the sequence in which Crabbe and Goyle tuck into the floating cupcakes, Jamie Waylett and Josh Herdman cut their mouths on the hooks used to attach the cakes to the fishing line that held them aloft.
The sole instalment of the Harry Potter series to feature an after-credits scene.
The filmmakers had expected the Chamber of Secrets to appear only in this film. However, the Chamber later makes a second appearance in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011). As the set had already been taken down, it had to be rebuilt.
(at around 1 hr 5 mins) The gesture that Severus Snape, Gilderoy Lockhart, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy perform during the Dueling Club scene is a modified form of the salute used in fencing.
Chris Columbus had reservations about Jason Isaacs' proposals for Lucius Malfoy's costume, hair and voice. It was Daniel Radcliffe who remarked he found the changes 'really cool', and Columbus agreed to them.
(at around 1 hr 28 mins) When Harry communicates with Tom Riddle by writing in the diary, the handwriting shown on screen isn't that of Daniel Radcliffe. Chris Columbus felt Radcliffe's handwriting wouldn't match how Harry would write, so they used an extra's handwriting instead.
J. K. Rowling in fact put together a guide to instruct the cast on how to speak Parseltongue.
DIRECTOR_TRADEMARK(Chris Columbus): [children]: All four of Columbus's children appear in this film. Eleanor Columbus reprises her role as Susan Bones from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), Brendan Columbus plays a boy in the study room, Violet Columbus is the little girl with the flowers, and Isabella Columbus plays the little girl in the bookshop.
Richard E. Grant and Bill Nighy were among those considered for the part of Lucius Malfoy. The latter later went on to be cast in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) as Minister Rufus Scrimgeour.
(About 1 hour 13 minutes in) The password to Dumbledore's office is Sherbet Lemon. In the first book, Dumbledore confesses he grew rather fond of lemon drops (a Muggle treat).
Whilst writing "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", J.K. Rowling seriously considered bringing the Ford Anglia back to protect Ron from a pair of Death Eaters who had cornered him on the castle grounds. The car was meant to emerge from the forest and drive the Death Eaters straight into a castle wall, its lights then slowly failing as if the vehicle had died. She ultimately decided against it, believing the Ford Anglia would very likely have been destroyed after living in the forest for so long, and she felt the idea itself was rather childish.
Chris Columbus was struck by how well Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint had matured over the course of the Harry Potter franchise, compared with some child actors and actresses who start out endearing and then either lose that quality or turn out to be poor performers as they age.
One of only two Harry Potter films that were not nominated for an Academy Award; the other is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).
The tapestries adorning the Gryffindor Common Room are reproductions of the 'Lady and the Unicorn' series — a collection of sixteenth-century tapestries currently exhibited at the Cluny Museum in Paris.
Due to scheduling conflicts, John Williams wasn't able to deliver a fully realised score. Composer William Ross was engaged to adapt Williams's material and complete the score, and he subsequently conducted the orchestra during the recording sessions.
One of Chris Columbus's daughters struggled with reading until she finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone in two days, which opened her eyes to the world of books. After reading The Chamber of Secrets she urged her father to adapt the novels for the screen, but fifty other directors had already expressed interest. Columbus himself fell for the first two books and ultimately went on to direct their film adaptations.
The set for Flourish and Blotts was re-dressed from the set that had previously served as Ollivander's Wand Shop in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001).
Bonnie Wright said she filmed a sequence in which a possessed Ginny throttles roosters outside Hagrid's hut, as the crowing of roosters is fatal to the basilisk; that sequence was ultimately left out of the film.
The Arania Exumai charm that Harry learnt from Tom Riddle's diary and used to fend off the attacking spiders was not included in the book.
The film grossed over $88 million in its opening weekend in the US, which at the time made it the third-largest opening ever, behind Spider-Man (2002) ($115 million) and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) ($90 million).
Tickets for the film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) went on sale in the UK over a month before its scheduled release.
Several of the portraits at Hogwarts bear the likenesses of Stuart Craig and executive producer Mark Radcliffe.
The various bookcases and cupboards in Dumbledore's office actually hid removable partitions, known as 'wild walls', which provided the cameras with enough space to film from a range of angles, because the set, despite its grand appearance, was fairly cramped.
Lockhart claims he "didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at him". Banshees are Irish spirits and are exclusively female; the book refers to it as "her." As Kenneth Branagh has Irish cultural roots, he quite likely did so deliberately to make Lockhart appear even more foolish.
There was a rumour that Emma Watson had broken her left wrist while filming, and that in some scenes you can just make out a small part of the cast beneath her sleeve, but this proved to be untrue.
Madam Pomfrey only appeared as a background extra in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001). From then on, Gemma Jones took on the role and continued to play it for the remainder of the franchise.
To disguise the filming, the crew adopted the working title 'Incident on 57th Street', which was also printed on the clapperboards; it is the name of a 1973 song by Bruce Springsteen.
The guard who confronts Harry and Ron when they fail to reach platform nine and three-quarters is the same guard who appears in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001).
To protect the 500-year-old building that stood in for Hogwarts, the crew built a false wall inside Gloucester Cathedral for the scene in which Harry and his friends discover the message from the Heir of Slytherin written on the wall.
