HARRY POTTER; Not Over Quite Yet
It’s not over until it’s over (especially when billions of dollars are involved).
On her Web site yesterday, J. K. Rowling announced that she is working with Warner Bros. on a new franchise, based on the fictional Hogwarts textbook that Rowling wrote for the Harry Potter series in 2001, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, (Scholastic), under the name Newt Scamander. Set 70 years before Harry and crew enrolled in Hogwarts, the films will feature the book’s fictitious author, a revered former Hogwarts headmaster. Rowling will write the screenplay.
In her statement, Rowling says,
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. Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for 17 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, 70 years before Harry’s gets underway.”