FILM · 2001 · UK
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
283 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
283 Interesting Facts About Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Interesting Facts (107)
- #001
- #002
- #003
- #004
Platform 9 3/4 was filmed at King's Cross, but on platforms 4 and 5. Rowling has admitted she mixed up the layout of London's King's Cross station when she sent the Hogwarts Express from Platform 9 3/4, reached by magic between platforms 9 and 10. She had pictured it in the station's intercity section, but 9 and 10 are actually among the smaller suburban platforms. The film followed the book, so the platforms shown as 9 and 10 were really intercity platforms 4 and 5. King's Cross does now have a real "Platform 9 3/4," though: as a gift to Harry Potter fans, it sits in the walkway between the real platforms 9 and 10.
- #005
- #006
The filmmakers went to some lengths to make the children look like their descriptions in the novel, giving Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) green contact lenses and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) false teeth. Both ideas were dropped when Radcliffe's eyes reacted badly to the lenses and Watson couldn't speak clearly with the false teeth in.
- #007
The floating candles in the Great Hall were made with candle-shaped holders filled with oil and lit wicks, hung on wires that moved up and down on special effects rigs to make them seem to float. Eventually the heat of a flame burned through one of the wires and the candle fell to the floor. Luckily nobody was hurt, but since real candles were clearly a safety hazard, the candles were done with CGI in the later films.
- #008
- #009
- #010
- #011
- #012
- #013
- #014
All the food seen at the Great Hall feasts is real. Chris Columbus wanted a lavish welcome feast that matched the book's description, with roasts, ham, turkey and all the trimmings. Unfortunately, hours of filming under hot set lights made the food start to smell bad, even though the meat was replaced every two days and the vegetables twice a day. For the later films, real food was frozen so molds could be made from it and copies cast in resin.
- #015
- #016
- #017
- #018
Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Ron (Rupert Grint) play wizard's chess in the Great Hall with a set modeled on the twelfth-century Lewis Chessmen, which turned up in 1831 on a beach on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides. Of the ninety-three pieces found, eleven are held by the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and eighty-two by the British Museum in London.
- #019
West Anglia Great Northern Trains, which owns "Platform 9-3/4," fixed the back end of a "vanishing" luggage trolley to the wall so fans could take photos of themselves seeming to disappear into it. Network Rail actually owns the station infrastructure, while the train operators own the trains. During renovations and new station work, Platform 9 3/4 was moved several times before ending up in its final spot in the new concourse.
- #020
- #021
- #022
- #023
- #024
Contains a major spoiler — show
The birthday cake Hagrid brings Harry in the film says "Happee Birthdae Harry." In the novel, J. K. Rowling describes it as "a large, sticky chocolate cake with 'Happy Birthday Harry' written on it in green icing," with the greeting spelled perfectly correctly.
- #025
In interviews, Richard Harris often said he had little hope of making it through the whole series. He was quoted as saying, "As long as I enjoy it, as long as my health holds up and as long as they still want me, I'll keep doing it. But the chances of all three of those factors staying constant are pretty slim." Months after finishing work on the second film, he was diagnosed with lymphoma and died suddenly, still hoping to make the third.
- #026
- #027
- #028
Steve Kloves was nervous when he first met J. K. Rowling, and she admitted she "was really ready to hate this Steve Kloves," because she didn't want him to "destroy her baby." Recalling their first meeting, she said: "When I first met him he said to me, 'Do you know who my favourite character is?' And I thought, you're going to say Ron. I know you're going to say Ron. But he said 'Hermione,' and I kind of melted."
- #029
Contains a major spoiler — show
The hunchbacked witch statue in the corridor leading to Fluffy's room hides a secret passage to Honeydukes, the sweet shop in the nearby village of Hogsmeade. The statue and the passage play a big part in the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but were left out of the film adaptation, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004).
- #030
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) looks at Snape (Alan Rickman) at the head table and his scar hurts, the back of Professor Quirrell's (Ian Hart) head, where Voldemort (Richard Bremmer) is hiding, is turned toward him. Harry blames the pain on Snape, but Voldemort had been watching him all along. Notice Snape's reaction when he sees Harry's scar hurting, too: he is looking at Quirrell, clearly suspicious of him.
- #031
- #032
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Harry first meets Professor Quirrell with Hagrid at the pub, he offers his hand, but Quirrell is careful not to shake it. At the end of the film we learn that Harry's touch makes Quirrell's body crumble because of his ties to the dark arts and Voldemort. Later, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), it's revealed that Voldemort can't touch Harry because of the magic that took effect when he tried to kill him as a baby, unless he finds a way around it.
- #033
- #034
Contains a major spoiler — show
On Christmas Day, the jumper Ron's (Rupert Grint) mother knitted him has a yellow "R" on it, but in the book Ron's jumper has no letter. In the book, George and Fred come into the room and complain that Ron's has no letter. "I suppose she thinks you don't forget your name. But we're not stupid. We know we're called Gred and Forge," they said.
- #035
- #036
- #037
- #038
- #039
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the second book, "Nearly Headless" Nick invites Harry to a "deathday" party marking the 500th anniversary of his death in 1492, a detail fans use to date the whole book series to 1991-1998. 1492 is, of course, the year Christopher Columbus made his famous voyage to the New World, and the production company behind this film is "1492 Pictures," named for the famous namesake of producer-director Chris Columbus.
- #040
- #041
J. K. Rowling let Chris Columbus's daughter, Eleanor Columbus, play Susan Bones as a "director's trademark" (he puts her in all his films) on condition that the part had no lines. This kept the series authentically British and in line with Rowling's "British and Irish cast only" rule, since Eleanor is American. Eleanor played Susan Bones without saying a word in this film and the next, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), both directed by her father.
- #042
Chris Columbus spent two hours describing his vision for the film, saying he wanted the Muggle scenes "to be bleak and dreary" and the wizarding world scenes "to be steeped in color, mood, and detail." He drew on Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), wanting "that sort of darkness, that sort of edge, that quality to the cinematography," and took his color designs from Oliver! (1968) and The Godfather (1972).
- #043
- #044
- #045
- #046
Contains a major spoiler — show
The fire that traps Harry in the dungeon with Quirrell and Voldemort isn't in the book. It's based on the colored fire Harry and Hermione face after winning the chess game in the novel (but not in the film), where seven potion bottles stand in front of them. The practical effect of flames ringing the dungeon was done with pipes set into the floor around the set, lit after Ian Hart snapped his fingers.
- #047
- #048
Contains a major spoiler — show
Ron's win in the giant chess game is more impressive than it looks, since he was playing at a serious disadvantage. Besides protecting the king, he had to make sure the pieces Harry and Hermione were playing weren't taken, since that would mean they'd be badly hurt or killed. Chess is basically about sacrificing pieces to protect ONE piece, but Ron had to protect THREE, which was harder than it looked, even though he was willing to sacrifice himself to pull it off.
- #049
- #050
- #051
- #052
- #053
In an interview with THE FACE shortly before the premiere, Daniel Radcliffe said he wasn't a melancholy person by nature, but drew on the complex emotions in films he loved, such as The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Dead Poets Society (1989), 12 Angry Men (1957) and What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993).
- #054
Screenwriter Michael Goldenberg wrote a draft of the script, but David Heyman ultimately went with Steve Kloves's version instead. Heyman was impressed with Goldenberg's draft, though, and when Kloves stepped away to pursue a personal project, Goldenberg was hired to write Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).
- #055
- #056
- #057
Warner Bros. originally planned to release the film on the weekend of July 4, 2001, a schedule so tight that several potential directors took themselves out of the running. The date was pushed back to November 16, 2001 for lack of time. The next film, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), was then held to November 15, 2002, which is why the first two films came out just a year apart.
