Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that can help answer the question.
Query: Who directed the first Harry Potter film?
In October 1998, Warner Bros. purchased the film rights to the first two novels for a seven-figure sum. A film adaptation of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was released on 16 November 2001, and "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" on 15 November 2002. Both films were directed by Chris Columbus. The film version of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" was released on 4 June 2004, directed by Alfonso Cuarón. The fourth film, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", was directed by Mike Newell, and released on 18 November 2005. The film of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" was released on 11 July 2007. David Yates directed, and Michael Goldenberg wrote the screenplay, having taken over the position from Steve Kloves. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was released on 15 July 2009. David Yates directed again, and Kloves returned to write the script. Warner Bros. filmed the final instalment of the series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", in two segments, with part one being released on 19 November 2010 and part two being released on 15 July 2011. Yates directed both films.
The film was released on 31 May 2004 in the United Kingdom and on 4 June 2004 in North America, as the first "Harry Potter" film released into IMAX theatres and to be using IMAX Technology. It was also the last "Harry Potter" film to be released on VHS in the U.S. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Original Music Score and Best Visual Effects at the 77th Academy Awards in 2004.
In the United States, the first five Harry Potter films were released on HD DVD and Blu-ray disc on 11 December 2007. The fourth film has since become available in numerous box sets containing the other films released in the series, including the "Harry Potter: Complete 8-Film Collection" and "Harry Potter Wizard's Collection". An Ultimate Edition of "Goblet of Fire" was released on 19 October 2010, featuring behind-the-scenes footage, trailers, additional scenes, and a feature-length special "Creating the World of Harry Potter Part 4: Sound & Music". Despite not being included in the Ultimate Edition, an extended version has been shown during certain television airings with a running time of about 167 minutes.
The film was released in theatres in the United Kingdom and the United States on 15 November 2002. It became a critical and commercial success, grossing $879 million at the box office worldwide. It was the second highest-grossing film of 2002 behind "". The movie was nominated for many awards including the BAFTA Award for Best Production Design, Best Sound, and Best Special Visual Effects. It was followed by six sequels, beginning with "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" in 2004 and ending with "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2" in 2011, nearly ten years after the first film's release.
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is the fifth book in the "Harry Potter" series. The first book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was first published by Bloomsbury in 1997 with an initial print-run of 500 copies in hardback, three hundred of which were distributed to libraries. By the end of 1997, the UK edition won a National Book Award and a gold medal in the 9 to 11 year-olds category of the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. The second novel, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", was published in the UK on 2 July 1998. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" was published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was published on 8 July 2000  simultaneously by Bloomsbury and Scholastic. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is the longest book from the series, yet the second shortest film at 2 hours and 18 minutes.
Jude Law was cast as Albus Dumbledore after director David Yates decided that the role should be played by a younger actor, not Michael Gambon (who played the role in six of the "Harry Potter" films). A number of other actors were considered, including Christian Bale, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, and Jared Harris (son of Richard Harris, who played Dumbledore in the first two "Harry Potter" films).
Richard St. John Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor and singer. He appeared on stage and in many films, appearing as Frank Machin in "This Sporting Life", for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, King Arthur in the 1967 film "Camelot" and the subsequent 1981 revival of the show. He played an aristocrat captured by Native Americans in "A Man Called Horse" (1970), a gunfighter in Clint Eastwood's Western film "Unforgiven" (1992), Emperor Marcus Aurelius in "Gladiator" (2000), and Albus Dumbledore in the first two "Harry Potter" films: "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (2001) and "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (2002), the latter of which was his final film role. Harris had a number-one hit in Australia and Canada and a top ten hit in the United Kingdom, Ireland and United States with his 1968 recording of Jimmy Webb's song "MacArthur Park".
Works of literature have been adapted for film from the dawn of the industry. Some of the earliest examples come from the work of Georges Méliès, who pioneered many film techniques. In 1899, he released two adaptations — "Cinderella" based on the Brothers Grimm story of the same name and "King John", the first known film to be based on the works of Shakespeare. The 1900 film "Sherlock Holmes Baffled", directed by Arthur Marvin featured Arthur Conan Doyle's detective character Sherlock Holmes intruding upon a pseudo-supernatural burglary. The film, considered the first detective movie, ran for only 30 seconds and was originally intended to be shown in hand-cranked Mutoscope machines.
