Acclaimed director Steven Spielberg admits his children thought he was "crazy" when he stepped down from "Harry Potter" project and allowed Chris Columbus to take over.

Spielberg, who has six children aged between 15 and 26, passed on the chance to Columbus because he didn't feel he was ready to tackle an "all-kids" project.

"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," femalefirst.co.uk quoted the 65-year-old as saying.

"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," he added.