The station interior seen in the film was filmed at King's Cross in north London, whilst the exterior was actually shot at St. Pancras. The two stations sit beside one another, but they are not the same building. The production chose St. Pancras for its exterior scenes because its architecture is far more visually striking.
Although Crabbe and Goyle appear for longer on screen in this film than in any other instalment in which they feature, they have no lines — their voices were provided by Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint for the Polyjuice Potion sequence.
In the book, it is Professor Binns — not Professor McGonagall — who explains the origins of the Chamber of Secrets. In the novels, Cuthbert Binns is the professor of History of Magic; he is noted for rendering an otherwise potentially exciting subject dreadfully dull and is the only teacher at Hogwarts who is a ghost. Binns was considered unnecessary for the films, so the few of his plot-relevant actions were reassigned to other characters.
Tom Riddle wrongly blamed Aragog for petrifying numerous students prior to Moaning Myrtle's death. Acromantulas are not known to be capable of causing petrification, which highlights another shortcoming of the Ministry of Magic's justice system — it failed to recognise the discrepancy.
Dobby's ears were modelled on a dog from the art department called Max, who would often sit underneath the designers' desks.
Colin Creevey's camera is an Argus C3 Matchmatic — an affordable and highly popular 35mm rangefinder that was produced in the United States between 1939 and 1966.
There is an inconsistency in the description of the basilisk's size between the novel and the film, with the creature implied to be much larger on screen. At the end of chapter sixteen of the novel, when Harry, Ron and Lockhart find the snakeskin, the narration states "the creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least." In the corresponding scene in the film, Ron says "whatever shed this must be sixty feet long, or more." This was most likely done to make Harry's confrontation with the basilisk seem more exciting and dangerous, since a twenty-foot snake would be closer in size to the python Harry releases at the zoo in the first film.
Lucius Malfoy smacks Draco's hand with his cane. Jason Isaacs was unaware that there were tiny fangs on its tip, so Tom Felton's pain was genuine.
Sally Mortemore was omitted from the final cut of the film, credited as Hogwarts' librarian Madam Irma Pince; she is only seen in the background and briefly at the staff table during the dinner sequences.
Salazar Slytherin's given name was modelled on the former Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar. J. K. Rowling wrote part of the first Harry Potter novel while staying in Porto, Portugal.
It has been theorised that spiders fear basilisks because arachnids can see 360 degrees around them and are unable to shut their eyes, leaving them extremely vulnerable to the monster's lethal gaze; however, this hypothesis does not explain why frogs and dragonflies do not fear the basilisk, since they have an even wider field of vision.
Wearing spectacles won't protect someone from the basilisk's lethal stare, because spectacles still permit a direct, clear line of sight to the creature's eyes, unlike viewing it in a mirror or through a camera. That's why Moaning Myrtle died; Harry was safe only because Fawkes blinded the basilisk.
In an interview about Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Rupert Grint revealed that the slugs he had to cough up were artificial — filled with slime in various flavours — and he admitted they actually tasted rather nice.
In 2017, to mark the 20th anniversary of the "Harry Potter" franchise, arachnologists Anton A. Nadolny and Alireza Zamani honoured Aragog by naming a newly identified species of Iranian wolf spider (Lycosidae) Lycosa aragogi. A single specimen was collected on 26 April 2016, almost nineteen years after 20 April 1997, which the books cite as the day Aragog died of old age.
When Ginny Weasley stands up for Harry against Draco's taunts, Draco quips that Harry has a girlfriend. This foreshadows Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), as Harry and Ginny later become a couple.
Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle) (a ghost who perpetually cries in the girls' lavatory) also portrayed Jude in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), where she is said to spend the majority of her time sobbing in the ladies' room about her boyfriend rather than carrying out her duties.
(at about 1 hour 29 minutes) When Tom Riddle pulls Harry into his diary, sending him back fifty years, the date shown is 13 June. It's a neat touch, because counting back fifty years from the moment this occurs in Harry's second year, 13 June actually fell on a Friday.
The character of Mr. Borgin, portrayed by Edward Tudor-Pole, was removed from the film's final cut. The scenes were subsequently released as a bonus feature on the DVD.
Around an hour into the film, during the hospital wing scene when Colin Creevey is found petrified, Dumbledore declares, "The Chamber of Secrets has indeed been opened again." The subsequent shot then reveals the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.
When The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened in 2010, the majority of the invited actors arrived aboard the Knight Bus, while Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe made their entrance in the flying Ford Anglia.
The cast features two Academy Award winners — Dame Maggie Smith and Sir Kenneth Branagh — alongside three Academy Award nominees: Richard Harris, Dame Julie Walters and John Cleese.
An animatronic puppet of Aragog is on show at the studio tour "The Making of Harry Potter" in Leavesden.
During the finale, when Harry is healed by Fawkes' tears, the music in John Williams's score echoes the passage heard in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), when the Holy Grail's water similarly heals Henry Jones Sr.
The Weasleys' car carries the number plate 7990 TD. That plate is an authentic registration for a blue Ford, originally issued in April 1960.
At the end of the film, Harry asks Dobby to promise that he will never try to save Harry's life again. Dobby smiles but gives no verbal promise. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One, Dobby dies while saving Harry after being stabbed by Bellatrix's knife.
