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 in translation pass off as the translation of the real book by Rowling. There have been several such books, the most famous of which is probably "Harry Potter and Bao Zoulong" which was written and published in China in 2002, before the release of the fifth book in Rowling's series, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". Other fake Harry Potter books written in Chinese include "Harry Potter and the Porcelain Doll" (哈利・波特与瓷娃娃 or Hālì Bōtè yǔ Cíwáwa), "Harry Potter and the Golden Turtle", and "Harry Potter and the Crystal Vase". In August 2007, "The New York Times" noted that the