Latest 'Harry Potter' flick release pushed back to next summer

Washington, Aug 15 (ANI): Harry Potter fans might be a bit disappointed to know that the boy wizard's latest adventure won't be released until next summer (09).

'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' was scheduled to hit cinemas around the world in November (08), but the three month long Hollywood writers' strike, which brought filming on all major projects to a standstill over Christmas (07) and into the New Year (08), has led to production problems.

Bosses at movie studio Warner Bros. have been forced to delay the film's release by eight months because they fear the movie won't be ready to compete at the Christmas (08) box office.

"Our reasons for shifting Half-Blood Prince to summer are twofold," E! Online quoted Warner Bros. president Alan Horn, as saying.

"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.

"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," he added. (ANI)