Baz Luhrmann’s huge ‘Harry Potter’ regret: “I’m an obvious idiot”
Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann has played his hand in bringing some of the most significant literary stories to life on the big screen. No one can ever forget the blinding nature of his 1996 movie Romeo + Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as the fated lovers from William Shakespeare’s legendary original play.
After bringing us the likes of Moulin Rouge and Australia, Luhrmann again dipped into the canonical library to deliver a movie adaptation of what many consider to be “the great American novel”, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, again starring DiCaprio, this time joined by the likes of Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton.
Luhrmann also once had the chance to direct what would go on to become one of the biggest film franchises of all time, none other than Harry Potter. In an interview with Graham Norton, the iconic filmmaker explained that he was offered the first movie in the series, The Philosopher’s Stone, but turned it down.
The fact was that Luhrmann was completely unaware of what on earth Harry Potter was. Like many people who hadn’t read the books, Luhrmann had not been afforded the opportunity the throw himself into the world of Hogwarts with Harry, Ron and Hermione until the films arrived in cinemas.
Luhrmann told Norton: “The first one came along, and they rang me, and while I love the pictures and the books now, then I thought, ‘What’s that?’ And said, ‘Well, that sounds interesting, but I’m thinking of doing a reinvention of the modern musical’, and that was Moulin Rouge.”
Of course, knowing now how iconic the Harry Potter films would become and seeing the kind of revenue they generated, Luhrmann would most likely go back in time and make sure he said yes to that original offer. “So I’m an obvious idiot because I should have taken Harry Potter,” he added.
Still, perhaps if Luhrmann had taken Harry Potter, then we might not have seen some of his other movies, including Moulin Rouge, which he was, of course, working on at the time, Australia, The Great Gatsby, and his most recent effort, Elvis, starring Austin Butler in the lead role. We simply can’t tell what might have become of Luhrmann or the Harry Potter films had the Australian director decided to shelve Moulin Rouge.
Of course, Luhrmann is not the only high-profile director to have turned down the Harry Potter films. Steven Spielberg had also been in talks to take on a cinematic wizarding wonder with the franchise’s first film but had wanted to make it an animated feature rather than a live-action one. So, like Luhrmann, we’re always left to wonder what might have been.
