Heyman set up a modest office above a music shop in London, where a colleague chanced to read a review about a not-yet-published novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (its British title) and asked for a free copy in 1997. It was summarily tossed on the "low priority" shelf at the bottom of a bookcase.

"Then my secretary, who was fed up with the rubbish she had to read, remembered the good review, took the book home, and brought it up at a staff meeting. I said, 'Bad title. What's it about?' And she said, 'It's about an 11-year-old who goes to wizard school.' I thought that was a great idea, so I read it and fell in love."

"I hadn't a clue that the Potter books would become an international phenomenon," Heyman continued, "but I loved the author's voice, that the book didn't talk down to kids and that it made me laugh. I also liked it because I had gone to a school that reminded me of Hogwarts. We've all had friends like Harry's [hyper-studious] friend, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley, the good-time pal. The book talked about loyalty and friendship and courage and trust, which I most certainly related to. And it was the story of an outsider, an orphan, Harry, who must overcome adversity."

"I regard myself as the protector of Jo's books," he said. Heyman, moreover, was instrumental in selecting Daniel Radcliffe to play Harry Potter, after auditioning hundreds of boy for the part. "I met Dan while we were both attending a play, and he was so right I didn't even watch the show," he recalled.

"The echoes of World War II occur throughout the film," he said. "Voldemort and his followers are obsessed with the preservation of blood purity; they're not Nazis but they recall the politics and attitudes of Nazi Germany. And aesthetically -- although it's a cliché -- the [Death Eater] Lucius Malfoy and his family are blond, like Hitler's ideal of the quintessential Aryan."