Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was released way back in 2001 and proved to be a huge hit that spawned one of the most successful franchises of all time. Chris Columbus was at the helm of that and its sequel, with the franchise then jumping between a couple of different filmmakers before David Yates took charge.
However, there was a time when Steven Spielberg came close to helming the first big screen adaptation of J.K. Rowling's novels. The Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones director overseeing the Wizarding World sounds like a dream come true, but the reasons he turned the project down is one it's easy to empathise with.
"The personal meaning about [how the conflict between] art and family will tear you in half happened to me later, after I had already established myself as a filmmaker, as a working director," Spielberg explained in a recent interview with Reliance Entertainment. "Kate [Capshaw] and I started raising a family and we started having children."
"The choice I had to make in taking a job that would move me to another country for four or five months where I wouldn’t see my family every day. That was a ripping kind of experience. There were several films I chose not to make. I chose to turn down the first ‘Harry Potter’ to basically spend that next year and a half with my family, my young kids growing up."
"So I’d sacrificed a great franchise, which today looking back I’m very happy to have done, to be with my family."
While Spielberg has no regrets, we're guessing he would have jumped at the chance to bring Harry Potter to the big screen had circumstances differed.
Given the level of success he found before and since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was released, it's fair to say the franchise needed Spielberg more than he needed the Boy Wizard. We also can't help but wonder whether this was going to be a one-and-done for the director or a series he might have seen through from beginning to end.
Would you have liked to see Spielberg's take on Harry Potter?