History Trivia / HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone

* UrbanLegendOfZelda:
** Creator/JKRowling has also denied the story that she turned down Creator/StevenSpielberg's offer to direct the film, because he wanted it to be animated and have Creator/HaleyJoelOsment voice Harry. It was actually Alan Horn, president of Creator/WarnerBros that vetoed this, and that was just the idea of making the films animated and combining several books into one. Spielberg still did five months of pre-production before stepping down because he didn't feel connected to the material.
** No one wanted Creator/HaleyJoelOsment as the voice of Harry either, or at least no one was pushing for him in the role. He had just expressed interest in playing Harry.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: See [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/HarryPotter subpage]].

** The child actors did their actual school work while filming the Hogwarts scenes - to make the school setting appear that much more real.

** Creator/JKRowling has also denied the story that she turned down Creator/StevenSpielberg's offer to direct the film, because he wanted it to be animated and have Creator/HaleyJoelOsment voice Harry. It was actually Alan Horn, president of Creator/WarnerBros that vetoed this - and that was just the idea of making the films animated and combining several books into one. Spielberg still did five months of pre-production before stepping down because he didn't feel connected to the material.

* AbilityOverAppearance: Creator/JKRowling has said that she felt Creator/EmmaWatson was perfect for Hermione after speaking to her on the phone - where in true Hermione fashion she spoke for sixty seconds without taking a breath. She's joked that if she had met Emma before and seen [[AdaptationalAttractiveness how pretty she was]], she may not have been cast.

* BeamMeUpScotty: "Yer a wizard Harry" is only in the film. In the book, Hagrid says "Harry - yer a wizard."

* MarketBasedTitle: Both the film and the book were renamed to ''The Sorcerer's Stone'' for the North American release. Scholastic, the American publisher, didn't think the book would do well under the original title.

** Rowling regrets caving to Scholastic and letting them Americanize the book's title and text for the U.S. market. She made sure to assert herself and keep everything unchanged for the American releases of future instalments.

* WordOfGod:
** Due to the books' covers showing Harry with a scar in the middle of his forehead, most fans assumed this is where his scar was meant to be. However Creator/JKRowling insisted on having it on the side of his forehead, the books never specifying where exactly the scar was.
** Creator/JKRowling has also denied the story that she turned down Creator/StevenSpielberg's offer to direct the film, because he wanted it to be animated and have Creator/HaleyJoelOsment voice Harry. It was actually Alan Horn, president of Warner Bros that vetoed this - and that was just the idea of making the films animated and combining several books into one. Spielberg still did five months of pre-production before stepping down because he didn't feel connected to the material.
** No one wanted Creator/HaleyJoelOsment as the voice of Harry either, or at least no one was pushing for him in the role. He had just expressed interest in playing Harry.
** Creator/ChrisColumbus states that many of the background extras in the Leaky Cauldron scene were told to wear turbans so that Quirrell's would not seem out of place.

* FakeBrit: Defied by Creator/JKRowling, who insisted all cast members be British or Irish. The exceptions are Eleanor Columbus's non-speaking role as Susan Bones (the first girl to get sorted), and Verne Troyer (Griphook) who was dubbed by Creator/WarwickDavis. Zoe Wanamaker (Madame Hooch) was born in New York as her father, actor Sam Wanamaker, fled the U.S. to escape UsefulNotes/TheHollywoodBlacklist, but she was raised in the UK.

* DuellingMovies: The film came out one month before the movie version of Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing. Both managed to be massive box office successes, and the duel would be repeated twelve months later with their respective sequels.

* FakeBrit: Defied by Creator/JKRowling, who insisted all cast members be British. The exceptions are Eleanor Columbus's non-speaking role as Susan Bones (the first girl to get sorted), and Verne Troyer (Griphook) who was dubbed by Creator/WarwickDavis. Zoe Wanamaker (Madame Hooch) was born in New York as her father, actor Sam Wanamaker, fled the U.S. to escape UsefulNotes/TheHollywoodBlacklist, but she was raised in the UK.

