WB Announces HARRY POTTER Spinoff Movies
Devin Pike
Published: September 12, 2013Posted in: News
With the eight films earning over $7.7 billion in worldwide box office receipts in ten years, Warner Brothers has been looking for another high-profile series to replace the money HARRY POTTER has provided the studio. The answer: keep making HARRY POTTER movies.
A studio press release this morning confirms the spinoff movies are in development, with author J.K. Rowling writing the screenplay for the first time in her career. The series will focus on a text mentioned in the first book, HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, that was required reading for Hogwarts students.
By adapting FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM, Rowling gets to delve into the mythology she was only allowed to touch on while telling the story of "the boy who lived."
J.K. Rowling's full announcement of the production deal is included below, though no start date or release date is mentioned.
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 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.
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.
America's Sweetheart. Pixel monkey; media whore; recovering film critic; baseball fanatic; husband; Texan; human.