Joseph Morgan tried out for the part of Tom Riddle.
A fairly subtle nod to Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) — the sequence in which Ron tries to warn Harry about the spiders closing in closely mirrors the moment when Marv attempts to warn Harry about the pigeons preparing to strike. Extra credit for not only having both characters utter the name "Harry" with a similar nervous inflection, but also for both films being sequels to their originals, and for the fact that all four films were directed by Chris Columbus.
Because John Williams had a very tight schedule, the music for a number of scenes was temp-tracked from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001). Reused cues from Williams's earlier scores — notably Star Wars and Indiana Jones — can also be heard.
In the novel Aragog is blind — his eyes are described as milky white. In the film adaptation, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), his eyes are black, which suggests he can see.
The Acromantulas' refusal to discuss the Basilisk is akin to the way witches and wizards decline to utter Voldemort's name, instead referring to him as "He Who Must Not Be Named" or "You Know Who".
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and this film are Chris Columbus's two biggest box-office successes.
A neat piece of foreshadowing happens just after Uncle Vernon peeks into Harry's room during the dinner with the Masons. Once Uncle Vernon leaves the bedroom, the concealed house-elf slips out of Harry's cupboard and casually flicks aside one of Harry's socks that had accidentally caught on his shoulder. This hints that Harry will later use a sock to free Dobby from enslavement.
The basilisk's venom destroys Tom Riddle's diary. It is later revealed that basilisk venom is one of the few substances capable of destroying a Horcrux. Harry's body is revealed to be a Horcrux. At the very least, the bite he suffered ought to have destroyed the Horcrux he carried, if it did not also kill Harry himself.
Acromantulas bear a closer resemblance to wolf spiders (family Lycosidae) than to true tarantulas (family Theraphosidae); this may stem from the historical fact that wolf spiders were the first spiders to be referred to as "tarantulas".
Fawkes, the phoenix belonging to Professor Dumbledore, takes his name from Guy Fawkes. Guy Fawkes was arrested in 1605 after attempting to blow up the House of Lords in London. Today his effigy is burnt annually on Guy Fawkes Night, 5 November.
Through advance ticket sales at Odeon Cinemas, the film brought in over £1 million (around 200,000 tickets) before its release in the UK. A further £8 million was generated from preview screenings at UK cinemas, both at Odeon venues and elsewhere.
Sir Kenneth Branagh, who portrayed Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, along with Robert Hardy (Cornelius Fudge) and John Cleese (Nearly Headless Nick), all featured in the film Frankenstein (1994), which Branagh also directed.
After Harry is taken to The Burrow (the Weasley house) following his rescue from the Dursleys, Ginny comes downstairs and asks if her mum has seen her jumper; Mrs Weasley replies, "it's on the cat". She isn’t referring to an actual cat — there is a cat-shaped ornament on the mantelpiece whose tail acts as a sort of clothes hook. From this one can infer that the jumper had been recently washed and was hanging there, possibly drying by the fireplace.
The film's shift to a darker, more hard-edged tone is signalled right in the opening title sequence: after the crescendo in 'Hedwig's Theme' as the Warner Bros. logo comes into view, when the Harry Potter logotype is revealed the theme returns in an entirely new, quieter arrangement that feels considerably more foreboding and ominous than the arrangements heard in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001). The subtitle 'and the Chamber of Secrets' is also revealed at the very moment the lower strings enter.
Chris Columbus sold Steven Spielberg the scripts for Gremlins (1984) and The Goonies (1985), but his career hadn't truly taken off until the huge successes of Home Alone (1990), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), which helped pave the way for the even greater success of the Harry Potter film franchise.
In the second half of the film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) there is a thirty-five-minute stretch following Hermione's petrification during which she does not appear onscreen.
Among the props in the series, Rupert Grint's favourite was the Ford Anglia.
Various sources have presented Slytherin's Basilisk as both male and female. In the book it appears to be female: when Harry first glimpses it he describes it as "vivid, poisonous green", yet makes no mention of a red crown — suggesting either that a crown was present but unnoticed, or that the Basilisk is female. Pottermore supports this view by depicting the creature without any crown, red or otherwise. Although the voice Harry "hears" in the film sounds masculine, the Basilisk on screen likewise seems to lack a distinctive crown on its head.
Adrian Rawlins, Geraldine Somerville, Saunders Triplets: At the start of the film, Harry leafs through the photo album he had been given by Hagrid at the end of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001). The very first picture he comes to shows his parents, James and Lily, holding baby Harry. None of the returning cameo performers received screen credit.
Shortly afterwards, as Dobby causes the pudding to topple onto Mrs Mason, a photograph of a young, blond-haired boy can be seen on a table beside Harry. The boy in the picture strongly resembles Kevin McCallister from Chris Columbus' Home Alone (1990).
The depiction of the Chamber of Secrets differs between the book and the film. In the book a full-body statue of Salazar Slytherin stands at the chamber's end and pillars carved with snake bodies hold up the chamber's ceiling, whereas the film shows only a large statue of Slytherin's head and shoulders, with snake heads lining the chamber hall on each side in place of the pillars. Rowling later reveals in the book Harry Potter Page to Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey that the Chamber was flooded centuries after its creation and the water rose to the statue's head. This also explains why the Basilisk was seen emerging from the water near the statue when Harry attempts to wake the nearly-dead Ginny, and why the original chamber hall is submerged along with its original pillars, the snake-head statues serving as their remnants.
