What do we know about the new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie that opens July 15th? Quite a bit:

• It’s directed by David Yates, who also directed Order of the Phoenix (and will direct the two-part Deathly Hallows).

• Steve Kloves, who wrote the first four Harry Potter installments (and who also wrote and directed The Fabulous Baker Boys), wrote the screenplay.

• Because of a salary dispute, Professor McGonagall will be played not by Maggie Smith, but by Dakota Fanning, determined to take on the ultimate acting challenge, in prosthesis (just kidding).

• A prelude opens the film: the collapsing of Millennium Bridge in London. The collapse of a “muggle bridge” is briefly mentioned in J.K. Rowling’s book, which is set in 1996, but not at the beginning, and the author does not specify the bridge. The actual Millennium Bridge was not built until 2000. The films, unlike the books, are set in “the present.”

• Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, the 10 year-old actor playing 11 year-old Tom Riddle (and who has already made a big splash as a result of the trailer), is the nephew of Ralph Fiennes (who, of course, plays the adult Riddle, Voldemorte), the son of his sister.

• Jim Broadbent (the Professor from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) plays Potions Professor Horace Slughorn.

• The three people on earth who don’t already know the ending are really going to be surprised!

• The movie’s production budget was an estimated $200 million, the highest Potter movie budget to date (Philosopher’s Stone, cost $100 million; Chamber of Secrets, $125 million; Azkaban, $130 million; Goblet of Fire, $150 million; Phoenix, $150 million).

• The set designer, Stuart Craig, has worked on all the films (in collaboration with set decorator Stephanie McMillan) and been nominated for Oscars for his work on Philosopher’s Stone and Phoenix. Craig is also leading the designers who are making the Harry Potter’s World of Wizarding attraction at Universal Studios in Florida.

• Quidditch is back (missing since the fourth installment).

• Jessie Cave plays Lavender Brown (Ron’s love-interest), beating a reported 7000 other girls for the part.

• Robert Knox, who plays Marcus Belby, was stabbed and killed on May 27, 2008, just days after filming ending on May 17 (though Knox had finished his role much earlier).

• Dumbledore shows Harry far fewer of Tom Riddle’s memories in the Pensieve than in the book: supposedly just two. (But they’re supposed to be really good ones!)

• The character of Harry Potter is 16 in the book; the actor who plays him, Daniel Radcliffe, was 18 at the time of filming.

• Emma Watson really did seriously consider not coming back for the last two (now three) entries in the series — though by ultimately choosing to do so, she doubled her pay, to 2 million pounds per film.

• For the first time in my life, I’m not at all sick of the Harry Potter hype. Maybe I’ve built up an immunity?

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