- #058
Daniel Radcliffe has admitted: "Alan Rickman terrified me. How can you not be affected by that voice? Even when you hear that voice, you forget how low it is until it resonates inside you. I was very scared of him in the first three films. I was very scared of him and I said, 'This man hates me.' At a certain point he saw that I really wanted to do this and work at it." He added, "He cut short his holiday in Canada and came to see me in Equus. He saw every piece of stage work I did while he was alive. He would then take me out and we would talk about it. He was one of the first people to say, 'You should look into voice coaching and research all this.' I'm very lucky. It's really lovely to hear him say that. Thank you for showing me that."
- #059
John Williams wrote a piece of music specifically for the trailer without seeing a single frame of the film; it appears on the soundtrack as "The Prologue." As of March 2002, he had done this only once before, for Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991). (On the collector's edition of the Jaws (1975) soundtrack, however, there is a previously unreleased track, "Shark Attack," that was used only in that film's 1975 trailer.)
- #060
- #061
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Snape is seen muttering a spell during the Quidditch match, Quirrell can briefly be seen saying a spell as well. It is revealed that Snape was using a counter-curse and that the spell was Quirrell's own, which broke when Quirrell's concentration was broken as he was knocked down in the stands.
- #062
- #063
Some have noticed that Robbie Coltrane's costume and character in Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988) look almost exactly like Hagrid. J. K. Rowling has also said Robbie Coltrane was always the plan for Hagrid in the films, and suggested that this particular film may have partly inspired Hagrid, both in building the world of the books and in the costume and casting of the Harry Potter films.
- #064
- #065
Even though Hermione calls him a great wizard, Harry doesn't cast a single spell in the whole film, and that's deliberate. He accidentally makes the glass vanish at the zoo and causes a few mishaps at Ollivander's while trying out wands, but he never successfully and intentionally performs any magic.
- #066
- #067
- #068
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Harry loses control of his Nimbus 2000 during the Quidditch match, Hermione trains her binoculars on the teachers' stand. Watch the binocular view closely while Snape mutters the counter-curse and you'll see Quirrell's eyes locked on Harry's broom (possibly casting a non-verbal jinx).
- #069
- #070
- #071
- #072
- #073
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the film Harry watches Quirrell die, whereas in the book Quirrell was unconscious when he died. This creates a plot hole about Harry being able to see the skeletal, horse-like Thestrals in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), since he can't see them until he witnesses Cedric Diggory's death in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). The filmmakers couldn't have known this at the time, though, because the novel "Order of the Phoenix" wasn't published until 2003, two years after the film came out.
- #074
- #075
In an interview, Rik Mayall (the voice of Peeves) said he hadn't read the book but told his agent he had, and that it was one of his favorites. When he read his lines on set, his wild voice kept making the children laugh; they asked him to turn his back to them while reading, which didn't work, and then to go to the far end of the cathedral and shout his lines, which also made them laugh. According to him, Peeves was in the film, but a few weeks later they decided to cut his scenes. He said that when his children came home from seeing the film, they told him: "That was bloody good make-up. You didn't look like yourself at all. It was really good." They had mistaken him for Hagrid.
- #076
- #077
- #078
- #079
- #080
International Master Jeremy Silman (uncredited) designed the position for the wizard's chess scene. Ron could have checkmated White sooner by sacrificing Harry at c5, but chose to sacrifice himself to save Harry instead. Harry's move isn't actually checkmate but mate in one more move, since the queen can block at e3, but Harry can then take it and mate on the next move (see Goofs).
- #081
- #082
- #083
- #084
- #085
When Chris Columbus wrote the script for Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), the film had a lot in common with his later work on the Harry Potter series: the young Watson resembles Harry Potter; school experiments; Holmes's rivalry with another student, Dudley, mirrors Draco Malfoy's rivalry with Harry; Draco and Dudley both have wealthy parents; cavernous libraries; sweets; train stations; the word privy or Potter used in the novelization; injured students sent to the school nurse; teachers and students dining in a Great Hall; Holmes, Watson and a third character solving mysteries at school, just as Harry, Ron and Hermione do at Hogwarts; staircases; Harry, Holmes and Watson sneaking through a school library at night; both Watson and Hagrid saying "sorry about that"; the end of the school term; the threat of expulsion; Harry having no family to go home to even at Christmas; Harry's scar on his forehead and Holmes's scar on his cheek; harmless-seeming staff members who turn out to be anything but; head boys, and so on.
- #086
- #087
- #088
- #089
- #090
- #091
- #092
Contains a major spoiler — show
Gellert Grindelwald is first mentioned in the book on Albus Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card, which says Dumbledore became famous for defeating Grindelwald in 1945, the year World War II ended. That means the Muggle and wizarding worlds each had their own intertwined wars: the Allies were fighting the Axis and also Grindelwald's regime.
- #093
- #094
- #095
- #096
- #097
Chris Columbus turned down Spider-Man (2002) to make this film.
- #098
- #099
- #100
- #101
- #102
The Troll was brought to life by Todd Wilderman and a team of five animators. "The Troll was a walking bulldozer," said Eric Armstrong, one of the crew. "Knocking down a wall was like knocking over dominoes for him. We imagined him as being like a four-year-old child. At that age a child's reactions are all very simple; they're either very happy or very upset - and the Troll was just like that; simple but extreme."
- #103
- #104
- #105
After Alan Rickman died in 2016, Daniel Radcliffe talked about their relationship: "He encouraged me enormously both on set and in the years after Potter. I'm sure he came to see everything I did on stage, both in London and New York. He didn't have to do that. I know other people who were friends with him for much longer than I was, and they all say: 'If you call Alan, it doesn't matter where in the world you are or how busy he is with the work he's doing, he will get back to you within a day.'"
- #106
- #107
Production Story (127)
- #108
The floor of the Great Hall is real York stone. Production designer Stuart Craig had the foresight to spend a big chunk of the design budget on it. The decision was questioned at the time, but it paid off, since the stone was tough enough to stand up to the feet of hundreds of actors and several camera crews over the decade it took to film the whole series.
- #109
One of Chris Columbus's daughters struggled with reading until she read "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in two days, and the book opened up a new world for her. After reading "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," she asked her father to make the films, but there were already fifty other directors interested. Columbus fell in love with the first two books himself and sat down with Warner Bros., telling them he was obsessed with making this film above all else, and he asked to be the last director they met. Over about ten days he rewrote the script, working until three in the morning every day. It was already a good script, but Columbus wanted to talk about the visuals. He told Warner Bros. he had rewritten it for free, which impressed them, since that doesn't happen in Hollywood, where you expect to be paid for everything. Columbus stood out by doing this without any pressure from the studio, and after more meetings and five weeks, he got the job.
- #110
- #111
- #112
- #113
- #114
- #115
Producers initially wanted to use Canterbury Cathedral as a filming location for some Hogwarts scenes, but the Dean of Canterbury refused, saying it was not appropriate to use a Christian church to promote pagan imagery. Gloucester Cathedral agreed to take its place; the Dean of Gloucester, the Reverend Nicholas Bury, admitted that he was a fan of the books. Nevertheless, when it was decided to use the local Cathedral as a filming location in Gloucester, there was a great backlash from the media. Protesters wrote sackfuls of letters to local newspapers claiming it was blasphemy and vowed to block the film crew's access. In the end, only one protester showed up.
- #116
Platform 9 3/4 was filmed at King's Cross, but only at platforms 4 and 5. Rowling admitted that she confused the layout of King's Cross railway station in London when she directed the Hogwarts Express to platform 9 3/4, reached by magic between platforms 9 and 10. She had meant the location to be in the intercity part of the station, but 9 and 10 are actually between the less major suburban platforms. The film was faithful to the book: the platforms seen as 9 and 10 were in real life the intercity platforms 4 and 5. However, King's Cross does actually have a "Platform 9 3/4." As a gift to Harry Potter fans, it is located in the walkway between the real platforms 9 and 10.
