harry potter and the half-blood prince

By Catherine Jones on Jul 15, 09 04:03 PM

The latest installment in the Potter franchise goes on general release today and I was among the first audience at FACT this morning.
It's all rather dark (both in terms of the story and the murky shades of the film) but there are also some nice comedic moments amid the gloom and plenty of ramapaging teen hormones among Hogwart's hallowed halls.

My full review is in the ECHO this Friday, but I can tell you I thought it was the strongest installment since Prisoner of Azkaban.
And although there's no Liverpool acting presence in the film (Jason Isaacs' character Lucius Malfoy being banged up, this time at least), apparently there is a slight Scouse connection.
According to some reports on the web, production designer Stuart Craig revealed that the exterior of Tom Riddle's orphanage was inspired by a building he came across while location scouting on the dockside in Liverpool.
He's reported as saying: "There was this monolithic brick structure that dominated everything around it.
"It was very sinister, very prison-like, and the design grew out of that."
Well, after reading that, frankly I was expecting a Tobacco Warehouse. But when it came to it, I didn't really recognise the towering CGI walls as being anywhere on the river front - if anyone else has any ideas as to what actually inspired him, let me know.