BBC News Online: Entertainment

Potter film needs more time

Warner Bros Pictures have overrun on their filming schedule for The Sorcerer's Stone due to bad weather.

They have had to approach 11-year-old Radcliffe's local London council to ask for the original deadline of the end of March to be extended to mid-July.

Filming on the much-anticipated movie, based on the first of the four best-selling Harry Potter children's books by JK Rowling, began in September last year.

Radcliffe goes to school in Kensington but lives in Fulham, west London, which comes under the authority of Hammersmith and Fulham council.

'Exceptional'

Permission for a minor to stay way from school has to be granted by the council authority governing the area in which you live.

Council spokesman Kevin Batt confirmed that Warners were seeking permission to extend filming.

"We are currently looking in to the request and the exceptional circumstances involved," Mr Batt said.

"This film is going to launch Daniel into the stratosphere of stardom. It would be highly unlikely for us to suddenly put a stop to that."

However, Mr Batt dismissed reports that Warners had asked for an extension to try to make two Harry Potter movies back-to-back before Radcliffe's voice broke.

"They would have asked for much longer," Mr Batt concluded.

Although Radcliffe and his young co-stars Emma Watson, 10, and Rupert Grint, 12, are not attending school they are receiving lessons from tutors on set.

Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone is being filmed at Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire.

It also stars John Cleese, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, Dame Maggie Smith and Zoe Wanamaker.

It is due to be released on 16 November.