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is the sixth book in the Harry Potter series. The first book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", was first published by Bloomsbury in 1997, with an initial print-run of 500 copies in hardback, 300 of which were distributed to libraries. By the end of 1997, the UK edition won a National Book Award and a gold medal in the 9- to 11-year-olds category of the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. The second book, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June 1999. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" was then published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time by Bloomsbury and Scholastic. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", the longest novel in the Harry Potter series, was released 21 June 2003. After the publishing of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", the seventh and final novel, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", was released 21 July 2007. The book sold 11 million copies within 24 hours of its release: 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.
In 2000, in the lead-up to the release of the first "Harry Potter" film, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"; Warner Bros., the film's distributor, sent a series of letters to owners of "Harry Potter" fansites, demanding that, to protect their copyright, they hand over their domain names. The action resulted in negative publicity for the company when Claire Field, the then 15-year-old webmaster of the British fansite harrypotterguide.co.uk, was reduced to tears by what were described by her father as unnecessary bully tactics. Eventually the corporation backed down in the face of media opposition and declared that, as the site was non-commercial, it did not violate the trademark.
In 2004, he began playing Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts's headmaster in the third installment of J. K. Rowling's franchise, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", taking over the role after the death of Richard Harris. (Harris had also played Maigret on television four years before Gambon took that role.) Gambon reprised the role of Dumbledore in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", which was released in November 2005 in the United Kingdom and the United States. He returned to the role again in the fifth film, 2007's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", and the sixth film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". He appeared in the seventh film; "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts I and II", released in two parts in 2010 and 2011. Gambon told an interviewer that, when playing Dumbledore, he does not "have to play anyone really. I just stick on a beard and play me, so it's no great feat. I never ease into a role—every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. I'm not really a character actor at all...'"
"The Hound of the Baskervilles" marks the first of the fourteen "Sherlock Holmes" films starring Rathbone and Bruce as Holmes and Watson, respectively. It is also notable as the earliest known "Sherlock Holmes" film to be set in the Victorian period of the original stories; all known previous "Holmes" films, up to and including the 1930s British film series starring Arthur Wontner as Holmes, had been updated to a setting contemporaneous with the films' release. It is also the only film in the series to be a strict adaptation of its source material, while subsequent installments would feature original titles and incorporate various elements of different stories.
In conjunction with the release of the "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" film in 2009, the organisation launched a "What Would Dumbledore Do" campaign, asking fans to tweet about the lessons they learned from Harry Potter's headmaster Albus Dumbledore using #dumbledore, attend the film release wearing a nametag with one thing Dumbledore taught them, and apply those lessons in their lives.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 78% based on 244 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It's not easy to take the longest "Harry Potter" book and streamline it into the shortest HP movie, but director David Yates does a bang up job of it, creating an "Order of the Phoenix" that's entertaining and action-packed." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 71 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews" On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.
A film, directed by Terry Gilliam, was planned. As of 2002 Gilliam still hoped to make the film with its already completed script, but by 2006 it seemed to have come to nothing. Funding was slow to appear and Gilliam moved on to other projects. There was a rumour that Johnny Depp was originally cast as Crowley and Robin Williams as Aziraphale. However Gaiman has said on his website, "Well, Robin's worked with Terry Gilliam before as well, of course, most famously in "The Fisher King". But I have no idea about "Good Omens" casting (except for Shadwell. Terry told me who he wanted to play Shadwell. I immediately forgot the man's name, although I can assure you that it wasn't Robin Williams)." According to an interview in May 2006 at "The Guardian" Hay Festival, Gilliam was still hoping to go ahead with the film.
Fisher's career changed direction permanently when Hammer asked him to direct "The Curse of Frankenstein" (1957), their first colour horror film. It was the company’s most important project to date, and Fisher was hand-picked by Hammer management to helm the movie as he had a reputation for reliability. Working from a script by Jimmy Sangster that re-imagined the lengthy original novel as a gruesome, morally ambiguous chamber piece, the film saw British TV star Peter Cushing cast as Baron Victor Frankenstein whilst the then little-known supporting actor Christopher Lee portrayed the Creature. It was a handsome-looking, quality production and an international box office smash; alarming British critics and raising the standard for what was acceptable in terms of on-screen violence and gore, the movie established Hammer as a leading brand name in the British film industry.
