# Harry Potter and the "Philosopher's" Stone? How'd they pull that one off? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 21, 2001, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone-howd-they-pull-that-one-off/94550 "2001-11-21T05:37:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alzarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@Alzarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alzarian)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2001, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone-howd-they-pull-that-one-off/94550/1 "2001-11-21T05:37:46Z")
So, the movie in the UK is going by the original title of the book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. So, were all the scenes where they mention the Stone in the movie, filmed twice, once for the British audience, once for the American? Just curious… ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Maximino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e95f7d/32.png) [@Mighty\_Maximino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Maximino)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2001, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone-howd-they-pull-that-one-off/94550/2 "2001-11-21T05:46:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Alzarian \* > \*\*So, the movie in the UK is going by the original title of the book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. So, were all the scenes where they mention the Stone in the movie, filmed twice, once for the British audience, once for the American? Just curious… \*\* Yep. They filmed those scenes twice. ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2001, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone-howd-they-pull-that-one-off/94550/3 "2001-11-21T05:50:56Z")
It struck me as rather odd they chose “Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone” as the US title given that most of the complaints about the stories seem to be related to it “encouraging sorcery”. I very much doubt that the alchemical references to the “Philosopher’s Stone” would have been too obscure for US audiences to grasp (or is alchemy considered “worse” than sorcery in the US?). ---
**Author:** ![booklover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@booklover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/booklover)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2001, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone-howd-they-pull-that-one-off/94550/4 "2001-11-21T16:17:33Z")
I think that most Americans, upon hearing “alchemy”, think of chemistry rather than anything supernatural. Likewise, “philosopher” conjures up boring hours of discussing Socrates and Plato. I guess they stuck with sorcerer because that’s what the book title is here… ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2001, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone-howd-they-pull-that-one-off/94550/5 "2001-11-21T16:27:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by booklover \* > “philosopher” conjures up boring hours of discussing Socrates and Plato. That’s the way I heard the story. ---
**Author:** ![SolomonGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@SolomonGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolomonGrundy)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2001, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone-howd-they-pull-that-one-off/94550/6 "2001-11-21T22:43:43Z")
I don’t recall them ever saying “Sorcerer’s Stone” in the movie (I’m in the US), so if they did it was only mentioned a couple of times. And I wouldn’t be surprised if it was all from characters who were off-screen or had their backs to the camera. So I’d imagine they didn’t need to actually re-shoot anything, just re-loop the dialog. Of course, I wasn’t paying THAT close attention, so all of this conjecture could be hogwash. ---
**Author:** ![tronvillain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@tronvillain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tronvillain)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2001, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone-howd-they-pull-that-one-off/94550/7 "2001-11-21T23:03:39Z")
Just thought I’d point out that it’s “Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone” in Canada too. ---
**Author:** ![Jeremy\_s\_Evil\_Twin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Jeremy\_s\_Evil\_Twin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeremy_s_Evil_Twin)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2001, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone-howd-they-pull-that-one-off/94550/8 "2001-11-22T00:07:43Z")
I was just about to ask this question myself. Also I wanted to point out that **SolomonGrundy** must have REALLY not been paying attention, because they mention the “sorcerer’s stone” many, many times in many different scenes, and yes you can see the actors’ lips in most of the scenes. So re-looping the dialogue ain’t gonna cut it.