In a new interview Steven Spielberg talked about his decision to pass on Harry Potter back in the late 1990s/early 2000s.

I’ve had chance to make a lot of movies that went on to be big hits with other directors and other studios, because I can’t do everything. I was offered Harry Potter. I developed it for about five or six months with [Potter screenwriter] Steve Kloves, and then I dropped out. 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.