Harry Potter (film series) 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 "didn't 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 non-author-written sequels. Although Steven Spielberg initially negotiated to direct the first film, he declined
Harry Potter of which have been highly successful in their own right. The films have in turn spawned eight video games and have led to the licensing of more than 400 additional "Harry Potter" products. The "Harry Potter" brand has been estimated to be worth as much as $25 billion. The great demand for Harry Potter books motivated "The New York Times" to create a separate best-seller list for children's literature in 2000, just before the release of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". By 24 June 2000, Rowling's novels had been on the list for 79 straight weeks; the first