It’s been a couple of decades since what seemed like a wonderful combination had the chance of happening before our very eyes. Back in the early aughts, world-famous filmmakerSteven Spielbergwas offered a chance to helm none other than theHarry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, but he famously turned it down. The Academy Award-winning director has talked about this decision on a couple of occasions, but during an interview with fellow directorS.S. Rajamouli(RRR), Spielberg revealed why he doesn’t regret walking away from the wizarding world.
During the conversation, Spielberg talked about how making movies and one’s personal life intertwine when you become a successful director, and that is one of the themes fromThe Fabelmans– a movie that is greatly inspired on the director’s own life. Spielberg explained that taking on a project likeHarry Pottermeans having to live on a different city or country and, more often than not, you may’t take your family with you:
“The personal meaning about [how the conflict between] art and family will tear you in half happened to me later, after I had already established myself as a filmmaker, as a working director. Kate [Capshaw] and I started raising a family and we started having children. […] The choice I had to make in taking a job that would move me to another country for four or five months where I wouldn’t see my family every day… That was a ripping kind of experience.[…] There were several films I chose not to make. I chose to turn down the first ‘Harry Potter’ to basically spend that next year and a half with my family, my young kids growing up. So I’d sacrificed a great franchise, which today looking back I’m very happy to have done, to be with my family.”
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Close Encounters of the Potter Kind
Indeed, if you watch any behind-the-scenes documentary about any of theHarry Potterentries you quickly find out that it was a huge project to take on for everyone involved. Production could take up to ten months or more, and it was even more demanding for directors because they needed to stick around for every step of the way. Spielberg’s contribution would certainly take theHarry Potterfilm franchise in a whole different direction, but it’s safe to say that fans aremore than happywith what they’ve got instead.
Spielberg’s conversation with Rajamouli was to highlightThe Fabelmans, which was nominated in seven categories at the Oscars and is about to premiere in India – the reason why Reliance Entertainment chose theRRRdirectorto interview him. In the conversation, Spielberg also praisedRRRand broke down his thought process to make his latest and semi-autobiographical movie.