- #117
- #118
Producers made more of an effort to match the children's appearances to those described in the novel by putting green contact lenses on Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and similarly having Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) wear fake teeth. However, these ideas were abandoned when Radcliffe's eyes reacted strongly to the contacts and Watson could not speak clearly with the false teeth in her mouth.
- #119
The floating candles in the Great Hall were created using candle-shaped holders containing oil and burning wicks, hung on wires that moved up and down on special effects rigging to create the impression that they were floating. Eventually, one of the wires snapped due to the heat of the flame, causing the candle to fall to the floor. Fortunately no one was injured, but since it was determined that using real candles posed a safety hazard, it was decided to recreate the candles using CGI for subsequent films.
- #120
Warner Bros. initially considered making the entire Harry Potter film series as a set of computer-animated films or trying to combine several novels into a single film. The studio's reasoning was mainly related to the concern that the child actors would age quickly, that the production of any film would take too long, or that the lead actors might need to be recast if production was delayed between sequels. The author J. K. Rowling vetoed the idea of combining the books and an animated film, so the studio instead decided to shoot all eight films back to back so that the same actors and actresses could play their roles in each film.
- #121
This film and the novel it is based on are known everywhere outside the US as "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." The reason was that US publisher Scholastic believed American audiences were largely unfamiliar with the concept of the "Philosopher's Stone," and asked JK Rowling to change her title (and the relevant text in the book) to "Sorcerer's Stone." To keep the film consistent with the book, every scene mentioning the Philosopher's Stone was filmed twice (once with the actors saying "Philosopher's" and once with them saying "Sorcerer's") or dubbed (most notably, one of the scenes in which Hermione says it in the library and her face is not shown). J. K. Rowling has since said she regrets allowing the title change but that, as a novice author, she was not in a strong enough position at the time to fight it (her publisher had even asked her to abbreviate her name to J. K. out of fear that young boys would be reluctant to read a book written by a woman). Fans in the United States frequently ask her why she did not call it "The Philosopher's Stone."
- #122
- #123
- #124
The floor of the Great Hall is made of York stone. Production designer Stuart Craig had the foresight to put a significant portion of the design budget into the stone. Although the decision was questioned at the time, it proved wise, as the stone was durable enough to withstand the footsteps of hundreds of actors and actresses, as well as several camera crews, who would film the entire series over the following decade.
- #125
In interviews, producer and director Chris Columbus said he was disappointed with the visual effects in this film, calling them "rushed" and "never up to anyone's standards," and that he tried to improve them for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). That did not, however, prevent this film from being nominated for a BAFTA award for "Best Visual Effects."
- #126
Tom Felton had not read any of the Harry Potter books before the audition, and at the audition Chris Columbus was asking each candidate what their favorite chapter in the book was for the role of Malfoy. When Felton's turn came, he said his favorite chapter in the book was the one at Gringotts, just as the previous candidate had said. Columbus caught on very quickly and thought it was very funny.
- #127
- #128
- #129
- #130
In this film, the scar on Harry's forehead is off-center. This was done at J. K. Rowling's request. Because of the artwork on the covers of her books, many people assumed the scar should be in the middle of his forehead. However, the books never specify exactly where on his forehead the scar is located.
- #131
All of the food you see at the Great Hall feasts is real. Chris Columbus wanted a very elaborate welcome feast matching the book's description, consisting of roast, ham, turkey and all the trimmings. Unfortunately, filming for hours under hot set lighting caused the food to develop an unpleasant smell, even though the meats were replaced every two days and the vegetables twice a day. For the later films, real food samples were frozen so that molds could be made from them and copies cast in resin.
- #132
Professor Quirrell's (Ian Hart's) classroom was filmed at Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, in a room known as the Warming Room. The cauldron seen in the room is not a prop; it actually came with the location. The cauldron is thought to be more than 500 years old and to have been used by cooks working for Queen Elizabeth I.
- #133
- #134
One of Chris Columbus's daughters had difficulty reading, until she read "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in two days, and this book opened her eyes to a new world. After reading "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," she asked Columbus to make films of them, but there were already fifty other directors interested. Columbus also fell in love with the first two books and sat down with Warner Bros., telling them how obsessed he was with making this film more than anything else. Columbus wanted to be Warner Bros.' last director. It took about ten days. Columbus rewrote the script every day until three in the morning. It was already a good script, but Columbus wanted to talk about the visuals. He told Warner Bros. He had rewritten the script for free, and this impressed them because it was not the way things worked in Hollywood, where you are supposed to be paid for everything. Columbus made a difference by doing this without any pressure from Warner Bros., and after subsequent meetings and five weeks, he got the directing job.
- #135
- #136
- #137
The wizard's chess set that Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Ron (Rupert Grint) play with in the Great Hall is based on the twelfth-century Lewis Chessmen. It was found in 1831 on a beach on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. A total of ninety-three pieces were recovered; eleven of them are now in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and eighty-two are in the British Museum in London.
- #138
West Anglia Great Northern Trains, which owns "Platform 9-3/4", attached the rear end of the "disappearing" luggage trolley to the wall so that fans could take photos of themselves appearing to vanish into the wall. Network Rail actually owns the station infrastructure. The train operators own the trains. During renovation and new station work, Platform 9-3/4 was moved several times to its final location in the new station concourse.
- #139
Almost all scenes featuring Harry and/or the trio were shot in chronological order; the most notable exceptions are these: the final scene of the film, in which the trio returns home on the Hogwarts Express, was the first scene shot, followed by the scene in which Harry first sees the locomotive at Platform 9-3/4 (the only other scene that required the actual train to be present). Later, the Quidditch match was the last thing to be filmed, largely because it took so long for the visual effects departments to figure out how to do it.
- #140
Although Professor Dumbledore gives him a meaningful look, the film never explicitly reveals who gave Harry the invisibility cloak at Christmas. In the book, it is explained that the cloak belonged to Harry's father and was given to Dumbledore to keep. Dumbledore then gave it to Harry, thinking his father would have wanted him to have it. In both the books and the films, it is repeatedly implied that Dumbledore gave Harry the cloak so that he could use it to solve mysteries by investigating secretly and eavesdropping on conversations (which also explains Dumbledore's excessive tolerance of Harry's frequent violations of school rules).
- #141
- #142
When the birthday cake Hagrid brings Harry is shown in this film, it has the message "Happee Birthdae Harry" written on it. In the novel, Hagrid brought Harry a birthday cake, but J. K. Rowling described it as "a large, sticky chocolate cake with 'Happy Birthday Harry' written on it in green icing," noting that Hagrid could spell the cake's greeting perfectly correctly.
- #143
- #144
In interviews, Richard Harris often expressed that he had little hope of making the entire film series. He was quoted as saying, "As long as I enjoy it, as long as my health holds up and as long as they still want me, I'll keep doing it. But the chances of all three of those factors remaining constant are pretty slim." Months after completing his work on the second film, he was diagnosed with lymphoma and suddenly succumbed to the disease, still hoping to work on the third film.
- #145
- #146
Dame Julie Walters said that if she had known that in the next film Midlander Mark Williams would take on the role of Molly Weasley's husband Arthur, she would have played up their shared accent, and she felt this would have helped establish their family's perceived uniqueness in the wizarding world.
- #147
While scenes were being shot at Gloucester Cathedral, the cathedral's modern electrical signs, light switches and door locks had to be hidden behind panels painted to blend in with the rest of the stone walls. The stained-glass windows were also altered to conceal the fact that the building was a church; religious symbols were covered with colored plastic filter paper to blend in with the surrounding glass. One window depicted the nude figures of Adam and Eve; they were given clothes and even the lightning-bolt scars trademarked by Harry Potter on their foreheads.
