Book-to-Film: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K. Rowling
From Variety:
Warner Bros. has dated J.K. Rowling’s first installment in the Harry Potter spinoff trilogy “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” for Nov. 18, 2016.
Warner Bros. topper Kevin Tsujihara then revealed in March that the studio was following in the footsteps of “The Hobbit” franchise with three “megamovies” for “Fantastic Beasts.”
Tsujihara persuaded Rowling last year to spin off the Harry Potter franchise by adapting her Hogwarts textbook “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” for the big screen. Rowling wrote the 54-page book in 2001 between publication of the fourth and fifth Potter books.
Set initially in New York about seven decades before the start of the Harry Potter story, the films will follow “magizoologist” Newt Scamander as an extension of the wizarding world — rather than being prequels or sequels.
The eight Harry Potter films grossed $7.7 billion worldwide between 2001 and 2011.
With a bottom line of $7.7 billion, you can't be surprised that Warner Bros. wants to continue the magic in any way they can. The comparison to The Hobbit makes me nervous, since that trilogy, though flashy and well cast, is flat out boring story-wise. The decision to make such a short book as The Hobbit into a trilogy was obviously a mistake. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is an even shorter book than The Hobbit, so I'm even more nervous. Having Rowling at the script's helm makes me feel a little better, and I'll still see it, but I hope it's not just a ploy to capitalize on Potter's success and is a solid story in its own right. I guess we'll have until November 2016 to fret. Until then...
Amen! I really want to love this movie. Fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you. I WANT to love it but am nervous. We'll see how it goes...
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