Platform 9 3/4 was filmed at Kings Cross, but on platforms 4 and 5. J.K. Rowling has admitted that she mixed up the layout of London's King's Cross railway station when she assigned the Hogwarts Express to platform 9 3/4, reached by using magic between platforms 9 and 10. She meant the location to be in the Inter-City part of the station, but 9 and 10 are actually among the rather less grand suburban platforms. The movie conformed to Rowling's original intent: the platforms seen as 9 and 10 are in real life inter-city platforms 4 and 5.
During filming, actor Daniel Radcliffe changed the screen on Robbie Coltrane's cellphone to Turkish. Coltrane had to phone hair designer Eithne Fennel's Turkish father in order to find out the Turkish for "Change Language".
Robbie Coltrane was the very first person to be cast.
Richard Harris only agreed to taking the part of Albus Dumbledore after his eleven year old granddaughter threatened never to speak to him again.
Author J.K. Rowling insisted that the principal cast be British and she got her wish, with two exceptions - Richard Harris was, of course, Irish, and Zoë Wanamaker, though she has made her name as a "British" actress, is actually a US citizen. Other non-Brits in the cast include Verne Troyer, born in Michigan, USA, who plays Griphook (the second Goblin in Gringots' Bank) and Christopher Columbus's daughter, Eleanor, who played Susan Bones.
Steven Spielberg was offered the position as director, but was later refused when he couldn't agree with JK Rowling's insistence on an all-British cast. He wanted to use Haley Joel Osment for the part of Harry.
In addition to Steven Spielberg, other candidates for the director's job were Jonathan Demme, Brad Silberling and Terry Gilliam. Gilliam was Rowling's initial favorite but the studio finally picked Chris Columbus to direct because he had experience directing child actors. Columbus was also asked many times by his daughter to direct and he agreed after he read her book.
The trouble-making poltergeist Peeves (played by Rik Mayall) does not, in the end, appear in the movie.
Although Daniel Radcliffe's voice broke during production, he did speak all the lines in the movie. The scenes were filmed in order and his voice changes slowly throughout the movie. It was eroneously reported by a London tabloid that a young actor who spoke lines for the action figure dubbed his lines in the movie.
There was a huge media outcry in Gloucester, England when it was decided to use the local Cathedral for some of the Hogwarts scenes. Protesters wrote letters by the sack-load to local newspapers, claiming it was blasphemy and promising to block the film-crew's access. In the end, only one protester turned up.
The movie is known as "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" everywhere except the USA and so every scene in which the Philosopher's Stone was mentioned was filmed twice, once with the actors saying "Philosopher's" and once with the actors saying "Sorcerer's".
The hut used during the filming as Hagrid's hut has since been demolished in case fans of the film swamped it.
The tabby cat used ran away during filming and came back two days later.
Platform 9 3/4 was filmed at Kings Cross, but on platforms 4 and 5. J.K. Rowling has admitted that she mixed up the layout of London's King's Cross railway station when she assigned the Hogwarts Express to platform 9 3/4, reached by using magic between platforms 9 and 10. She meant the location to be in the Inter-City part of the station, but 9 and 10 are actually among the rather less grand suburban platforms. The movie conformed to Rowling's original intent: the platforms seen as 9 and 10 are in real life inter-city platforms 4 and 5.
While the movie used Platforms 4 and 5 at Kings Cross to represent platforms 9 and 10, there is, in fact a "Platform 9 3/4" at Kings Cross. It's located in the walkway area between the intercity section and the section where the real platforms 9 and 10 are, and was obviously put there for fans of Harry Potter.
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