* FakeBrit: Defied by Creator/JKRowling - who insisted all cast members be British. Only three Americans are in the film - Zoe Wanamaker (Madame Hooch), who has a British accent anyway[[note]]She was raised in the U.K. as her father, actor Sam Wanamaker, fled the U.S. to escape UsefulNotes/TheHollywoodBlacklist[[/note]]; and Eleanor Columbus (Susan Bones, the first girl to get sorted) who has no lines. Verne Troyer, who plays Griphook, is American but dubbed by Creator/WarwickDavis.

* FakeBrit: Defied by Creator/JKRowling - who insisted all cast members be British. Only three Americans are in the film - Zoe Wanamaker (Madame Hooch), who has a British accent anyway[[note]]She was raised in the U.K. due to the fact that her father, actor Sam Wanamaker, fled the U.S. to escape UsefulNotes/TheHollywoodBlacklist[[/note]]; and Eleanor Columbus (Susan Bones, the first girl to get sorted) who has no lines. Verne Troyer, who plays Griphook, is American but dubbed by Creator/WarwickDavis.

* DuellingMovies: The film came out one month before the movie version of Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing. Both managed to be massive box office successes.

* WordOfGod: Creator/ChrisColumbus states that many of the background extras in the Leaky Cauldron scene were told to wear turbans so that Quirrell's would not seem out of place.

* {{Jossed}}:
** Due to the books' covers showing Harry with a scar in the middle of his forehead, most fans assumed this is where his scar was meant to be. However Creator/JKRowling insisted on having it on the side of his forehead, the books never specifying where exactly the scar was.
** Creator/JKRowling has also denied the story that she turned down Creator/StevenSpielberg's offer to direct the film, because he wanted it to be animated and have Creator/HaleyJoelOsment voice Harry. It was actually Alan Horn, president of Warner Bros that vetoed this - and that was just the idea of making the films animated and combining several books into one. Spielberg still did five months of pre-production before stepping down because he didn't feel connected to the material.
** No one wanted Creator/HaleyJoelOsment as the voice of Harry either, or at least no one was pushing for him in the role. He had just expressed interest in playing Harry.

* TheOtherMarty: Well, more like the "Other Locomotive", but British Railways 34207 ''Taw Valley'', a ''West Country'' class locomotive, was replaced as the ''Hogwarts Express'' by the Great Western Railways 5972 ''Olton Hall'', when Chris Columbus felt the former engine looked too modern.

** The final scene contains an unintentional example. It was actually the first scene filmed, and they gave Creator/DanielRadcliffe green contact lens to match the description of Harry's eyes in the books. They irritated his eyes so much that they decided not to use them in any subsequent scenes. But for the scene in which they were used, they make it look like Harry is appropriately choked up about leaving Hogwarts.

* EnforcedMethodActing: The child actors did their actual school work while filming the Hogwarts scenes - to make the school setting appear that much more real.

* FakeBrit: Defied by Creator/JKRowling - who insisted all cast members be British. Only three Americans are in the film - Zoe Wanamaker (Madame Hooch), who has a British accent anyway; and Eleanor Columbus (Susan Bones, the first girl to get sorted) who has no lines. Verne Troyer, who plays Griphook, is American but dubbed by Creator/WarwickDavis.

** Rowling regrets caving to Scholastic and letting them Americanize the book's title and text for the U.S. market. She made sure to assert herself and keep everything unchanged for the American releases of future installments.

* RealLifeRelative: Susan Bones is played by the director's daughter, Eleanor Columbus.

* CompletelyDifferentTitle: The book is known as ''Harry Potter à l'école des sorciers'' (roughly Harry Potter at Wizards' School) in French. Coincidentally, a similar title, ''Harry Potter and the School of Magic'', was suggested by the American publisher but rejected by Rowling.

* WordOfGod: Chris Columbus states that many of the background extras in the Leaky Cauldron scene were told to wear turbans so that Quirrell's would not seem out of place.
* In a bit of more general trivia, because the Philosopher's Stone was renamed the Sorcerer's Stone in the American release of the source novel, every scene where the stone is referred to by name had to have a second version shot where characters call it by its Americanized name for the film's US release.

* CompletelyDifferentTitle: The book is known as ''Harry Potter à l'école des sorciers'' (roughly Harry Potter at Wizards' School) in French.