India, Sept. 13 -- The upcoming television adaptation of JK Rowling's "Harry Potter" books could be more satisfying for audiences because it will be able to stay closer to the source material, actor Gary Oldman has said.

Oldman, who played Sirius Black in four "Harry Potter" films, said the movies had to leave out substantial portions of the books because of their runtime, resulting in considerable character detail being lost.

"We had to cut a lot (for the 'Harry Potter' movies), and still we could only get the films down to, like, three hours," Oldman told Entertainment Weekly in an interview.

"A lot of character detail was sacrificed," he added, saying he believed the HBO series would adapt the books "pretty much word-for-word", whic...