It's not very often that an independent movie based on a multi-billion dollar franchise with a global following gets a nod from its viewers.
That is exactly what Tryangle Films, the team of Gianmaria Pezzato and Stefano Prestia achieved when they made Voldemort: Origins of the Heir, which was released on YouTube on Jan 13, 2018. The video, which was posted on the company's official channel, already has more than 7 million views since its first day.
The Italy-based film company created the movie on a budget of 15,000 euros (a little over $18,000) from online funding platform Kickstarter after starting a bid, but was later pulled from the website after Warner Brothers — which has the rights to the "Harry Potter" franchise, filed a copyright infringement complaint.
Pezzato, who is the film's director, managed to settle an agreement with WB and was finally able to release the film online, under the condition that he and his company will not generate profit from the project.
Multimedia news website NME reported Pezzato saying that it was the curiosity of how Lord Voldemort came to be, the journey of Tom Marvollo Riddle down the path of madness that pushed him to make the movie.
"We wondered,'What made Tom Riddle become Voldemort? What happened in those years, and what really went down at Hogwarts when he came back? A lot goes unspoken. This is [the] story we want to tell: The rise of the Dark Lord before Harry Potter and his first demise." Pezzato said.
A short review from the tech-based website BGR praises the film for its special effects, noting that there are CGI effects in almost every scene and that most of the details of the film such as the costumes, props and the settings make the film look like it is a legitimate part of the original Harry Potter film series.
The movie is available for viewing on YouTube and has a runtime of 52 minutes and 40 seconds. To date, the movie has 363,000 likes and earned Tryangle Films' channel over 300 thousand subscribers.