- #148
- #149
Steve Kloves was nervous when he first met J. K. Rowling. She admitted that she "was really ready to hate this Steve Kloves," because she did not want him to think he was going to "destroy her baby," but she recalled their first meeting: "When I first met him, he said to me, 'Do you know who my favorite character is?' I thought, 'You're going to say Ron.' I know you're going to say Ron. But he said 'Hermione,' and I kind of melted."
- #150
The hunchbacked witch statue visible in the corridor leading to Fluffy's room conceals a secret entrance to Honeydukes, a sweet shop in the nearby village of Hogsmeade. The statue and the entrance play significant roles in the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but were left out of the film adaptation Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004).
- #151
- #152
When Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) sees Snape (Alan Rickman) at the head table and his scar hurts, the back of Professor Quirrell's (Ian Hart) head, where Voldemort (Richard Bremmer) resides, is turned toward him. Harry attributed the pain to Snape's presence, while Voldemort had been watching him the entire time. Also note Snape's reaction when he sees that Harry's scar is hurting. He looks at Quirrell, clearly suspicious of him.
- #153
- #154
When Harry first meets Professor Quirrell with Hagrid in the bar, Harry extends his hand to shake his, but Quirrell takes care not to shake it. At the end of the film, it is shown that Harry's touching Quirrell causes his physical destruction because of his connection to the dark arts and Voldemort. Later, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), it is revealed that Voldemort cannot touch Harry because of a magical spell that occurred when he tried to kill Harry as a baby, unless he finds a way around it.
- #155
- #156
In the book, Harry, Hermione, Neville and Draco spend a night in the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid for their detention, but in the film Ron takes Neville's place. This stems from an unused part of the book in which Ron is bitten by the dragon Norbert and has to go to the hospital wing; Neville is punished in his place because, like Harry and Hermione, he is caught outside for hours, ironically wanting to warn them that Draco is trying to trap them.
- #157
On Christmas Day, when you see the sweater Ron's (Rupert Grint's) mother made for him, it has a yellow letter "R", but in the book his sweater had no letter. In the book, George and Fred come into the room and complain that Ron has no letter. "I suppose she thinks you don't forget your name. But we're not stupid. We know we're called Gred and Forge," they said.
- #158
Whatever time period it is, all the cars on Privet Drive are Vauxhalls. The Dursleys have a silver 2000 Vauxhall Vectra Estate. All the other cars parked by the drivers are Vectra Estates in the present day, and the pre-title prologue features Astra, Belmont and Cavalier Saloons from the late 1980s.
- #159
- #160
- #161
It is now known that Daniel Radcliffe briefly wore green contact lenses so that his eyes would resemble the character's in the book. He wore them only in the first scene shot, before they became too painful. The first scene shot was actually the film's final scene: the scene in which the Hogwarts Express leaves the school. In fact, in all the behind-the-scenes photos from the shooting of this scene, Daniel is wearing sunglasses because he was afraid to tell anyone that his eyes were irritated by the contacts. There is actually footage of producer and director Chris Columbus talking with Daniel on set about the scene, and Daniel asks Dan whether he will take off his sunglasses, and Daniel hesitantly says he wants to keep them on until they start shooting.
- #162
Judianna Makovsky redesigned the Quidditch robes, initially planning to use what was shown on the cover of the American edition of the book, but she considered them "a mess." Instead, she dressed the Quidditch players in "preppie sweaters, nineteenth century fencing breeches, and arm guards."
- #163
- #164
In the second book of the series, "Nearly Headless" Nick invites Harry to a "deathday" party celebrating the 500th anniversary of his death in 1492 (a fact fans place the entire book chronology in the years 1991-1998). The year 1492 is, of course, the year Christopher Columbus made his famous voyage to the New World; this film's production company is "1492 Pictures," named after the famous namesake of producer and director Chris Columbus.
- #165
Producer and director Chris Columbus had wanted Daniel Radcliffe for the lead role since seeing him in David Copperfield (1999), before the open casting sessions took place, but Susie Figgis said Radcliffe's protective parents would not allow their son to take on the role. Columbus explained that his insistence on giving the role to Radcliffe was responsible for Figgis's resignation. Radcliffe was asked to audition in 2000, when David Heyman and Steve Kloves met him and his family at the production of Stones in His Pockets in London. Heyman and Columbus managed to convince Radcliffe's parents that their son would be protected from media interference, and they decided to let him play Harry.
- #166
In the flying lesson, the whistle Madame Hooch wears was called a "Boatswain's Call" and was first used in the Navy's early days (before P. A. systems) to signal an order, because the whistle could be heard from one end of the ship to the other. It is now used in the Navy as a ceremonial whistle.
- #167
J. K. Rowling agreed that Chris Columbus's daughter Eleanor Columbus would play Susan Bones for the purpose of a "director's trademark" (as he puts her in all his films), on the condition that it be a non-speaking role. This was done to preserve the series's British authenticity and to adhere to Rowling's "British and Irish cast only" principle, since Eleanor is American. Eleanor played Susan Bones without speaking a single word in this film and in the next, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), both directed by her father.
- #168
- #169
Chris Columbus talked about his vision for this film for two hours and stated that he wanted the Muggle scenes "to be bleak and dreary," but the ones set in the wizarding world "to be steeped in color, mood, and detail." He drew inspiration from Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), wanting to use "that sort of darkness, that sort of edge, that quality to the cinematography," and he took the color designs from Oliver! (1968) and The Godfather (1972).
- #170
In the scene where Harry sees his parents in the mirror, his entire family was supposed to appear (according to the book). However, when Dumbledore catches Harry spending time alone with the mirror, since the scene shows the back of the mirror frame, it is implied that he sees his whole family. In the book, Harry also asks Dumbledore what he sees in the mirror; Dumbledore says he sees himself holding a pair of socks, a gift he would much rather receive than all the books he usually gets. Harry then thinks Dumbledore might be joking.
- #171
- #172
Behind-the-scenes photos show a different design for the incarnation of Voldemort attached to the back of Professor Quirrell's head. This version had far more animalistic features; most notably a panther-like nose and a large jaw full of large incisors. This was later changed: Ian Hart provided the face that captured Voldemort's voice and movement, which was then added with computer graphics. Richard Bremmer played Voldemort in the flashback to the death of Harry's parents.
- #173
Along with Steven Spielberg, Jonathan Demme, Terry Gilliam, Mike Newell, Sir Alan Parker, Wolfgang Petersen, Rob Reiner, Ivan Reitman, Tim Robbins, Brad Silberling, M. Night Shyamalan and Peter Weir were also considered for the director's chair. Newell directed the series' fourth film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). Gilliam was J. K. Rowling's first choice, but the studio ultimately chose Chris Columbus to direct because he had experience directing child actors. Also, his daughter asked Columbus many times to direct, and he agreed after reading a copy of the book.
- #174
The fire that traps Harry in the dungeon with Quirrell and Voldemort was not in the book, but it was based on the colored fire that Harry and Hermione face after winning the chess game in the novel (but not in the film), with seven potion bottles. This practical effect of the fire surrounding the dungeon was achieved with pipes placed on the floor around the dungeon set and ignited after Ian Hart snapped his fingers.
- #175
- #176
Ron winning the giant chess game is a more impressive feat than it first appears, since he plays with a fairly serious handicap. In addition to protecting the King, he also had to make sure the pieces represented by Harry and Hermione were not taken, as that would mean either serious injury or death. Chess mainly involves sacrificing pieces to protect ONE piece, but Ron had to focus on protecting THREE pieces, which was not as easy as it sounds. To achieve this, he proved willing to sacrifice himself.
- #177
- #178
- #179
Bruce Springsteen initially recorded an original song for the film titled "I'll Stand By You Always". However, the producers felt the song did not fit the story and mood of the film and cut it from the final edit along with Rik Mayall's scene as Peeves. The song's premiere, however, was presented to the public on February 10, 2017.
