'JK Rowling is to make her screenwriting debut in a new Harry Potter-themed film series, Warner Bros has announced. The first film of the series will be titled Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
[…] The new film will feature Newt Scamander, the fictional author of the textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, owned by Harry Potter at Hogwarts school. […] "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."'
It may be that it's being poorly described or summarized, but I'm not seeing anything here that makes me excited about this.
Rowling to pen Potter spin-off film
Meh. I'll wait for more information and a trailer.
I'll see it because I like the setting. Though, without Hermime (spelling), it will likely be very dull indeed. 🙂
She's writing the first screenplay herself so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
I don't know if I'd class it as a not-good idea just from this description. A been-there-done-that idea, sure, but those aren't always bad. Her work has been pretty engaging up to now even if rather derivative so I'll reserve judgement on it until the first product is out.
Sounds awful, but it will probably make a tons of money.
I'm highly skeptical…
I hear she's strapped for cash. No. Wait. That's strapped to cash. My mistake.
FWIW, though she was on Forbes' billionaire list in 2011, she fell out of the list in part of because of $160 million in charitable contributions. So I don't have any problem with her making some more money.
And I doubt she has any problem with any of us making money, so we shouldn't consider that a factor when critiquing her or her work, at all.
Loved the books. Did not like any of the movies after the first two. This does not sound appealing to me at all.
I actually enjoyed both books and movies, @Ellie — though the latter more as time went on, and the former less.
I have the book. It's a simple bestiary, albeit rather humorous. She will have to make the story out of whole cloth. I expect JK could do a good job of it, although I don't know how well she will handle the screenplay format.
@Dave Sometimes, I can look at movies made from books and ignore the pictures I already had in my head and ignore changes/omissions/additions, etc., looking at them as entirely different stories. Couldn’t do it in this case. While the actors playing Harry, Hermione and Ron fit fine, there was too much other stuff that did not — for me.
Yeah, I had the sense, Scott, that she was pretty much having to do something completely new with it.
Aye-firmative!