In the film, Argus Filch is positioned outside the Great Hall, waiting for Harry and Ron to turn up after they arrive by car. A similar moment appears in the book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, where Filch catches Harry and Hermione after they had helped Hagrid get rid of Norbert, and even delivers the same line about them being in trouble. The only difference is that in the film it is Ron who ends up in trouble.
The film's timeline spans from mid-1992 through to mid-1993. The scene to which Harry was sent is set in 1943.
Hermione winds up in the hospital wing as a human–cat hybrid after using the Polyjuice Potion with cat fur, since the potion cannot turn its drinker into a different species. It seems curious that she faced no penalties, especially as Hermione herself admitted it involved 'breaking about fifty school rules'. In the novel it’s suggested that Nurse Pomfrey kept Hermione's unauthorised meddling with the Polyjuice Potion quiet — she’s a hands‑on sort who doesn’t ask too many questions.
Although Chris Columbus returned to direct, Frank Oz told The A.V. Club in an interview that he had been asked to direct the film, but he had no interest in doing so.
This is the second occasion — and the second film — in which Harry and Ron receive detention. Harry is handed detention twice more in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) by Umbridge for allegedly telling 'lies' and for teaching 'Dumbledore's Army'. Ron and Hermione are given detention for the third and second times, respectively, in that film for being part of 'Dumbledore's Army'.
Jamie Waylett (Crabbe) was allergic to the artificial snow, and in the scene where his cheeks appear reddened—which viewers might assume is due to the cold—it was in fact an allergic reaction.
Kate Duchêne, best known for portraying Miss Hardbroom in the TV series The Worst Witch (1998), is said to have been offered a part in this film but is reported to have turned it down.
Fiona Shaw (Petunia Dursley), who played a character in the film that scorned the supernatural and witchcraft, later took on the role of a formidable witch in True Blood (2008).
This represented Toby Jones's debut in a voice-over film. He later provided a voice in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010).
Harry, Ron and Hermione work out how to use the Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Crabbe and Goyle so they can extract information from Draco. They intend to do this to determine whether Draco is the Heir of Slytherin. Afterwards Hermione heads to the library and takes a book titled "Most Potente Potions". Immediately to the right of the volume she reaches for is another book whose spine bears only the word "TOM". Voldemort regards Tom Riddle as a secondary, lesser identity since he assumed the role of the Dark Lord.
In the 1998 film Armageddon (1998), the character played by Jason Isaacs was nicknamed 'Mr Wizard'.
Alan Cumming revealed in an interview in August 2021 that he was asked to do a screen test for the part of Gilderoy Lockhart, but ended up telling the producers to 'fuck off' when he discovered they'd lied about the pay. He recalled: "They wanted Rupert Everett and me to do a screen test and told me they couldn't pay me more than a certain sum — that there simply wasn't any extra money in the budget. Yet I shared the same agent as Rupert, who, naturally, was going to be paid more. It was blatant, foolish dishonesty as well. If you're going to lie, at least be clever about it." He therefore turned the role down, presuming Everett would get it. Instead, it was offered to Kenneth Branagh, who Cumming said "came out of the shadows".
Mr Filch, the caretaker at Hogwarts, is the school's sole resident who is never observed practising any magic. In the books, he is revealed to be a 'squib' — a non-magical child born to magical parents.
DIRECTOR_TRADEMARK(Chris Columbus): [Christmas]: Director's hallmark: When Columbus wrote the screenplay for Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), Watson believed Holmes was consumed by a case, because, unlike many boys his age—even at Christmas—he had no family to return to, much like Harry Potter or Home Alone (1990)'s Kevin McCallister.
In the months following the film's release, numerous lawyers in Russia nearly brought legal action against Warner Bros. studios because Dobby the house-elf was said to resemble their country's leader, Vladimir Putin. Since then, Putin's resemblance to Dobby has been frequently discussed.
(at around 16 minutes) As Harry leaves Borgin & Burks, a witch walks along the alleyway near him, smiling in an eerie way. The witch is portrayed, uncredited, by Pamela Kempthorne.
In the Hindi-dubbed edition, the founders of Hogwarts were assigned the following names: Godric Gryffindor - Gaurav Garuddwar Helga Hufflepuff - Maya Mehnatkash Rowena Ravenclaw - Chandrika Cheelghat Salazar Slytherin - Nagesh Nagshakti
The Harry Potter film franchise and Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), whose screenplay was written by Chris Columbus, display numerous similarities.
When Harry is in the shop's cellar, a creepy hand seizes his hand. In Frankenstein (1994), Victor Frankenstein (Kenneth Branagh) runs an electric current through a monkey's hand, which then clasps Henry Clerval's hand. Branagh plays Gilderoy Lockhart in that film. Daniel Radcliffe played Igor in Victor Frankenstein (2015).
Emma Watson was relegated to a supporting role for her character, Hermione Granger, in this film, despite being third-billed and appearing on posters and in trailers. Her first on-screen appearance is when Harry visits Diagon Alley, and she exits at the beginning of the final act. Hagrid then assumes the position of the third principal character in the film.