- #180
- #181
In an interview with THE FACE shortly before the film's premiere, Daniel Radcliffe said that he was not naturally that sorrowful, but that he drew his inspiration from the complex emotions shown in films he loved, such as The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Dead Poets Society (1989), 12 Angry Men (1957) and What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993).
- #182
Screenwriter Michael Goldenberg wrote a draft of the script, but it was ultimately rejected by David Heyman in favor of Steve Kloves's draft. However, Heyman was impressed by his draft, and when Kloves later declined to take on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), Goldenberg was subsequently hired to write the screenplay.
- #183
- #184
- #185
Although Harry does not perform any spells in this film, he carries out several acts of magic (such as speaking to the snake), all of which are accidental. From the second film to the eighth film, Harry is forbidden from using magic outside Hogwarts until his 17th birthday, under threat of expulsion from school.
- #186
Tim Roth was one of the leading candidates for the role of Professor Severus Snape. He was initially going to play General Thade as well as Snape in Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes (2001) adaptation, working on both films alternately. However, he later decided to commit fully to Planet of the Apes because he thought constantly flying back and forth would be too overwhelming.
- #187
Three-headed dogs feature prominently in Greek and Roman mythology and are also known as hellhounds; foremost among them is Cerberus, the Guardian of the Underworld. However, in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Hagrid says he bought Fluffy from "an Irish feller" instead of "a Greek chappie", losing the original reference. Screenwriter Steve Kloves stated that he initially used "a Greek chappie," but did not know how the line was changed.
- #188
Warner Bros. initially planned to release this film on the weekend of July 4, 2001, which kept the production schedule so short that several proposed directors withdrew themselves from the running. However, due to the time constraint, the date was pushed back to November 16, 2001. The likely premiere date of the next film, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), was held at November 15, 2002, which explained how the first two films were released only a year apart.
- #189
Daniel Radcliffe admitted: "Alan Rickman scared me a lot. How can you not be affected by that voice? Even when you hear that voice, you forget how low it is until it echoes inside you. I was very afraid of him in the first three films. I was very afraid of him and I said, 'This man hates me.' At some point he saw that I really wanted to do this and work on it." He added, "He cut short his holiday in Canada and came to see me in 'Equus.' He saw every scene study I did while he was alive. He was going to take me out afterwards and we would talk about it. He was one of the first people to say, 'You should look into voice coaching and research all of this.' I am very lucky. It is really lovely to hear him say that. Thank you for showing me this."
- #190
In this film, John Cleese played "Nearly Headless" Nick, a ghost whose head barely remains attached to his body after being almost decapitated. Ironically, one of the many characters he played in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) was the Black Knight, whose entire body except his head had been cut off.
- #191
John Williams composed a piece of music specifically for the film's trailer without watching even a single frame of the film, and this music appears on the soundtrack as "The Prologue." As of March 2002, he had done this only once before, for Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991). (However, on the collector's edition of the Jaws (1975) soundtrack, a previously unreleased track titled "Shark Attack" appears, and this track was used only in that film's trailer in 1975.)
- #192
- #193
Although Steven Spielberg initially negotiated to direct this film, he turned down the offer. It was reported that Spielberg wanted the adaptation to be an animated film in which Haley Joel Osment would voice Harry Potter, or a film containing elements from the later books. In the end, he chose to walk away, arguing that it was "like shooting ducks in a barrel. It's just a slam dunk. It's just like putting a billion dollars in your own personal bank account. There's no challenge." It was also claimed that Spielberg was rejected by the author J. K. Rowling herself, because he wanted to set the action in an American high school. Although Rowling insisted that the characters keep their British nationality, she argued that she had no role in choosing the directors of the films and that "anyone who thinks I could or would have vetoed him (Spielberg) needs their Quick-Quotes Quill serviced." David Heyman recalled that Spielberg decided to direct A.I. Instead, A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001).
- #194
- #195
- #196
- #197
Some have noticed that Robbie Coltrane's costume and character in Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988) have almost the same depiction as the role of Hagrid. J. K. Rowling also said that Robbie Coltrane was always planned to play Hagrid in the films, and suggested that this particular film may have partly inspired the creation of Hagrid, both while building the world of the books and in the costume and casting in the Harry Potter films.
- #198
- #199
- #200
Despite being called a great wizard by Hermione, Harry does not perform a single spell throughout the film (deliberately). He accidentally vanishes the glass at the zoo and causes several incidents at Ollivander's while trying to buy a wand, but he never successfully and intentionally performs any magic during the film.
- #201
When Harry loses control of his Nimbus 2000 during the Quidditch match, Hermione focuses her binoculars on the spectators' tower where the teachers are sitting. If the binoculars are watched closely while Snape mutters the counter-curse, Quirrell's eyes can be seen fixed on Harry's broom (possibly using a non-verbal jinx).
- #202
- #203
- #204
- #205
In the film Harry watches Quirrell die, whereas in the book Quirrell was unconscious when he died. This created a plot hole regarding Harry's ability to see the skeletal horse-like Thestrals in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), since Harry initially could not see them until he witnessed Cedric Diggory's death in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). The truth, however, is that the film crew could not possibly have known this fact at the time the novel "Order of the Phoenix" had not yet been published, because the novel was first published in 2003, two years after the film's initial release.
- #206
In an interview, Rik Mayall (the voice of Peeves) said he had not read the book and claimed to his agent that he had, and that the book was one of his favorites. When he was asked to read his lines on set, he constantly made the children laugh with his uncontrollable voice, and he was asked to turn his back on the children so they would not see him read, which did not work. They then asked him to go to the other end of the cathedral and shout his lines, which made them laugh. According to him, Peeves was in the film, but a few weeks later they decided to remove his scenes. He said that when his children saw the film and came home they told him: "That was bloody good make-up. You didn't look like yourself at all. It was really good." He said they had confused him with Hagrid.
- #207
- #208
International Master Jeremy Silman (uncredited) created the chess position for the wizard's chess game. Ron could have mated White faster by sacrificing Harry at c5, but instead chose to sacrifice himself to save Harry. Harry's move is not actually checkmate, but mate on the next move, because the queen can block at e3, but Harry can then capture it and mate on the following move (see the jokes).
- #209
- #210
Emma Watson was not the first choice to play Hermione Granger. Another actress, Hatty Jones, was also a candidate for the role. Unlike Watson, Jones had prior acting experience and rose to fame in 1998 by starring in the film adaptation of the children's book series Madeline (1998). Of the many girls who auditioned for the role of Hermione Granger, only Watson and Jones made it to the final stage. The producers and casting team were impressed by both auditions and saw potential in Jones, but thought she was too old for the role, which led to Watson winning it.
- #211
According to call sheets, the scenes shot on Stage A of Leavesden Studios were: the Gringotts vaults, the Gryffindor common room, the Gryffindor boys' dormitory, the troll fight in the girls' bathroom, and some Quidditch scenes, including the scene where Hermione sets Snape's cloak on fire.
- #212
- #213
- #214
- #215
- #216
SR West Country class 21C127 Taw Valley was initially accepted as having been selected as the Hogwarts Express locomotive and was briefly repainted red with Hogwarts Express nameplates to promote the Harry Potter series. However, the engine was rejected by film director Chris Columbus, who stated that the engine looked too modern for the film. GWR 4900 Class 5972 Olton Hall was ultimately chosen in its place.
- #217
- #218
- #219
- #220
According to call sheets, the scenes shot in the Flight Shed (Stage L) at Leavesden Studios were: Diagon Alley (a full set), the interior of Hagrid's hut, the stairwell beneath the Devil's Snare, the key room, the giant chessboard and the final room where Harry defeats Quirrell and Voldemort.
