While promoting his latest film War Horse, director Steven Spielberg had lots to say when asked about his original involvement in the Harry Potter series.

Good fans know he had originally been working on Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone – so what happened?

His comments were made on BBC Breakfast, Digital Spy reports:

“I was offered Harry Potter. I developed it for about five or six months with [Potter screenwriter] Steve Kloves, and then I dropped out.”

He added: “I just felt that I wasn’t ready to make an all-kids movie and my kids thought I was crazy. And the books were by that time popular, so when I dropped out, I knew it was going to be a phenomenon.

“But, you know I don’t make movies because they’re gonna to be phenomenons. I make movies because they have to touch me in a way that really commits me to a year, two years, three years of work.”

Would you have liked to have seen Spielberg helm the first film or two? History tells us that the director was at odds with Warner Brothers over how to bring the books to screen. Spielberg had reportedly wanted to merge books and create an animated series.