A number of actors from the Harry Potter cast have turned up in films directed by Kenneth Branagh. His former wife, Emma Thompson, features in several of those productions. Robbie Coltrane appears in Henry V; Imelda Staunton in Peter's Friends; Robert Hardy, John Cleese and Helena Bonham Carter in Frankenstein; and Julie Christie and Timothy Spall in Hamlet.
As Harry and Hagrid make their way back to Diagon Alley, they pass a bookshop with an eye-catching display. If you look closely, you can spot the Harry Potter novels in the shop window.
Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle) and Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) both featured in the series Happy Valley (2014).
Director Chris Columbus included his four children among the cast. Eleanor Columbus portrays Susan Bones in this film and the previous instalment — in the first film she can be seen being sorted into a house by the Sorting Hat; Violet Columbus appears as a girl with flowers in one of Hogwarts' moving picture frames (in the first three films); Isabella Columbus is the girl in the bookshop when Gilderoy Lockhart is introduced; and finally, little Brendan Columbus is in the study hall.
Dame Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall) and Toby Jones (Dobby) both took roles in A Boy Called Christmas (2021).
James McAvoy auditioned for the role of Tom Riddle and was ultimately offered £40,000 for the part—more than he had earned up to that point in his career. He later recalled, "It was mad; I had hardly done any work. They wanted to put me and, I think, maybe ten other actors on a retainer so they could hold us and choose later. It was a really strange thing." His agent advised him to turn it down, since accepting the retainer would have prevented him from working for seven months.
Harry is present in every scene.
The first sequel ever to surpass both the $700 million and $800 million marks in worldwide box office takings.
Jason Isaacs has said he was largely responsible for shaping Lucius Malfoy's appearance, noting that the original character sketch portrayed him as a short‑haired man in a pinstripe suit. Isaacs himself added the wig, the fur cloak and the cane.
It is the only instalment in the Harry Potter series to have been awarded an 'A+' grade by CinemaScore.
The Parseltongue line Tom Riddle uses to summon the Basilisk is left untranslated in the film. In the book the line reads: 'Speak to me, Slytherin... greatest of the Hogwarts Four!'
Jason Isaacs admitted that making the Harry Potter films wasn't really much fun, he explained: "Even though I was in the films, when I've taken godchildren or nephews and nieces to the [studio tour] and the thing comes up and suddenly you're in the Great Hall, every time, I burst out in tears," Isaacs said. "It's incredibly moving and overwhelming. There's some magic that happened in those stories." But while the finished films still bring him to tears, Isaacs also conceded: "It's a terrible confession to make: they weren't that much fun to make. Filming large special‑effects pictures is quite tedious. The pleasures, however, come afterwards. I meet people whose lives were changed by it, and there are still people reading it and sharing it with their children. Some say it saved their lives, and I believe them." "Something happened — who knows why — when those ingredients came together, the soufflé rose and it created nothing but love around the world and a sense of inclusion," he concluded.
Emma Watson was effectively relegated to a supporting role as Hermione Granger in this film, despite being third-billed and appearing on the posters and in the trailers. She first turns up when Harry visits Diagon Alley, is absent at the start of the final act, and only returns at the end. Hagrid then steps in as the third prominent character in the film after Ron and Harry.
A section of the Basilisk prop's neck was subsequently repurposed to form the neck of the Hungarian Horntail for the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).
Toby Jones, who played Dobby, and Hugh Mitchell, who portrayed Colin Creevey, share the same birthday — 7 September.
In the 1992–1993 school year, the second message left by the Heir of Slytherin at the Chamber of Secrets's opening read: 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.' Although the warning was meant to point to Ginny Weasley, who had been taken into the Chamber, the Basilisk was in fact female. Her skeleton remained in the Chamber when Ron and Hermione went there in 1998 to destroy Helga Hufflepuff's Cup with its fangs, a detail that, ironically, matched the original message.
Gemma Jones and Shirley Henderson both feature in the film 'Bridget Jones's Diary'.
In a 2017 interview Jason Isaacs explained how he came up with Lucius' hushed, menacing speaking voice. "It sprang from a blend of a drama-school tutor who would constantly whisper in a very high register, 'You'll amount to nothing, Isaacs. You will never work,' and the manner of the British art critic Brian Sewell," he revealed. "The director, Chris Columbus, would come over and say, 'We had that take — it's brilliant — but could we do one more where you pull the voice back by about 80 to 90 per cent?'"
While at university, Robert Hardy studied under J.R.R. Tolkien at the time the author was composing The Lord of the Rings. Rufus Scrimgeous, who succeeded Fudge as Minister for Magic, was played by Bill Nighy; Nighy also supplied the voice of Sam Gamgee in the BBC radio adaptation.