- #221
Gellert Grindelwald is first mentioned in the book on Albus Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog collector card. It said Dumbledore became famous for defeating Grindelwald in 1945. That was the year World War II ended. This means both the Muggle world and the wizarding world had their own intertwined wars. The Allies were fighting the Axis, but they were also fighting Grindelwald's regime.
- #222
- #223
- #224
- #225
Because of its height and proportions, the Troll had to be brought to the screen as a digital creation combined with a number of practical attachment models: a pneumatic rig designed by John Richardson swung the Troll's club. Nick Dudman's team also made a pair of silicone 'Troll trousers' representing its legs, which former rugby player Martin Bayfield wore during filming.
- #226
The troll was brought to life by Todd Wilderman and a team of five animators. "The Troll was a walking bulldozer," said Eric Armstrong, who was part of the crew. "Knocking down a wall was like knocking over dominoes for him. We imagined him as being like a four-year-old child. At that age, a child's reactions are very simple; they're either very happy or very sad - and the Troll was exactly like that; simple but extreme."
- #227
Fluffy's relatively simple design was created by Robert Bliss based on the appearance of Rottweilers; the design was then translated into three dimensions by a resin maquette that served as a reference for Nick Dudman's team in creating the digital model. A claw animatronic was designed by Dudman and his team to interact with the child actors. However, Legato aimed to bring Fluffy to the screen as a digital creature due to its unique anatomy (three necks merging into a single spine). Carrying Fluffy's fur coat was a complex task given the fact that its scale had to be understood. The digital effects team managed to "cheat" its scale by replicating textures to cover the surface of the digital model. The animation of the three-headed dog was assigned to a team led by Paul Jessel. The main inspiration behind the character animation was, of course, real dogs, with dog behaviors adapted to the creature's anatomy (such as ear twitches and facial tics). The animators also faced the question of whether to synchronize the movements of the heads. Animation supervisor Eric Armstrong commented: "At one point we see Fluffy sleeping and Chris Columbus wanted Fluffy to snore. This raised the question: do all three of Fluffy's heads snore at the same time? We concluded that Fluffy has three heads but one chest and therefore one pair of lungs, so all the heads snore at the same time." To further elaborate the character animation, the digital effects team decided to give each of Fluffy's heads a distinct, subtle personality expressed through its movement. Armstrong said, "Since Fluffy has three heads and therefore three brains, we decided to give each head a different personality." "Fluffy's leftmost head was the leader; it was more calculating but reacted less because it thought more. The rightmost head was the aggressive one - it wasn't as quick to perceive but was very quick to attack. The middle head was the dumb one and it always took a little time to understand what was going on." Particular attention was paid to Fluffy's eyes. Visual effects supervisor Jim Berney explained: "When I started this project, the first thing that occurred to me was that CG eyes always looked fake to me. We discussed this with all the modelers and physicists and decided that what CG characters often lack is the lacrimal caruncles, that is, the tear ducts! Below the tear duct there is also the semilunar membrane, then a thin meniscus layer that creates a highlight at the point of contact between the eye and the eyelid. Usually all of these are missing in CG and instead you see a perfect cut around the eye. That's why most CG characters look dead."
- #228
Design work on the Mountain Troll for the Sorcerer's Stone was initiated by Robert Bliss and Paul Catling. "Stuart Craig's designers were well cast to the film," said visual effects supervisor Rob Legato. "They were great at creating dark and fantastical creatures. The Troll was both of those. We wanted him to be savage but we also wanted him to give a somewhat idiotic look with his eyes, so you both hate him and don't hate him at the same time." Bliss and Catlin's drawings were turned into maquettes by Nick Dudman's creature effects team. White resin casts were used to be digitally scanned and a fully painted model was created as a reference.
- #229
- #230
- #231
After Alan Rickman's death in 2016, Daniel Radcliffe spoke about their relationship: "He encouraged me a lot both on set and in the years after Potter. I'm sure he came to see everything I did on stage, both in London and in New York. He didn't have to do that. I know other people who were friends with him far longer than I was, and they all say the same thing: 'If you call Alan, it doesn't matter where in the world you are or how busy he is with the work he's doing, he'll get back to you within a day.'"
- #232
A full-size Troll animatronic representing the creature after it is knocked out was built by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Shop supervisor Jamie Courtier explained: "We scaled up the maquette and sculpted our three-and-a-half-metre Troll in clay. The sculpting was carried out by Jan Whittaker and Steve Jolley. Our Troll was only seen lying down, but we sculpted him standing upright so that he could be shot standing if Chris Columbus wanted." The Troll's skin was moulded in silicone. Courtier continues: "The natural displacement of the silicone caused the flesh to sag naturally either way." "Kenny Wilson led the making of the silicone skin. Graham High and Marie Fraser then produced an internal structure and gave it a state-of-the-art animatronic head, made by Adrian Parish and Dan Burnett, connected to the Henson Performance Control System. This gave the Troll the facial and finger movement Chris wanted, so that it could twitch and show signs of life that would make you think it was about to wake up." The Henson Troll was used as a reference by the Sony Imageworks team to bring the character's digital version to life. The visual effects sequences were supervised by CG supervisor David Smith. Visual effects supervisor Jim Berney said: "As soon as Henson had an eye or a piece of skin, they would send it to us for our modellers and shader writers to play with. Luckily, we didn't have to match theirs exactly, so we added an enormous amount of detail to our digital version with wrinkles, polyps and big, spiky warts." Using medical photographs as reference, Smith gave the Troll's skin a carbuncle and a layer of dirt, adding dirt to the wrinkles and warts so that light would interact with the subdermal layers. Hair was also added to certain points on the body. "We added little pimply tufts on top. Its head," said Smith, "gave it ear hair, armpit hair and a treasure trail running down its belly. Actually, nobody knew what it was going to wear. At one point it was going to have a waistcoat that became an intricate patchwork with big stitches; but it ended up with a simple loincloth, meaning Todd Pilger but together a nice simulation to jiggle its belly."
- #233
When designing Norbert for the film adaptation, Paul Catling tried to stay close to the creature's description, particularly emphasising the proportions of its head, legs and wings relative to its body and the size of its eyes relative to its head; Catling focused on giving the character "a strange awkwardness". Because the creature is a baby, the filmmakers decided that the 'ridgeback' of the same name would not yet be developed. Creative licences included the colour scheme, which was more varied than the simple black of the new version. Once the final design was chosen, Catling turned it into a maquette that was used as a reference for the digital model. Richard Hollander and his team at Rhythms & Hues modelled the creature digitally from scratch. The wrinkled skin and muscle simulations were designed by Mark Rodahl and Will Telford. Norbert had a subtle iridescence on its back and in other details. Hollander said, "It had a small bony ribcage and a nice iridescence on its back, little chicken feet, wet and leathery bat wings, a lizard-like body. We gave it a double eyelid over its eyes, a row of horns on the back of its head, a small pointed tongue, a lovely tail it could wag and a very flexible neck." On set, John Richardson puppeteered a large prop egg by directing air jets from under the table. In the hatching shot, the egg is replaced by a digital copy that cracks open with a small burst of gas. Hollander commented: "First you see one of its arms shoot out of the eggshell, then it comes out, sways, staggers, steps on a piece of eggshell, starts to sniffle, then sneezes, creating a fireball that singes Hagrid's beard. Chris Columbus wanted us to play the scene the way a small child does when it urinates and people think it's cute. Even though Norbert is a dragon, it's very sweet and innocent and Hagrid just loves it." The animation process was supervised by Craig Talmy and carried out at Voodoo. Houdini and Vmantra were used by Pauline Ts'o to light and render the dragon; the elements were then composited in Icey by Harry Lam.
