Sunday 15 September 2013

J.K. Rowling Announces Movie Adaptation of ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them’


The Harry Potter universe is set to continue with a new movie. It will be based off of J.K. Rowling’s encyclopaedic companion to the magical creatures that featured in the book and film series, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.  Rowling will make her screenwriting debut to write the film for Warner Brothers studio.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them featured as a textbook Hogwarts students studied in the Harry Potter series, written by the wizard Newt Scamander. Rowling donned the persona of the wizard to write Fantastic Beasts as a supplement to the Harry Potter series previously, and the book was released in 2001, in between the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003).

Here’s Rowling full statement regarding the announcement of the film, courtesy of Hypable (http://www.hypable.com/2013/09/12/new-harry-potter-movies-fantastic-beasts-jk-rowling/):

‘Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for seventeen years, ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world. The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, seventy years before Harry’s gets underway.

It all started when Warner Bros. came to me with the suggestion of turning ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ into a film. I thought it was a fun idea, but the idea of seeing Newt Scamander, the supposed author of ‘Fantastic Beasts,’ realized by another writer was difficult. Having lived for so long in my fictional universe, I feel very protective of it and I already knew a lot about Newt. As hard-core Harry Potter fans will know, I liked him so much that I even married his grandson, Rolf, to one of my favourite characters from the Harry Potter series, Luna Lovegood.

As I considered Warners’ proposal, an idea took shape that I couldn’t dislodge. That is how I ended up pitching my own idea for a film to Warner Bros.

I particularly want to thank Kevin Tsujihara of Warner Bros. for his support in this project, which would not have happened without him. I always said that I would only revisit the wizarding world if I had an idea that I was really excited about and this is it.’

Rowling is yet to commence writing the screenplay, so there has been no word on when the film is expected to be released. The film is set to be the first in a series of films based off of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them produced by Warner Brothers.

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