Half-Blood Prince Release Postponed

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Horrible news Harry Potter fans!
Warner Bros. is postponing the release of Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the sixth film in the franchise-- set to be released Nov. 21-- will now hit theaters in July of 2009.

In a statement, Warner Bros. president Alan Horn blamed the writers strike for the delay.

"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 said. "We agreed the best strategy was to move Half-Blood Prince to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tentpole release for midsummer."

The studio said it still plans to release a two-film adaptation of the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, with the first film on track to be released on Nov. 19, 2010.