Jason Isaacs played a major part in shaping the character's appearance and sound — specifically his menacing, aristocratic British accent. Columbus, however, was initially sceptical. "I came up with a voice — I aimed for the most irritating voice I could imagine, one that would make you, on hearing a single syllable, want to punch him," Isaacs recalled. "I tried it at the first rehearsal and Chris Columbus said, 'Okay, Jason, look... I'm American, but has there ever been anyone in the world, in England or anywhere, who actually spoke like that?' I said, 'No, but it is a film about wizards, after all.'" Columbus remained sceptical until Daniel Radcliffe, who played the titular boy wizard, "God bless him, said, "I think it's kind of cool, actually. I think people will do that in playgrounds," Isaacs said. "Chris went, 'Alright, let's go with that.' And on every take we did after that over the next couple of films, over a couple of years, Chris would come up and say, 'Fantastic. It's wonderful. Let's do one more, [but] could you pull back on the accent by about 80–90%?'
At the Burrow, the Weasley family's house, Arthur asks Harry, "Now, Harry you must know all about Muggles, tell me, what exactly is the function of a rubber duck?" but Harry doesn't get to reply because the owls from Hogwarts arrive carrying the list of requirements for the school year. As Arthur is a native of the Wizarding World and was brought up among wizards, he is entirely unfamiliar with Muggles and their customs; he is fascinated by them and keen to learn about their way of life, which explains the question about the rubber duck. The line does not appear in the book — it was written specifically for the film.
Tom Felton has said he remains very close to his former co‑stars, particularly Jason Isaacs, who portrayed the wizarding guardian of his younger self, Draco Malfoy. "I still call him 'Dad'," he confessed. "So we are very close."
One scene depicts all outdoor activities, quidditch included, being cancelled and the pupils placed under a curfew. This is reminiscent of the 2002 Washington, D.C. area sniper attacks, which occurred a few weeks before the film's release.
For later sequences, Fawkes was realised by a second adult animatronic — with the same mechanics as the 'old' version — which, in the Chamber scenes, was blended with a digital model produced by Framestore. The digital-effects artists faced several challenges. The Phoenix was built manually rather than produced from a refined digital scan. The CG model had to match Nick Dudman’s practical Phoenix, which proved difficult because the puppets had been sculpted only to be seen standing or perched, not in flight. Dudman explained: "we built a bird with wings that were folded or only opened halfway. In hindsight, we should have constructed it in flight, as well. The CG group had a lot of trouble with it." Relying on the animatronic’s proportions was unworkable. "When we pulled the wings out, it looked like a turkey," said animation supervisor Michael Eames. "We had to devise a way to pull the body in and rescale the legs to give him more grace. When he was airborne we could proportion him however we liked; but there were shots where he landed, folded his wings, and we then cut straight to the animatronic — so he had to be recognisable as the puppet." A bespoke system in Maya allowed the digital model to be adjusted by enlarging or shrinking body parts independently. Adam Lucas modelled and rigged the creature. "Changing shapes is normally simple," Eames noted, "but Fawkes is a bird, and any geometry changes affected the feathers — so we had to scale the feathers separately." Justin Martin and a software team devised a Houdini-based system to match the digital feathers to those on the puppet. A 'guide hair' established feather positions, and the feathers were then generated from parameters assigned to those guide hairs. Sally Goldberg from the crew recalled: "the guide hairs at the front end indicated where the feathers would sit, and Ben White used those to groom the bird to match the animatronic. The feathers were applied to the body like layered roof tiles. Each feather, frame by frame, was placed over the feather below so there were no intersections. On a concave curve they all sat perfectly on one another; on a convex curve they thinned out nicely." Feather placement was calculated for every frame of animation. Visual-effects animator Mark Hodgkins explained: "the custom software would lift each feather manually, one at a time, then, using collision avoidance, project the feather down, allowing individual feathers to move and slide over each other, giving a more complex, feathery look. It wasn't that bad, actually. The bird was in ten sections so we could use ten machines per frame." Feather rendering occurred in the final stages; custom shaders gave them a subtle sheen to replicate the look of the animatronic. The actual animation of the flying Phoenix was based on footage of real birds, in particular the flying motion of a turkey vulture and a blue macaw.
The Aragog animatronic was built around a steel armature cloaked in foam-latex skin. Every hair on the spider was hand-inserted: the finer hairs were broom fibres, while the larger ones were feathers finished with synthetic hair and Lurex. The body incorporated a fibreglass support that enveloped the steel armature and was then overlaid with the skin. Animatronic supervisor Chris Barton, assisted by animatronic engineers Simon Williams and Steve Wright, devised the mechanisms that brought the giant spider to life, while the electronics were assigned to Tamzine Hanks.
Constructing Aragog and operating him on set turned out to be the most demanding assignment given to creature-effects artist Dudman and his crew for the production — the character alone required a team of 97. The spider had a 10-foot body with an 18-foot leg-span and was modelled full-size by Gary Pollard. The body was modelled separately from the legs.
Val Jones supervised Fawkes's intricately coloured feathers. "Every feather was dyed and artistically finished," Nick Dudman said. "It took months to complete, and the whole space was strewn with feathers; but it looked splendid when it was finished."
When Fawkes erupts into flames in front of Harry — achieved through a blend of on-set flame effects and digital compositing carried out by MPC — he is then reborn from his own ashes. A full-size animatronic hatchling was employed for the sequence.
Aragog's legs were mechanised using aquatronics — hydraulic systems that operate using water. According to Nick Dudman, the arrangement produced the soft, subtle motion typical of spider legs and was rather eerie. The creature's four front legs were driven by mechanical articulated rods known as waldos, which mirrored movements made by the operators, whereas the rear legs (only their tips were visible to the camera) were puppeteered manually by crew members working in a pit.
