Harry Potter (film series)

Harry Potter is a BritishAmerican film series based on the Harry Potter novels by author J. K. Rowling. The series is distributed by Warner Bros. and consists of eight fantasy films beginning with Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone 2001 and culminating with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part2011. Without inflation adjustment, it is the second highestgrossing film series with 7.7 billion in worldwide receipts, of which seven out of eight films are among the 50 highestgrossing films.

Late in 1997, film producer David Heymans London offices received a copy of the first book in what would become Rowlings series of seven Harry Potter novels. The book, Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, was relegated to a lowpriority bookshelf, where it was discovered by a secretary who read it and gave it to Heyman with a positive review. Consequently, Heyman, who had originally disliked the rubbish title, read the book himself. Highly impressed by Rowlings work, he began the process that led to one of the most successful cinematic franchises of all time.Heymans enthusiasm led to Rowlings 1999 sale of the film rights for the first four Harry Potter books to Warner Bros. for a reportedmillion US2,000,000. A demand Rowling made was that the principal cast be kept strictly British, allowing nevertheless for the inclusion of many Irish actors, such as Richard Harris as Dumbledore, and for casting of French and Eastern European actors in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire where characters from the book are specified as such. Rowling was hesitant to sell the rights because she didnt want to give them control over the rest of the story by selling the rights to the characters, which would have enabled Warner Bros. to make nonauthorwritten sequels. ........

Source: Wikipedia