Hammer had even more financial success with Fisher’s second gothic horror film "Dracula" (1958), starring Lee in the title role and Cushing as his adversary Doctor Van Helsing. Once again reducing the scope of its source novel in line with Hammer’s budgetary constraints, the screenplay minimised both the geographical settings and the number of characters, and the result was a compact, atmospheric and action-packed chiller in which Lee portrayed the figure of the vampire Count Dracula as having an animalistic sexuality that had never before been presented on screen. It is today regarded as a trailblazer in the horror movie genre, the archetypal Hammer movie, and the greatest of Fisher’s directorial efforts.
The second book, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June 1999. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" was published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time by Bloomsbury and Scholastic. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is the longest book in the series, at 766 pages in the UK version and 870 pages in the US version. It was published worldwide in English on 21 June 2003. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was published on 16 July 2005; it sold 9 million copies in the first 24 hours of its worldwide release. The seventh and final novel, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", was published on 21 July 2007. The book sold 11 million copies in the first 24 hours of release, breaking down to 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.
McManus briefly played Aberforth Dumbledore in the fifth Harry Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" in 2007. He also had roles in "Silver Dream Racer" (1980), "Just Ask for Diamond" (1988), "Buddy's Song" (1991) and "Easy Virtue" (2008), and featured in the 2014 film "Pride", directed by Matthew Warchus.
The studio's first live-action film was "Treasure Island" (1950). Animated films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar are also released by Walt Disney Pictures. The studio has released four films that have received an Academy Award for Best Picture nomination: "Mary Poppins" (1964), "Beauty and the Beast" (1991), "Up" (2009), and "Toy Story 3" (2010).
To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1962 American drama film directed by Robert Mulligan. The screenplay by Horton Foote is based on Harper Lee's 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. It stars Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and Mary Badham as Scout. "To Kill a Mockingbird" marked the film debuts of Robert Duvall, William Windom, and Alice Ghostley.
The second book, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", was originally published in the UK on July 2, 1998 and later, in the US on June 2, 1999. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" was then published a year later in the UK on July 8, 1999 and in the US on September 8, 1999. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time by Bloomsbury and Scholastic. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is the longest book in the series at 766 pages in the UK version and 870 pages in the US version. It was published worldwide in English on June 21, 2003. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was published on July 16, 2005 and sold 11 million copies in the first 24 hours of its worldwide release. The seventh and final novel, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", was published on July 21, 2007. The book sold 11 million copies within 24 hours of its release: 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a 2009 fantasy film directed by David Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is based on J. K. Rowling's 2005 novel of the same name. The film, which is the sixth instalment in the "Harry Potter" film series, was written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman and David Barron. The story follows Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts as he receives a mysterious textbook, falls in love, and attempts to retrieve a memory that holds the key to Lord Voldemort's downfall.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a 2005 fantasy film directed by Mike Newell and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is based on J. K. Rowling's 2000 novel of the same name. The film, which is the fourth instalment in the "Harry Potter" film series, was written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman. The story follows Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts as he is chosen by the Goblet of Fire to compete in the Triwizard Tournament.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 is a 2010 fantasy film directed by David Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is the first of two cinematic parts based on J. K. Rowling's 2007 novel of the same name and features an ensemble cast. The film, which is the seventh and penultimate instalment in the "Harry Potter" film series, was written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman, David Barron, and Rowling.
In 1998, Rowling sold the film rights of the first four "Harry Potter" books to Warner Bros. for a reported £1 million ($1,982,900). Rowling demanded the principal cast be kept strictly British, nonetheless allowing for the inclusion of Irish actors such as the late 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. After many directors including Steven Spielberg, Terry Gilliam, Jonathan Demme, and Alan Parker were considered, Chris Columbus was appointed on 28 March 2000 as the director for "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (titled ""Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"" in the United States), with Warner Bros. citing his work on other family films such as "Home Alone" and "Mrs. Doubtfire" and proven experience with directing children as influences for their decision.