To animate the spider, it was pushed so it would appear to crawl towards Harry and Ron. "Essentially, the team moved the spider by physically pulling its legs and pushing its body along, and whatever they did was replicated on set," Nick Dudman explained. "The front legs had to give the impression they were hauling the body out, even though it was actually being pushed. We fitted a small radar unit to the tip of each leg so the puppeteers always knew when a leg made contact with the ground. Holding that position made the spider look as if it was taking weight on that leg. If a leg came within six inches of the ground, a green light would come on, and when it touched the ground a red light illuminated. The performers also had monitors available so they could see where the legs were on the set." Once the front legs rose from the hole and touched the ground, the crew had to lift the body. The animatronic was mounted on a pole‑armed teeterboard, with a counterweight at the other end, buried in a hole in the set. Dudman said: "the spider was on one end and on the other end was a quarter‑ton of weight, so it was steered out of the hole a bit like a camera crane."
The look of Aragog's offspring was essentially worked out in reverse, beginning with the parent's appearance. Nick Dudman's team constructed 12 full-size animatronics — spiders ranging from three-foot to five-foot. One puppet had limited articulation and was used for an insert shot of a spider attacking Ron from outside the car. The majority, however, were built solely to serve as on-set references for the CGI team. "By placing any of those 12 spiders into a sequence, they could see how the spiders would look," Dudman said, "and how much space they'd occupy. But the spiders' action was too frenetic for animatronics."
Mill Film supplied the digital spider sequences, beginning by scanning one of Dudman’s spiders. After processing the scan data, the results were brought into Maya, where Burke and Ivor Middleton ran a series of animation tests. Burke described two separate challenges: the small spiders and the large ones. With the smaller spiders they had to adapt their flocking system to build a new library of animation routines so they could handle a large number of shots flexibly and have the spiders move across the surfaces of the set. For the larger spiders the focus was on developing an appropriately aggressive demeanour. Middleton led a team of 17 animators who assembled libraries of varied gait cycles — slow walking, creeping, rock‑climbing and running. TD supervisor Laurent Kermel developed a 'semi‑procedural' plug‑in for Maya to drive crowd animation of the smaller spiders. The procedural system generated motion for a mass of particles that were then replaced with the spider models; the output of that simulation drove the leg animation. He explained: first, parameters were set to control speed, force, viewing range and so on; then further parameters defined how the spiders reacted in specific situations — for example when they bumped into obstacles or were startled. They tested the system on groups of 10–20 spiders, and once the behavioural 'DNA' was right they applied it either to the entire 1000-strong mass or to a proportion of it. Artists could paint areas where they wanted spiders to go (or not), place obstacles the swarm would avoid or that might frighten them into fleeing, pause the simulation at a particular frame to hand‑animate a subgroup and then resume it, or pick out a single spider for bespoke animation. There were a great many tools. The same system also provided a starting point for the larger spiders, which inevitably required manual animation. Middleton added that for close-up spiders an animator would take the programme-generated motion as a base and refine it — the flocking software delivered coherent group movement and helped block out scenes, but considerable work was still needed to get the scale, weight and feel of the larger spiders' motion right.
The Basilisk in the film was established as being 80 feet long. Robert Bliss designed the creature, using an eight-foot Burmese python named Doris as a real-life reference. Early versions kept a fairly straightforward snake-like look, but as the concept work progressed subtle features of other reptiles — such as monitor lizards and crocodiles — were introduced, which made the Basilisk appear more dragon-like. The skin patterns were based on snakes but, as Chris Fitzgerald of the sculpting team put it, were 'a little more exaggerated than, say, a normal snake's.' The Basilisk's hide was given osteoderms and other hard scales, and unlike real snakes the creature was provided with working eyelids, making it closer to a lizard or a bird than a snake. Robert Bliss and Chris Fitzgerald sculpted a small maquette to be digitally scanned. The original plan was for the Basilisk to be entirely digital on screen, with only its shed skin built practically. Because a full sculpture was still required to cast the shed skin, Dudman suggested constructing a practical insert puppet of the Basilisk. That decision proved sensible for two reasons — it reduced the amount of digital effects work needed (and thus saved on budget) and it gave the young Daniel Radcliffe a physical monster to react to. Following that change of direction, Dudman's team needed to sculpt the Basilisk's head and neck. Gary Pollard led the creation of the full-size sculpture. The interior of the monster's mouth was modelled and moulded separately from the rest of the body to increase sculptural detail and ease the casting process. The sculpture was used to mould both the skins for the full-size puppets and the shed skin seen early in the Chamber scenes. The shed skin was cast in urethane rubber for a translucent effect, with fibreglass inserts to enhance its organic quality.
