J.K. Rowling, author of the famous "Harry Potter" series will be making her screenwriting debut with the movie "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," a film that takes place in the same wizarding world as Harry Potter.
"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" will be the first new film in a series. Rowling announced the deal with Warner Bros. Pictures on her Facebook page on Thursday. The film is inspired by Harry Potter's textbook of the same name and will feature the book's fictitious author, Newt Scamander.
"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," Rowling wrote in the announcement. "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."
Rowling goes on to say that when she considered the proposal from Warner Bros., an idea took shape in her mind that she "couldn't dislodge." That's when she ended up pitching the idea herself.
"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," she said. "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."
In other words, it seems unlikely that any of the young major players from the original series will be making an appearance. Instead, fans will get a glimpse of the inner workings of the wizarding world and will be exploring the many fantastical creatures that lurk there.
