J.K. Rowling Finishes ScreenPlay Set In Harry Potter Universe

According to a Sunday story in ComingSoon.net, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has completed the screenplay for “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” The film, which is due to start shooting in 2015 for a November, 2016 release, is set in the same universe as her iconic series about a boy wizard and his struggles with a dark lord who killed his parents and threatens to take over the magical world. The movie, the first of three, concerns the adventures of one Newt Scamander, who lived 70 years before the start of Potter’s adventures.

The movies will be based, very loosely, on the fake textbook that Rowling published concurrent with the Harry Potter series by the same name. Scamander seems to be part magical naturalist, part Frank Buck-style adventurer, but instead of lions and tigers, he hunts unicorns and dragons. The movies will, therefore, be heavy on special effects and action.

“Set in the wizarding world, the story will feature magical creatures and characters, some of which will be familiar to devoted Harry Potter fans. 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.” Rather than the Great Britain of the Harry Potter stories, the Newt Scamander adventures will start in New York. That will likely just be a jumping off point to more exotic locations.

Recently, Rowling had been taking a break from the genre that made her both famous and wealthy. She had published “A Casual Vacancy,” a social and political satire and two crime novels under the pseudonym of Richard Galbraith, “The Cuckoo’s Calling” and “The Silkworm.” The Newt Scamander film series is a return to fantasy and an attempt to build a new franchise set in the magical world.