The primary Basilisk puppet was an animatronic, mechanised by Phil Ashton and Malcolm Evans. Its eyes had already been removed, as all shots of the Basilisk before Fawkes's attack were intended to be digital. That also spared the crew the task of developing functional eyes. The puppet, like Aragog, employed aquatronics rather than conventional hydraulics -- allowing for smoother large-scale movements. The Basilisk animatronic provided a fluid range of head and neck motion. The head was fully operational, featuring a jaw-opening mechanism as well as moving eyelids, nostrils and tongue. The creature's fangs were cable-controlled and could retract as its mouth closed and thrust forward as it opened -- a behaviour inspired by real snakes. The puppet's internal structure was custom-devised from aluminium step ladders: "when we looked at the design of the snake," Dudman told Cinefex, "we knew we needed to build sort of a geodesic structure for its body. When I looked at the drawing for that structure on the computer, I said, 'it looks like step ladders to me.' I knew it would save us a huge amount of machining if we just used step ladders for the bulk of the structure, so that's what we did." This step-ladder framework housed the internal mechanisms and was reinforced to bear greater weight. It was covered with a tubular armature -- also made from aluminium to ensure both lightness and durability -- over which the Basilisk's skin was stretched. The foam-latex skin was painted by Astrig Akseralian (the lead painter and painting supervisor of the Basilisk models), Elaine Cartwright Best and Mel Lenihan.
The Basilisk puppet was mounted on the very same rig the team had built for Aragog — a pole-armed seesaw with a counterweight at the far end. The creature could be raised or lowered, and could equally be fitted to rails or placed on a ram depending on what the shot required. The snake could slither along its rail to get close to Daniel Radcliffe for the fight sequences. 'It was a big rig, and it moved incredibly well,' Nick Dudman said. 'They ended up using it ten times more than they ever expected.'
The practical Basilisk puppet was intercut with a fully digital creature, the digital version appearing in the bulk of the effects shots. Framestore produced a total of 45 visual effects sequences. The digital Basilisk began life as a scan of a small-scale maquette and was then manually refined to match the animatronic. For rendering and animation the digital effects artists used Maya, Houdini and RenderMan. The textures were painted by Jason Horley in Photoshop.
The Basilisk animation drew on references from snakes, lizards and crocodiles. Animation supervisor Michael Eames said: "we needed to show the snake in close-ups, and in those shots the animation had to be driven from the head. We also needed it to be visible in long shots as it dragged along the ground." Character rigger Felix Balbas devised a set-up that allowed animators to switch between inverse kinematics, spline-weighting or forward kinematics depending on what a particular sequence required. Eames added: "for example, when the snake is pursuing Harry, its head is kept low and the body works along a path; as it comes up towards Harry the head lifts and the body begins to slow. Naturally, some of the body remains rigidly in contact with the ground. So we implemented a range of controls that tapered their influence from the neck into the body to allow parts to be controlled independently." Equally important was the Basilisk's interaction with water, realised using digital water elements (including flow maps for the water running off the creature's skin) together with practical water elements composited into the shots.
Aragog was initially intended to be realised as a digital model, but the production eventually chose to build a full-size puppet, with CGI largely used to create Aragog's offspring. That decision not only cut costs but also gave the young actors a tangible, full-size monster to respond to. Nick Dudman, head of the creature-effects team, said he was a firm believer in giving performers — especially youngsters — as much as possible to help elicit genuine reactions: the spider actually crawled out of a hole in front of the children and addressed them, and they reacted accordingly.
Aragog's face was capable of a range of subtle, intricate movements that gave the impression he was speaking. "His eyes, his front hairy teeth and other bits of his face moved," Nick Dudman recalled, "they were all hooked up through a Gilderfluke computer-controlled system." The animatronic was programmed to play back recorded dialogue (voice actor Julian Glover's lines) while filming. "Everyone on set could hear the spider through a loudspeaker," Dudman explained. "We could quite literally pause the playback to allow Harry to deliver his lines, then cut back in with the spider's dialogue."
Dumbledore's phoenix was aptly named after Guy Fawkes because its life cycle involves periodic self‑combustion. Adam Brockbank was responsible for designing the phoenix for the film adaptation of The Chamber of Secrets, developing its appearance for all three stages in which it appears — the dying adult, the hatchling and the reborn adult. Brockbank researched classical phoenix illustrations and drew on real avian references, using large birds of prey as the primary basis for the design, particularly sea eagles and vultures. He endowed the creature with an exaggerated feathery crest to convey a sense of nobility, while the vulture influence is most apparent in the old and hatchling stages, with an elongated neck and layered wrinkles. To establish feather placement and patterning, Brockbank was provided with stocks of pheasant and other bird feathers to experiment with different compositions and layering schemes. He kept the colour scheme close to the book, favouring fiery tones such as burnt oranges and deep reds; the underside was conceived as golden and bright, the upper side darker. A burnt match was used as an additional colour reference. Darker hues were applied to the dying stage, and the hatchling was envisaged with a chick‑like pink tinged with ash grey. Once the final design was chosen, Brockbank's illustrations were handed to Nick Dudman's special effects team, who built three animatronic versions of the bird, one for each life stage. Dudman stressed the value of having a physical puppet for the actors to interact with, noting that while CGI can achieve effects impossible to realise physically, practical effects create a tangible sense of interaction that can sometimes be lost with CGI.
Concept artist Adam Brockbank was commissioned to design Aragog for the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. After several iterations inspired by different spider species, the filmmakers ultimately decided on what was essentially an enlarged wolf spider. Sculptural details were also added to emphasise Aragog's advanced age.
