Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is the world’s first author billionaire thanks to the huge success of her Harry Potter books. Photo: Ian West/PA WireBestselling Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling will return to the world of wizardry for her screenplay debut with a film inspired by one of her fictional boy wizard’s textbooks.
Rowling has agreed to write the screenplay for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a film from Warner Bros based on the adventures of Newt Scamander – the fictional author of a Hogwarts textbook of the same name.
“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,” Rowling said in an e-mailed statement from Warner Bros Entertainment, a unit of Time Warner Inc.
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be the first in a series of films about the adventures of Scamander and will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films,” the 48-year-old Rowling said.
But the story will start in New York, 70 years before the Potter tale gets under way.
“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,” she said.
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
Warner Bros has distribution rights outside Britain of the BBC TV adaptation of Rowling’s first adult novel The Casual Vacancy, Harry Potter theme parks, websites, videogames and consumer products.
Rowling said that Warner Bros approached her with the pitch for the film, but she could not stomach the idea of some-one else writing one of her own characters.
“I thought it was a fun idea, but the idea of seeing Newt Scamander, the supposed author of Fantastic Beasts, realised by another writer was difficult,” she said.
“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.”
Since her seven Harry Potter novels became a global publish-ing phenomenon, selling an estimated 450 million copies, Rowling’s every move is followed closely by the industry.
The books and a hugely suc-cessful movie franchise, helped turn her into the world’s first author billionaire.
However, Rowling has repeatedly said that she had no plans to write any more about the world of Harry Potter since her last book in the series Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out in 2007.