Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) is the third in the Harry Potter film series and was directed by Alfonso Cuarón. It stars the actors from the preceding films in the series, except for the role of Albus Dumbledore, which saw Michael Gambon taking over from the late Richard Harris. Much of the original crew also returned, including screenwriter Steve Kloves.

Trivia

• Musician Ian Brown makes a cameo appearance as a wizard in The Leaky Cauldron reading A Brief History of Time.
• The soundtrack was composed and conducted by John Williams and released on CD on May 25, 2004. It received the Soundtrack Award.
• The set of Honeydukes seen in this film is a redress of the set of Flourish and Blotts seen in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which, in turn, was a redress of the set of Ollivander's from the first film. This means the same set was used in all three films, but it was used as a different location in each.
• The film broke several opening records around the world upon its release, including the top grossing film in UK film history, and made approximately $US 35.1m in its first 3 days, totalling $US 158.1m in ten days. As of September 28, the film had grossed $US 785m worldwide.
• In the Netherlands the film was given a special rating of 9.
• Some people in the US may think the OFLC (Office of Film and Literature Classification, Australia) was right to rate this movie M (The equivalent to the MPAA's PG-13 classification) at first, but the rating was lowered to PG on appeal.
• David Thewlis, who plays Professor Lupin, was an original choice to play Professor Quirrell in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.