- #234
Behind the Scenes (10)
- #235
- #236
- #237
- #238
We now know that Daniel Radcliffe briefly wore green contact lenses so his eyes would match the character in the book. He only wore them for the first scene shot, which was actually the film's final scene with the Hogwarts Express pulling away from school, before they became too painful. In all the behind-the-scenes photos from that shoot, Daniel is wearing sunglasses, because he was afraid to tell anyone the lenses were bothering his eyes. There is footage of producer-director Chris Columbus on set going over the scene with Daniel, asking whether he should take the sunglasses off, and Daniel hesitantly saying he'd like to keep them on until they start shooting.
- #239
- #240
Contains a major spoiler — show
Behind-the-scenes photos show a different design for the version of Voldemort attached to the back of Professor Quirrell's head. It had far more animal-like features, most notably a panther-like nose and a big jaw full of large incisors. This was later changed: Ian Hart provided the face, capturing Voldemort's voice and movements, which was then added with computer graphics. Richard Bremmer played Voldemort in the flashback to the deaths of Harry's parents.
- #241
Fluffy's fairly simple design was created by Robert Bliss, based on the look of Rottweilers, and then turned into a 3D resin maquette that Nick Dudman's team used as a reference for the digital model. Dudman and his team also designed an animatronic claw for the child actors to interact with. Legato, however, aimed to bring Fluffy to the screen as a digital creature because of its unusual anatomy (three necks joining a single spine). Handling Fluffy's fur was tricky, since the sense of scale had to come across; the digital effects team managed to "cheat" the scale by copying textures across the surface of the digital model. The three-headed dog's animation was handled by a team led by Paul Jessel. The main inspiration for the character animation was, naturally, real dogs, with doggy behavior (like ear twitches and facial tics) adapted to the creature's anatomy. The animators also had to decide whether the heads should move in sync. Animation supervisor Eric Armstrong commented: "At one point we see Fluffy asleep and Chris Columbus wanted Fluffy to snore. That raised the question: do all three of Fluffy's heads snore at the same time? We concluded that Fluffy has three heads but one chest and therefore one pair of lungs, so all the heads snore at the same time." To add more detail to the animation, the team decided to give each head its own subtle personality, expressed through its movement. Armstrong said, "Since Fluffy has three heads and therefore three brains, we decided to give each head a different personality." "Fluffy's leftmost head was the leader; it was more calculating but reacted less because it thought more. The rightmost head was the aggressive one - it wasn't as quick to perceive but was very quick to attack. The middle head was the dumb one and always took a little time to understand what was going on." Special care went into Fluffy's eyes. Visual effects supervisor Jim Berney explained: "When I started this project, the first thing that came to mind was that CG eyes always looked fake to me. We discussed this with all the modelers and physicists and decided that what CG characters are often missing is the lacrimal caruncle, the tear ducts! Below the tear duct there is also the semilunar membrane, then a thin meniscus layer that creates a highlight at the point of contact between the eye and the eyelid. Usually all of these are missing in CG and instead you see a perfect cut around the eye. That's why most CG characters look dead."
- #242
Design work on the Mountain Troll for Sorcerer's Stone was started by Robert Bliss and Paul Catling. "Stuart Craig's designers were well cast to the film," said visual effects supervisor Rob Legato. "They were great at creating dark and fantastical creatures. The troll was both. We wanted him to be savage but also to give a slightly dumb look with his eyes, so you both hate him and don't hate him at the same time." Nick Dudman's creature effects team turned Bliss and Catling's drawings into maquettes; white resin casts were scanned digitally, and a fully painted model was made for reference.
- #243
Jim Henson's Creature Shop built a full-size animatronic Troll showing the creature after it has been knocked out. Shop supervisor Jamie Courtier explained: "We scaled up the maquette and sculpted our three-and-a-half-metre Troll in clay. The sculpting was carried out by Jan Whittaker and Steve Jolley. Our Troll was only seen lying down, but we sculpted him standing so he could be shot upright if Chris Columbus wanted." The Troll's skin was cast in silicone. Courtier went on: "The natural displacement of the silicone caused the flesh to sag naturally either way." "Kenny Wilson led the making of the silicone covering. Graham High and Marie Fraser then produced an internal structure and gave it a state-of-the-art animatronic head, made by Adrian Parish and Dan Burnett, connected to the Henson Performance Control System. This gave the Troll the facial and finger movement Chris wanted, so that it could twitch and show signs of life that would make you think it was about to wake up." The Henson Troll served as a reference for the Sony Imageworks team that created the digital version, with the visual effects sequences supervised by CG supervisor David Smith. Visual effects supervisor Jim Berney said: "As soon as Henson had an eye or a piece of skin, they would send it to us for our modellers and shader writers to play with. Luckily, we didn't have to match theirs exactly, so we added an enormous amount of detail to our digital version with wrinkles, polyps and big, spiky warts." Working from medical photographs, Smith gave the Troll's skin carbuncles and a layer of grime, rubbing dirt into the wrinkles and warts so light would interact with the layers beneath the surface. Hair was added in certain spots, too. "We added little pimply tufts on top of his head," said Smith, "gave him ear hair, armpit hair and a treasure trail running down his belly. Actually, nobody knew what he was going to wear. At one point he was going to have a waistcoat that became an elaborate patchwork with big stitches; but he ended up with a simple loincloth, so Todd Pilger did a nice simulation of his belly jiggling."
- #244
Paul Catling tried to stay true to the book's description when designing Norbert for the film, paying particular attention to the proportions of the head, legs and wings to the body and the size of the eyes to the head; he wanted to give the character "an odd awkwardness." Since Norbert is a baby, the producers decided the ridges the breed is named for wouldn't have developed yet. Creative liberties included a more varied color scheme than the plain black of the new version. Once the final design was chosen, Catling turned it into a maquette that served as a reference for the digital model, which Richard Hollander and his team at Rhythms & Hues built from scratch. Wrinkled skin and muscle simulations were designed by Mark Rodahl and Will Telford, and Norbert was given a subtle iridescence on its back and in other details. Hollander said: "It had a little bony ribcage and a nice iridescence on its back, little chicken feet, wet and leathery bat wings, a lizard-like body. We gave it double eyelids over its eyes, a row of horns at the back of its head, a small pointed tongue, a nice tail it could wag and a very flexible neck." On set, John Richardson worked a large prop egg from under the table with jets of air. In the hatching shot, the egg is swapped for a digital copy that cracks open with a small gas explosion. Hollander commented: "First you see an arm shoot out of the eggshell, then it comes out, wobbles, staggers, steps on a piece of eggshell, starts to sniffle, then sneezes, creating a fireball that singes Hagrid's beard. Chris Columbus wanted us to play the scene like a little kid peeing and people thinking it's cute. Even though Norbert is a dragon, he's very sweet and innocent and Hagrid just loves him." The animation was supervised by Craig Talmy and done at Voodoo. Pauline Ts'o used Houdini and Vmantra to light and render the dragon, and Harry Lam composited the elements in Icey.
Characters & Cast (17)
- #245
- #246
Casting Harry was the biggest challenge: 5,000 boys auditioned and none felt right. Producer-director Chris Columbus had seen Daniel Radcliffe in David Copperfield (1999) and showed it to the casting director, saying Radcliffe was the one and was magnificent. But he was told they couldn't get him, since his parents wanted him to concentrate on school rather than acting and to stay out of the spotlight. So they auditioned would-be Harrys of every nationality from all over the world and still couldn't find him. Columbus was frustrated, because his heart was set on Radcliffe. Then, by pure coincidence, the film's producer and screenwriter went to the theater and found Radcliffe and his father sitting in the front row; they got talking and gradually won them over.
- #247
Rosie O'Donnell and Robin Williams were among the celebrities who offered to be in the film for free, as Molly Weasley and Rubeus Hagrid respectively. Williams in particular lobbied director Chris Columbus (with whom he had made Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Nine Months (1995) and Bicentennial Man (1999)) for the role of Hagrid, but Columbus had to turn them both down, since both are American and author J. K. Rowling wanted the cast to come strictly from the British Isles.
