This Yahoo article ( http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011114/re/leisure_potter_dc_2.html ) states that overseas, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” will be titled “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”. I have also heard that they shot the scenes where they say “Sorcerer’s” twice, so that they can always say “Philosopher’s” across the water. Why the change?
This has been covered several times, but:
The movie titles are different in the US and the UK because the book titles are different.
Why were the book titles different?
Because Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was written and first published in the UK with that title. The US publisher decided that title would not sell as well in the US, so it was changed to Sorcerer’s Stone for the US market. The primary reason is the belief that us Americans wouldn’t understand the significance of the Philosopher’s Stone, and thus, Sorcerer’s Stone would make the book seem more magical and scary.
“Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” is the original print title of the book, as it was first released in the UK. For US release, it was changed to “Sorcerer”; the newspapers here in England have been taking great lengths to report that the U.S. publisher didn’t want to scare away all the young school-phobic Yanks with the P-word. But I think that’s along the lines of the whole “Madness of King George” UL a few years back.
Dam-nit. I must not know how to use the search function, because I swear I searched for this. Thanks for the info and link…
Since this has been covered so recently in Cafe Society, I’ll close this thread and direct further comment to the other thread, linked to above.
bibliophage
moderator GQ