J. K. Rowling scripted by Steve Kloves; Rowling assisted him in the writing process, ensuring that his scripts did not contradict future books in the series. She told Alan Rickman (Severus Snape) and Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) certain secrets about their characters before they were revealed in the books. Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) asked her if Harry died at any point in the series; Rowling answered him by saying, "You have a death scene", thereby not explicitly answering the question. Director Steven Spielberg was approached to direct the first film, but dropped out. The press has repeatedly claimed that Rowling played a role in
Harry Potter in translation asked Rowling about the gender of some of the characters—Zabini, Professor Sinistra, and "R.A.B."—while working on her translations. 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