Preview - Harry Potter Movie

Courtesy of Raincoast Books

Have you heard of Harry Potter? Bright guy, messy hair, good on a broomstick? He's the wildly popular hero of the Harry Potter books from a fine lady by the name of JK Rowling. And now Harry's going to be a movie star. It's been big news from the start. Famous actors and moviemakers have been talking about starring roles and big studios have been making big plans. It's got a lot of buzz going on. Here are the facts about the movie so far:

The biggest news is the cast. It's huge! Everybody from John Cleese of Monty Python and A Fish Called Wanda to Robbie Coltrane of Cracker. They may not be big names in America but in Britain they're big stars.

Here's a list of some of the characters in Harry's world and who's gonna play'em on the big screen:

Character	Actor
Harry Potter	Daniel Radcliffe
Ron Weasley	Rupert Grint
Hermione Granger	Emma Watson
Prof. Dumbledore	Richard Harris
Prof. Severus Snape	Alan Rickman
Hagrid	Robbie Coltrane
Uncle Vernon Dursley	Richard Griffiths
Aunt Petunia Dursley	Fiona Shaw
Dudley Dursley	Harry Melling
Nearly Headless Nick	John Cleese
Draco Malfoy	Tom Felton

The Director is Chris Columbus. He's directed Home Alone, Home Alone 2 and Mrs. Doubtfire, among others. He's got a knack for comedy so expect a good chuckle when you see this movie. JK Rowling herself is on hand making sure things are done right. John Williams is doing the music. He's the guy behind all the Star Wars music and he's bringing serious talent to the film.

Warner Bros. is doing the film. They've been hard at work filming, editing, shooting and working their moviemaking magic since late last year. They've built sets, hired actors and done everything they can to make Harry Potter a big screen reality.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone arrived at a theatre near you on Nov. 16th 2001.