Harry Potter to Have Been Animated by Spielberg?

You have to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows online as this is the epic finale to the highest grossing film series of all time. But more than years ago, when Warner Bros. tried to circle around the big screen adaptation of the relatively-known books by J. K. Rowling to other studios, they all closed their doors on them. The Harry Potter series was discovered in the shelves by producer David Heyman. He loved the book and then took them to Warner Bros. The studio then bought the rights to the first four books for about $2 million eventhough there was only one book that has been published yet. They then circled it to other studios to help them finance the project. And one of them was DreamWorks by Steven Spielberg.

But when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was released in cinemas, it was such a huge blockbuster and is now the seventh highest-earning movie of all time after grossing more than $970 million worldwide. The other studios then backtracked on their decision and wanted to be part of the hit film series. But Warner Bros. president Alan Horn declined on their offers. But in an interview with Horn, he revealed that on their talks with Spielberg, there was one intriguing idea that has plagued him for years. The prolific filmmaker wanted the movie franchise to be animated! Imagine, watch Harry Potter 7 online in complete animation?!

Horn told the LA Times, “I did think it would be worthwhile for Steven Spielberg to direct. We offered it to him. But one of the notions of DreamWorks’ and Steven’s was, ‘Let’s combine a couple of the books, let’s make it animated,’ and that was because of the [the visual effects and] Pixar had demonstrated that animated movies could be extremely successful. Because of the wizardry involved, they were very effects-laden.  So I don’t blame them.  But I did not want to combine the movies, and I wanted it to be live action.”

But Warner Bros. and Spielberg did not burn their bridges as the two-time Oscar-winning director went to make A.I. Artificial Intelligence with them. The studio then picked Chris Columbus to direct the first Harry Potter film. And the rest is, as they say, history. And on this November 19, you can watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I online, the first half of the epic finale.