- #248
Warner Bros. first considered making the whole Harry Potter series as computer-animated films, or squeezing several novels into a single film. The studio was mainly worried that the child actors would grow up fast, that each film would take too long to make, or that the leads might have to be recast if there were delays between sequels. J. K. Rowling vetoed both merging the books and animation, so the studio instead decided to shoot all eight films back to back, letting the same actors play their roles in every one.
- #249
Emma Watson's Oxford drama teacher passed her name on to the casting team, and she went through more than five interviews before she got the part. Watson took the auditions seriously but "never really thought I had any chance of getting the role." The filmmakers were impressed by her confidence, and she beat out the thousands of girls who had applied.
- #250
Richard Harris only agreed to play Albus Dumbledore after his eleven-year-old granddaughter threatened never to speak to him again if he didn't. The role was first offered to Patrick McGoohan, who turned it down for health reasons. Harris later had health problems of his own and died of Hodgkin lymphoma shortly before the premiere of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).
- #251
- #252
Tom Felton hadn't read any of the Harry Potter books before his audition, where Chris Columbus asked each hopeful for Malfoy what their favorite chapter was. When it was Felton's turn, he said his favorite was the one at Gringotts, just as the boy before him had. Columbus caught on immediately and found it hilarious.
- #253
- #254
- #255
- #256
Producer-director Chris Columbus had wanted Daniel Radcliffe for the lead ever since seeing him in David Copperfield (1999), before the open casting calls, but Susie Figgis said Radcliffe's protective parents wouldn't let their son take the part. Columbus explained that his insistence on casting Radcliffe was the reason Figgis resigned. Radcliffe was asked to audition in 2000, after David Heyman and Steve Kloves met him and his family at the London production of Stones in His Pockets. Heyman and Columbus convinced his parents that he would be shielded from the media, and they agreed to let him play Harry.
- #257
- #258
Tim Roth was one of the front-runners to play Professor Severus Snape. At first he was going to play General Thade in Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes (2001) as well as Snape, going back and forth between the two films. He later decided to commit fully to Planet of the Apes, though, feeling that constantly flying back and forth would be too much.
- #259
- #260
Sir Christopher Lee was offered the role of Professor Albus Dumbledore but couldn't take it because of scheduling conflicts with The Lord of the Rings trilogy. After Richard Harris died, the role was offered to him again, and he declined.
- #261
Easter Eggs & References (3)
Deeper Meaning (17)
- #265
The producers originally wanted to shoot some Hogwarts scenes at Canterbury Cathedral, but the Dean of Canterbury refused, saying it wasn't appropriate to use a Christian church to promote pagan imagery. Gloucester Cathedral stepped in instead; the Dean of Gloucester, the Reverend Nicholas Bury, admitted he was a fan of the books. But when it was decided to film at the local cathedral, there was a big backlash in the media. Protesters sent sackfuls of letters to local papers calling it blasphemy and swore they would block the film crew's access. In the end, only one protester turned up.
- #266
Everywhere outside the United States, this film and the novel it's based on are called "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." US publisher Scholastic believed American readers mostly wouldn't know what a 'Philosopher's Stone' was and asked JK Rowling to change the title (and the relevant text in the book) to "Sorcerer's Stone." To keep the film in line with the book, every scene mentioning the stone was either shot twice (once with the actors saying "Philosopher's" and once with "Sorcerer's") or dubbed (most notably a library scene where Hermione says it with her face off camera). J. K. Rowling has since said she regrets allowing the change but that, as a first-time author, she wasn't in a strong enough position to fight it (her publisher had even asked her to shorten her name to J. K., fearing young boys wouldn't want to read a book by a woman). Fans in the United States often ask her why she didn't call it "The Philosopher's Stone."
- #267
- #268
- #269
Almost every scene involving Harry and/or the trio was shot in story order, with a few notable exceptions. The film's final scene, with the trio heading home on the Hogwarts Express, was shot first, followed by Harry's first sight of the locomotive at Platform 9 3/4 (the only other scene that needed the real train). The Quidditch match was the last thing filmed, mostly because the visual effects departments took so long to work out how to do it.
- #270
Contains a major spoiler — show
Although Professor Dumbledore gives him a meaningful look, the film never explicitly reveals who gave Harry the invisibility cloak at Christmas. In the book, the cloak is said to have belonged to Harry's father, who gave it to Dumbledore to keep. Dumbledore then gave it to Harry, thinking his father would have wanted him to have it. Both the books and the films repeatedly imply that Dumbledore gave the cloak to Harry so that he could use it to solve mysteries by secretly investigating and eavesdropping on conversations (which also explains Dumbledore's excessive tolerance of Harry's frequent violations of school rules).
- #271
While scenes were being shot at Gloucester Cathedral, its modern electrical signs, light switches and door locks had to be hidden behind panels painted to match the stone walls. The stained-glass windows were altered too, to hide the fact that the building is a church: religious symbols were covered with colored plastic filter paper to blend in with the surrounding glass. One window showed Adam and Eve naked, so they were given clothes and even Harry Potter's trademark lightning-bolt scar on their foreheads.
- #272
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the book, Harry, Hermione, Neville and Draco serve detention with Hagrid one night in the Forbidden Forest, but in the film Ron takes Neville's place. This comes from a part of the book that wasn't used, in which Ron is bitten by the dragon Norbert and ends up in the hospital wing; Neville is punished instead because he too is caught out of bed for hours, ironically while trying to warn Harry and Hermione that Draco was setting a trap for them.
- #273
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the scene where Harry sees his mother and father in the mirror, his whole family was supposed to appear (as in the book). When Dumbledore later catches Harry alone with the mirror, it's implied that he sees his whole family, since the shot shows only the back of the frame. In the book, Harry also asks Dumbledore what he sees in the mirror; Dumbledore says he sees himself holding a pair of thick woolen socks, a present he'd much rather have than all the books he usually gets. Harry suspects Dumbledore may be joking.
- #274
Three-headed dogs feature prominently in Greek and Roman mythology as hellhounds, the most famous being Cerberus, Guardian of the Underworld. In the film of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, however, Hagrid says he bought Fluffy from "an Irish feller" rather than "a Greek chappie," losing the original reference. Screenwriter Steve Kloves said he originally wrote "a Greek chappie" and doesn't know how the line got changed.
- #275
- #276
- #277
- #278
SR West Country class 21C127 Taw Valley was initially approved as the Hogwarts Express engine and was briefly repainted red with Hogwarts Express nameplates to promote the series. But director Chris Columbus rejected it, saying it looked too modern for the film, and GWR 4900 Class 5972 Olton Hall was chosen instead.
- #279
As the voice of Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings (1978), Sir John Hurt is the only actor to appear in both the "Harry Potter" and "The Lord of the Rings" film series. Two others, Bill Nighy and Sir Stephen Fry, are tied to both in other ways: Nighy was Samwise in the BBC's 1981 radio version of "The Lord of the Rings" and Rufus Scrimgeour in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010), and Fry played the Master of Laketown in "The Hobbit" trilogy and narrated the UK "Harry Potter" audiobooks and video games.
- #280
- #281
Because of its size and proportions, the Troll had to be brought to the screen as a digital creature combined with several practical pieces: a pneumatic rig designed by John Richardson swung the Troll's club, and Nick Dudman's team made a pair of silicone 'Troll trousers' for its legs, worn during filming by former rugby player Martin Bayfield.
Career & Awards (2)
- #282
Producer-director Chris Columbus said in interviews that he was disappointed with the film's visual effects, calling them "rushed" and "never up to anyone's standards," and that he tried to improve them for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). That didn't stop this film from earning a BAFTA nomination for "Best Visual Effects."
- #283
Related pages
- Shrek — Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work