Steven Spielberg on the Harry

Steven Spielberg on the Harry Potter movie in the New York Times:

Mr. Spielberg sighed. “Well, `Color Purple’ is a good example,” he said. “That was a film where there was more ink shed on the comparison with the Alice Walker novel than there was on the merits or problems with the film. In fact, the film was not analyzed. Instead, a mirror of Alice Walker was held up to it.”

It taught him a lesson, he said, one that came to mind last year when he was considering which project to choose to end his three-year hiatus, and briefly thought of directing the adaptation of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” for Warner Brothers.

“Every kid in the world will be waiting to see how close `Harry Potter’ will be to the books,” he said. “And if they make it religiously and everybody gives it up to the book, there will be tremendous satisfaction.” But this leaves little for a creative artist to do who wants to tell stories in his own way, free of the tyranny of some sacred text.