The best-selling novel by J.K. Rowling becomes this hotly anticipated fantasy adventure from Chris Columbus, the winner of a high-stakes search for a director to bring the first in a hoped-for franchise of Potter films to the screen by Warner Bros. Upon his 11th birthday, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), who lives in misery with an aunt and uncle that dont want him, learns from a giant named Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) that he is the orphaned son of powerful wizards. Harry is offered a place at prestigious Hogwarts, a boarding school for wizards that exists in a realm of magic and fantasy outside the dreary existence of normal humans or Muggles. At Hogwarts, Harry quickly makes new friends and begins piecing together the mystery of his parents deaths, which appear not to have been accidental after all. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone (2001) was released under the original title of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone in the U.K. The film even features alternate-version scenes for every mention of the titular rock. Richard Harris, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, John Cleese, and Fiona Shaw co-star. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide