Cheerleaders at a quidditch match? How the Harry Potter films narrowly avoided a relocation to America by studio bosses who wanted to turn it into a 'US teen drama'

By Tom Goodenough

PUBLISHED: 11:12 GMT, 4 August 2012 | UPDATED: 11:46 GMT, 4 August 2012

With its towering turrets and set in an ancient castle, Harry Potter's wizarding school Hogwarts might seem like a quintessentially British creation.

But the producer who worked on the film franchise of J.K.Rowling's hugely-successful books has revealed the plans by some film bosses to turn the story of the boy wizard into an American teenage drama instead.

David Heyman, the 51-year-old who bought the film rights to the Harry Potter series in 2009, said in initial discussions with Warner Brothers it was proposed that the wizarding saga should be relocated to across the Atlantic.

Huge success: The Harry Potter films became the highest-grossing series of all time, but movie bosses wanted to turn the story into that of an American teenage drama

Huge success: The Harry Potter films became the highest-grossing series of all time, but movie bosses wanted to turn the story into that of an American teenage drama

'In some of the first talks with writers in America there was talk of moving it to the States, you know, cheerleaders and the like,' he told the Independent.

 

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'That just never really rang true because it really was culturally so British.'

Harry's Potter beloved sport of Quidditch, pictured, could have had some American touches added including cheerleaders if film bosses had got their way

Harry's Potter beloved sport of Quidditch, pictured, could have had some American touches added including cheerleaders if film bosses had got their way

Despite the apparent pressure to make Harry Potter more attractive to American viewers, Heyman - who subsequently produced all of the films in the £5bn-grossing franchise - says he is glad that he stood his ground over keeping the film version true to the original.

'It wouldn't have made sense for the homes, the institutions and those gothic structures to be set in America.'

Following on from the success of the books written by British author, the movies met with unparalleled success and are now part of the highest-grossing film series of all time.

The stars and author of the films, left to right: Daniel Radcliffe, JK Rowling, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, pictured at the premiere of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows

The stars and author of the films, left to right: Daniel Radcliffe, JK Rowling, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, pictured at the premiere of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows

But despite earning its creator J.K.Rowling a fortune, it seems that converting Hogwarts into an American-style high school would have fundamentally gone against the author's wishes.

She had initially insisted that the principal cast in the film be kept strictly British, in keeping with the original novel.

And it seems that Rowling's fears that she 'didn't want to give them (movie bosses) control over the rest of the story' by selling off the rights to characters, could have been well-founded if the plans to Americanise the film adaption had gone ahead.

 

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I probably would have enjoyed it more. My children put me through these movies, insist I read the books, Which I find intolerable. I would have enjoyed a typical stupid HighSchool movie more. Just my opinion.

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Dragons Den is based on a Japanese programme.

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He bought the rights in 1999 not 2009

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I love Harry potter! I'm so glad this didn't happen!!! Ps: Hate 50shades of grey... (should never e compared to Harry potter)

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NO. NO. NO!!! DON'T YOU DARE!

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Thank heavens they stood their ground. Hollyweird is possibly the least creative place on earth. American television is becoming increasingly generic. We don't even watch broadcast television anymore.

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""Memphis Belle" was supposed to be about a Lancaster bomber crew, but the yanks insisted it be about a US crew." - Brian, London, UK, 5/8/2012 8:48. --- Historical fact: it was a B-17 with an American crew, not a Lancaster with a Brit crew. 324th Bomb Squadron out of Bassingbourn.

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"Memphis Belle" was supposed to be about a Lancaster bomber crew, but the yanks insisted it be about a US crew. Hugh Laurie got the part of "House" partly because a caster thought he was american (but mainly because he's a bl00dy good actor).

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@ Homunculus 9,Oldham. I LOVE British humour. but i'm half English and half America my parents from Elmbridge,Surrey. i just love The Inbetweeners, Outnumbered,Fridat Night Dinner,Come Fly With Me, Twenty Twelve and many many more shows. thank you BBC AMERICA. TAKE THE MICKEY. LOVE FROM THE U.S. and one more thing to say. GOOD SHOW GREAT BRITAIN, THE OLYMPICS ARE AWESOME

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Stop bashing the Americans- this is a problem with the Hollywood film industry, not America or Americans. Hollywood is so scared of loosing money that it has lost any love for film that it ever had and so it plays to the largest cinema audience in the world, which is America. If you make a list of the top 50 films in English at least 45 of them would be American, same with TV shows, so stop being so harsh just because the industry has such a low opinion of it's own country-men that it won't credit them with the intellegence to enjoy non-American settings...

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