Could Terry Gilliam Have Directed Harry Potter?

Fourteen years ago the question of which director would be responsible for bringing the 'Harry Potter' franchise to the big screen was one of the most debated film topics. Chris Columbus got the job, but Terry Gilliam wanted it and the director expressed his annoyance at not be given the role at the time. Now with the benefit of hindsight who really would have been better at taking on the unenviable task of directing 'Harry Potter'.

Who ever was given the task of bringing ‘Harry Potter’ to life onscreen for the first time was going to be carrying the hopes and expectations of millions children all over the world. This meant that the task of picking the first director would not be easy. Among the names talked about early on, were Steven Spielberg, (who wished to animate the films), Tim Robbins and M. Night Shyamalan. However Rowling’s personal pick was Terry Gilliam, whom the author was a fan of. Gilliam said in 2006 that he was the ‘perfect guy’ to direct ‘Harry Potter’, but the gig went to Chris Columbus.

Gilliam definitely had an impressive back catalogue, especially in the fantasy genre. Looking at ‘Time Bandits’ and his later works ‘Brothers Grimm’ and ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’, it’s clear Gilliam would have had the imagination to bring the ‘Harry Potter’ books to life on screen. Columbus’s previous work was less impressive. Yes ‘Home Alone’, ‘Home Alone 2’ and ‘Mrs Doubtfire.’ were box office hits aimed at a younger audience, but they were a far cry from a story with as much depth and imagination as 'Harry Potter'. What was in Columbus’s favour though was that he had written two eighties cult classics, ‘Gremlins’ and ‘The Goonies’.

What went against Gilliam was more his reputation especially when it came to budgetary matters.
Gilliam had a reputation of making movies with extremely inflated budgets, for example ‘The Adventures of Baron Munchausen’, which cost around $46 million to make and earned only about $8 million at the box office. This meant it was incredibly unlikely that Wanner Brothers would take a risk with Gilliam, especially as they were lining up the ‘Harry Potter’ movies to be a huge money making franchise.

It’s hard to say if Chris Columbus really was the best choice to direct ‘_Harry Potter’, who knows what someone like Tim Robbins or M. Night Shyamalan would have done. However it is probably better that Terry Gilliam didn't get chance to start off the ‘Harry Potter_’ franchise. With so much riding on these movies he didn't exactly have the best track record to be able to handle the financial implications. It’s also worth remembering that the ‘Harry Potter’ was always going to be an eight part series and different directors would have been involved and having such an individualistic director right at the beginning may not have been the best idea.