There’s only one Harry Potter, and it’s British-born Daniel Radcliffe.
Two owls play Hedwig: Gizmo and Sprout.
Two versions of the film are being released. It is to be known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the United States. Any scenes that mention the philosopher’s stone were filmed twice: replacing sorcerer for philosopher.
Enquiries about tickets began three months before its release.
Stephen Spielberg was originally lined up to direct; he passed in favour of AI. Rumour has it he wants to helm the third movie.
Warners have optioned the film rights to the first four Harry Potter books. Pre-production has already begun on the second movie.
The world premiere was in London on November 4.
Four filmmakers (Terry Gilliam, Ivan Reitman, Brad Silberling and Chris Columbus) auditioned for the job of director.
JK Rowling is currently writing the fifth book.
The word “bloody” appears in the film six times, along with one “arse”, one “bugger”, and “blasted” twice. This, and some very scary scenes in the haunted forest, led to its PG certificate.
Radcliffe wasn’t a fan of the books when he first read them: “I read the first two when I was eight or nine, but I found it really hard to get into them I couldn’t get into any books when I was that age.”
The 2,7m giant Rubeus Hagrid is played by Robbie Coltrane. His son, Spencer, plays an extra at Hogwarts.
Platform 93/4 was filmed at Kings Cross station, but on platforms four and five.
The first 10 years of Harry’s life are spent not knowing he’s a wizard.
The film reveals that the 12th use for dragon’s blood is as an oven cleaner.
The 14th century cloisters of Gloucester cathedral were used as a setting for Hogwarts school.
The movie was released in the United Kingdom and the US on November 16.
July 31 is the birthday of Daniel Radcliffe, JK Rowling and Harry Potter.
The role of Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets will be played by 40-year-old Kenneth Branagh. Hugh Grant recently turned the role down.
The books have been translated into 47 languages, from Albanian to Zulu.
The film is 153 minutes long.
Three hundred people were employed to construct the movie’s sets.
The movie was released in an unprecedented 1 000 cinemas in the UK .
Prop makers created 16 500 hand-tassled wand boxes for Ollivanders, the wand shop.
About 60 000 children auditioned for the role of Harry.
More than 100 000 tickets were sold for the UK previews on November 10 and 11.
Warner Bros reportedly wants a sum in the region of 49-million (more than R670-million) for the TV rights.
There have been 100-million copies of the books sold worldwide.
In one of the biggest marketing deals in history, Coke paid 103-million (more than R1,4-billion) to use the Harry brand.
The movie cost about $130-million (R1,2-billion) to produce.
Imogen Tilden