Harry Potter to be made into book

Hollywood to cash in with minority-interest spin-off

by Kieren McCarthy

Hollywood studio Warner Brothers is to launch a book based on its blockbuster film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

The film – which has been a great hit with adults and children alike, even though it hasn't been released yet – charts the exploits of a young boy wizard called Harry Potter and his friends as they do battle with the evil sorcerer Lord Voldemort at their wizarding school.

Now, however, Harry Potter is to be immortalised in print and the studio has already found an author for the project – vivacious actress Julia Roberts.

"The first time I saw the completed film, I knew we had to make a book of it," senior VP of marketing at Warner Brothers, Ted Jenkins, told us. "The film is just so, so literary. It's almost as if the words shoot out at you as you watch it."

Ms Roberts faces a hard task if she is to capture the imagination of the original film, although she feels she's up to the job. "I watched the film maybe one or two times and I just adored it," she said, although the line was really just written by a Warner Brothers PR and typed into a press release. "I just hope I can remain faithful to it."

Purists are angry at the studio's decision to turn the film into a book, however. "It should stick to what it knows," said a spokesman for the "Keep Harry On Screen" campaign. "By writing this book, it is restricting people's view of the film. How are you supposed to write the special effects? And what about the close-ups?"

Warner Brothers remains unconcerned by such criticism, pointing out that the film was originally inspired by thousands of fluffy toys and T-shirts featuring the boy with the lightning-strike scar on his forehead.

In the book though, it is believed that the scar will be removed from his forehead and put on his arm instead. It will also have a change of name to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone after the studio decided booky people would not understand the original Sorcerer title.

If the venture proves successful, Warner Brothers plans to make more books from the film's eagerly awaited sequels.