While it’s hard not to imagine the characters in Harry Potter without the actors Daniel RadcliffWhether it’s Emma Watson or Rupert Grint, after eight films, long before Horcruxes and the Sorting Hat hit the big screen, there was a time when Harry Potter was just one of countless popular children’s books craving a film adaptation.

And that is where the site Collider investigated, remembered and revealed that there was a possible animated version of the director Steven Spielberg.

What would have happened?

Spielberg’s possible participation in the first film of the wizard saga, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, dates back to 1999, shortly after Warner Bros. had secured the film rights to the book series. It was then that The New York Post reported that Spielberg was one of the top names being considered for the project.

But a rep for the director noted that while the director was genuinely interested, “so are many others.” Among these others were Jonathan Demme (The silence of the lambs) and Rob Reiner (when Harry met Sally). Initially the list managed by Warner Bros. was made up exclusively of American directors, but the interpreters had to be English.

Spielberg meets all the standards set for a potential director. The philosopher’s Stonewhile his experience in films such as Shark Y Jurassic Park it proved that he had experience directing lucrative film adaptations of books.

He himself said “No”

But it was Spielberg himself who passed up the opportunity to direct the first Harry Potter film in February 2000. At the time, Spielberg said simply that his decision to turn down Philosopher’s Stone was because he wanted to pursue other projects. He would later expand on this decision by saying that this directorial job presented him with no real challenges.

In the years that followed, more details emerged about what led Spielberg and Harry Potter to part ways. On the one hand, Warner Bros. president Alan Horn reportedly revealed in 2011 that Spielberg was interested in wanting to make this project into animation. Inspired by Pixar’s pioneering projects and the prospect of translating a fantasy world into live action, Spielberg was apparently interested in making Philosopher’s Stone his first fully animated directorial effort.

This leaning towards animated cinema may also be a reflection of Spielberg’s creative activities in the previous decades. Between founding the short-lived animation studio Amblimation and being an executive producer at Warner Bros., and animated TV shows like AnimaniacsSpielberg was deeply immersed in the world of animation at that point in his career.

It would make sense that he would want to take this art form and apply it to this default world. Furthermore, his approach to production would incorporate several books rather than just focusing on them The philosopher’s Stone.

This tactic reflects how different it was The philosopher’s Stone of the other book adaptations Spielberg had directed in the past. When originally published, the novels Shark Y Jurassic Park they had no sequelae. Neither project had a large number of additional films to set up, they could function as standalone projects.

This meant Spielberg could choose the material he wanted to include and exclude from the source material without worrying about jeopardizing potential sequels. Even many of the book adaptations after that The philosopher’s Stone by Spielberg, like War of the Worldsthey are independent works that allow the director greater flexibility in his creative process.

But Spielberg further balked at Warner Bros.’ creative aspirations over his stated desire to cast Haley Joel Osment (Sixth Senseand who would drive AI Artificial Intelligence) as Harry Potter, which went against the producers’ hopes that someone from Britain would play the wizard. Once Spielberg left Philosopher’s Stonethe search for directors for this project continued and Chris Columbus was finally cast in March 2000.

Interestingly, Columbus has been a key creative voice in iconic projects for Spielberg’s Amblin Productions, having written the screenplays for Gremlins Y the Goonies. Harry Potter and Friends wouldn’t have been directed by Spielberg, but at least it would have had someone who had worked a lot with that director.

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