‘Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone’ Early Cut Was Nearly As Long As ‘Fellowship Of The Ring’
By Ethan Anderton/Dec. 2, 2020 5:30 pm EST
In a recent interview with Collider, Columbus recalled just how much anxiety he felt, worrying that he was going to get fired every single day. The director said:
But he made it to the end of the production, and when they were ready to screen the film for the first audience to ever see a Harry Potter movie, they went to Chicago. Initially, producers wanted an audience outside of the usual test screening audiences in New York and Los Angeles, and they figured the largest city in the Midwest would give them a different perspective. This was a tradition that carried on for every Harry Potter movie in the franchise, and fans lucky enough to see these test screenings were usually treated to longer versions of the movies. In the case of The Sorcerer’s Stone, they saw nearly 18 extra minutes. Columbus recalled:
“The first film was fraught with anxiety for me. The first two weeks I thought I was gonna get fired every day. Everything looked good, I just thought if I do one thing wrong, if I fuck up, I’m fired. And that was intense. I didn’t let any of that show on the set, there was no frustration, I’m not a screamer, I get along with everybody and I want everybody to feel like they’re part of the family, so I just had to hide that side of my emotions.”
Some of this footage can be seen in deleted scenes on the home video release of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone. In fact, some of those scenes have been put back in the movie when they air on television, depending on which channel is showing them. But these scenes were cut for a reason, and the theatrical cut is actually better for it.
