Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
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| Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorcerer's) Stone | |
|---|---|
| Image:200px-HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStoneMoviePoster.jpg | |
| Directed by | Chris Columbus |
| Produced by | David Heyman |
| Written by | J.K. Rowling (novel) Steve Kloves (screenplay) |
| Starring | Daniel Radcliffe Rupert Grint Emma Watson John Cleese Robbie Coltrane Warwick Davis Richard Griffiths Richard Harris Ian Hart John Hurt Alan Rickman Maggie Smith Julie Walters |
| Music by | John Williams |
| Cinematography | John Seale |
| Editing by | Richard Francis-Bruce |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | November 16, 2001 |
| Running time | 152 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $125 Million USD |
| Followed by | Chamber of Secrets |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (also known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States) is a 2001 fantasy film, based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling.
An agent of Warner Bros. bought the movie rights to the film at a relatively low price soon before the book's incredible success. The movie was made at Leavesden Film Studios and released in 2001. The second, third and fourth books have also been made into films. The rest of the series will follow. The film made in excess of $976 million USD at the worldwide box office (fourth all-time behind Titanic, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest) and received three Oscar nominations.
Rowling insisted that the entire cast must be British, in keeping with the cultural integrity of the book and the movie. Exceptions are Harry's aunt Petunia Dursley, played by Fiona Shaw who is Irish; Irish character Seamus Finnigan (Devon Murray), Albus Dumbledore (Richard Harris was also Irish), Susan Bones (American Eleanor Columbus, director Chris Columbus's daughter who won the cameo role, but had no dialogue), Griphook the Goblin (American Verne Troyer, whose voice was dubbed), The Bloody Baron (Terence Bayler of New Zealand) and Madam Hooch (American-born, but British-raised Zoe Wanamaker). Rowling also approved the screenplay, written by Steve Kloves.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
- Further information: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Muggle's Guide to Harry Potter
Harry Potter, a seemingly ordinary eleven-year-old boy, is actually a wizard and survivor of an attempted murder by the evil Lord Voldemort when he was a year old . Surprisingly, Voldemort was successful in killing Harry's parents but not the baby. Harry lives his life in an ordinary household with his aunt, uncle and cousin, under the impression that his parents died in a car accident and that he is just any other boy. On his eleventh birthday he finds out that he is actually famous in the wizarding world for surviving the attack, and is requested to attend a wizarding school named Hogwarts.
Harry goes to the school, learns magic across the year, and makes friends and enemies. But a plot is brewing to grant immortality to Voldemort, since thrown into a near-death state by his surprising inability to kill Harry. Harry and his two friends end up in a forbidden corridor, and find a three-headed dog guarding a trapdoor. They must pass this trapdoor, and a number of other tests, to stop Voldemort.
[edit] Cast
[edit] Soundtrack
- Further information: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (soundtrack)
[edit] Production
It was originally planned to be filmed at Lancing College in West Sussex, but the headmaster at the time, Peter Tinniswood, declined the highly-paid offer, claiming "the college is for education, not Hollywood".
[edit] Alterations from the book
[edit] Deleted scenes controversy
The release of the film was accompanied by advertisements that made prominent mention of deleted scenes. While the VHS and VCD version contained the scenes after the film, the DVDs included the scenes as an Easter egg; many fans, not knowing this, felt that they were cheated upon buying the discs, and HarryPotter.com ran an article on finding the scenes. As if in apology, the Chamber of Secrets DVD made its deleted scenes immediately available. To access the scenes on the Philosopher's Stone DVD, not only did the viewer have to answer a number of questions based on the film, but that a number of questions had answers that were only available in the deleted scenes themselves or in the book.
On U.S. television, ABC, along with its sister cable network ABC Family, played a version with all the deleted scenes included on the DVD, interspersed into the movie. ABC played the version for the network television premiere in 2004, whereas ABC Family aired the version more recently.
This `extended' version has also been broadcast on Australian free-to-air television several times.
[edit] Box office reaction
The film earned in excess of $976 million USD at the worldwide box office (fourth all-time behind Titanic, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest). At the time of its release it became the second highest grosing film of all time. It made $317 million in the US and over $658 million dollars internationally making it the third biggest film at the international box office of all time. The film received three Oscar nominations.
[edit] Critical reaction
Critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper (of Ebert & Roeper) gave Philosopher's Stone four stars, calling it "The Wizard of Oz of its time". Overall, the movie received a "Certified Fresh" rating of 78% from the movie critic site Rotten Tomatoes.
[edit] Rating
The film received a PG rating for scary moments and mild language.
[edit] Quotes
- Ron: Bloody hell! I'm Quidditch Captain, too! Harry, do you think this mirror shows the future?
- Harry: How can it? Both my parents are dead.
(In deleted scene)
- Hermione: (to Ron) Look at you, playing your cards. Pathetic.
- Hermione: Holy cricket! You're Harry Potter! I'm Hermione Granger. (looks to Ron) And you are...
- Ron: (through mouthful of food) Um, Ron Weasley.
- Hermione: Pleasure. You two better change into your robes. I expect we'll be arriving soon.
[edit] Trivia
[edit] External links
- Warner Brother's Harry Potter site
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone at the Internet Movie Database
- Movie Tour Guide.com - Maps and directions to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Filming Locations
| J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philosopher's Stone | book | film | game | soundtrack | |
| Chamber of Secrets | book | film | game | soundtrack | |
| Prisoner of Azkaban | book | film | game | soundtrack | |
| Goblet of Fire | book | film | game | soundtrack | |
| Order of the Phoenix | book | (film) | (game) | ||
| Half-Blood Prince | book | (film) | |||
| Unnamed 7th book | (book) | ||||
| Other books | Other games | ||||
| Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them | Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup | ||||
| Quidditch Through the Ages | |||||
| Plot – Characters – Places – Spells – Translations – Fandom – Related articles - Quidditch | |||||
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