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 Harry Potter in translation The "Harry Potter" series of fantasy novels by J. K. Rowling is one of the most translated series of all time, with the first book, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", having been translated into over 74 languages. This includes languages diverse as Azerbaijani, Malayalam and Welsh as well as the dead languages Latin and Ancient Greek. This makes it the longest published work in Ancient Greek since the novels of Heliodorus of Emesa in the 3rd century AD. Additionally, regional adaptations of the books have been made to accommodate regional dialects such as the American