With ifs… we would make history again! What if Steven Spielberg had agreed to direct the very first installment of the Harry Potter cinema saga, in place of Chris Columbus? The brilliant filmmaker behind the cults E.T., Jaws or Jurassic Parkand whose latest achievement The Fabelmans is in theaters now, reveals the reason he refused to bring JK Rowling’s magic to the big screen.
For any self-respecting fan of the Harry Potter literary saga, the first film part of the adventures of the young bespectacled wizard was crowned an event. In 2001, when Daniel Radcliffe and his friends Rupert Grint and Emma Watson waved their wands on the big screen for the very first time, the magic created by author JK Rowling took on a whole new dimension… So imagine if the director at the helm of this very first opus, Harry Potter at the Sorcerer’s Stone (which still remains one of the favorites of the editors of Tele-Leisure !), had been Steven Spielberg? The genius filmmaker behind the most striking successes of recent decades (ET, the Extra-Terrestrial, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws…), and whose latest achievement The Fabelmans has been in theaters since February 22, 2023, was offered to take control of this wizarding universe in the early 2000s. He could have signed School of wizards instead of the director Chris Columbus (Mom, I missed the plane!, Mrs. Doubtfire). Find out why Steven Spielberg refused this tempting offer.
The continuation under this advertisement
Why Steven Spielberg Refused To Sign Harry Potter At The Sorcerer’s Stone
Steven Spielberg is a master in how to make our children’s eyes sparkle and also, to perfectly direct very young actors on a set. So why didn’t the director want the film Harry Potter at the Sorcerer’s Stone with his British recruits? Well, this is where one of his other themes dear to his cinema comes into play: the family. To make the first installment of the Harry Potter cinema saga, Steven Spielberg should have moved away from his family for too long. “I sacrificed my participation in a great franchise”he explained recently in an interview broadcast by Reliance Entertainment and relayed by the site CineSeries. The 76-year-old filmmaker, father of 7 children outside the film sets, admitted to having withdrawn from the film adaptation project of the first Harry Potter book for family reasons.
The family before Hogwarts for Steven Spielberg
No question of sacrificing his family balance by leaving to discover the Hogwarts school of magic and touring England for months. “I chose to turn down the first Harry Potter to just spend the coming year and a half with my family, my young children growing up. So I sacrificed my participation in a great franchise, which today I I’m very glad I did, to be with my family”, says Steven Spielberg in this filmed interview. The director talks about the “conflict between art and family” which can be created when you dedicate yourself to such a project and you can no longer see your loved ones every day. “It was a heartbreaking experience. There are several films that I chose not to do”, he adds on this subject. On the other hand, Steven Spielberg also seemed keen on actor Haley Joel Osment getting the starring role of the Scar Wizard. A conflict with J.K. Rowling who, she, preferred the unknown at the time Daniel Radcliffe and wanted an English cast… The mother of Harry Potter not having decided to give in and Steven Spielberg having chosen to privilege his own, it is therefore up to Chris Columbus that the production of this opus (and the second in the saga, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets).
The continuation under this advertisement
