Harry Potter's life changes radically the day he turns eleven and he discovers that he is the son of two prominent wizards. That surprising finding will lead him to enroll in the prestigious Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he manages to learn everything necessary to be a wizard.
Thus began the first novel in a saga that changed the world of children's literature and, incidentally, contributed to the integration of geeks into society. As expected, his film adaptation (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, directed by Chris Columbus and quite faithful to the captivating novel by the British J.K. Rowling on which it is based) blew up the box office in many countries.
Now that the film turns 20, we celebrate it with this list of ten curiosities about the magical film.
Spielberg was about to be the director
Steven Spielberg was close to becoming the director of the film. "They offered me, Harry Potter. I developed it for five or six months with (the screenwriter) Steve Kloves, and then I left him," the celluloid magician would confess in an interview with Digital Spy.
"I just felt like I wasn't ready to do a kids' movie, and my kids thought I was crazy. The books were popular at the time, so when I dropped out, I knew it was going to be a phenomenon."
Looking for the ideal protagonist
The initial idea was to cast American actor Haley Joel Osment (known for his leading role in The Sixth Sense) for the lead role in the film. However, J.K. Rowling demanded that the leading actors be British and, furthermore, the casting team preferred that Harry Potter be played by someone unknown.
That led to a huge casting call being called to which thousands of kids ended up showing up (although the film's director was captivated from the beginning by Daniel Radcliffe —whom, by the way, he had previously seen in the BBC miniseries David Copperfield—).
Who follows her gets her
Richard Harris turned down the role of the wise wizard Albus Dumbledore three times. Even so, the actor himself assured in an interview that he ended up saying yes after his granddaughter Ella threatened not to speak to him again if she did not play him. The renowned British actor and playwright then promised to participate in all the Harry Potter films but, sadly, he would die of lymphatic cancer in October 2002.
Occupational hazards
In the books of J.K. Rowling, Harry's character has green eyes (like his late mother). However, Daniel Radcliffe's eyes are very blue, so the production team decided to provide him with green contact lenses to make him look good. The problem is that, after shooting a scene with them, the actor had an allergic reaction and the plan had to be changed.
Also, to make Emma Watson look like Hermione from the books, the production staff gave her a dental prosthesis. As they saw that the actress did not understand anything with those false teeth, they ended up rejecting the idea.
Rotten food
The food used at the banquets held in the Great Hall was real. The production team used that food for three days, which means that on the last day, it was already melted (from the heat of the spotlights) and smelled terrible. "We had to change the meat every two days, and the vegetables twice a day," stage decorator Stephenie McMillan would later point out in an interview.
In subsequent installments, the authentic food pieces were frozen to create molds of each, and the flexible copies were then cast in an odorless resin.
J.K. Rowling also drew!
Stuart Craig, production designer on the Harry Potter movies, did a great job on each and every one of them (in fact, he was nominated for an Oscar). In his first meeting with J.K. Rowling, back in 1999, Craig asked the author about the geography of Hogwarts Castle and its surroundings. She then picked up a piece of paper and, in a matter of minutes, she drew a complete map of Hogwarts for Craig, who kept it and referred to it in each of the films in the series.
Rupert Grint is willing to do anything to get the role of Ron
Rupert Grint landed the role of Ron Weasley in a somewhat peculiar way. As the actor himself told Rosie O'Donnell in 2001, he saw that casting was underway and that other children were sending tapes of themselves, so he decided to record himself explaining why he was the perfect candidate for the role. ..
"I really wanted to be in this movie, so I made this video. First, I dressed as my drama teacher [...]. Then I made this rap song about how badly I wanted to be in the film." Grint sent that tape to those responsible for the casting and, shortly, he heard from the producers, who offered him to participate in an audition. Needless to say, things went well for him.
An autographed cartoon
During the filming of certain scenes, Rupert Grint sometimes amused himself by scribbling in his book. During the potions lesson sequence in which Professor Snape first appears, the actor drew a rather ugly caricature of the actor playing Snape, Alan Rickman.
"While he was drawing it, Alan Rickman was standing right behind me. And I was very scared," Grint would later comment. But Rickman displayed his well-known affability and ended up assuring that he liked the drawing. "I made him sign it, and I have it in my possession. I like it a lot," the late actor and film and theater director would later confess.
Several scenes were shot twice
Both the book and the first film in the series were called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone everywhere except in the United States, where it was called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (since the publisher that published it in this country considered that The word 'philosopher' could lead to the misconception that the novel was about philosophical themes, which had little commercial appeal).
This led to each scene where the words "philosopher's stone" were spoken having to be filmed twice (once with the actors saying "philosopher's stone", and another with the same actors saying "magic stone").
Barn owls and magic wands
Eight out of ten homing owls in the film were real (in other scenes, the film crew went straight to special effects). Gary Gero was in charge of training the three owls that ended up embodying the role of Hedwig, the protagonist's magical companion.
One of them was Gizmo, a snowy owl who died during a photo shoot (after being startled by camera flashes and flying out of the window, he was hit by a truck).
