EEP -- a new HP movie??? Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them

[ladywhizbee]

J.K. Rowling is partnering with Warner Brothers and plans to screenwrite a new HP movie based on Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them.

In universe it will happen 70 years before Harry. Read all about it here:

LeakyNewsI'm cautiously excited. I kinda like the idea of learning more about Newt Scamander and possibly some about Rolf (because of

Comments

[megan29]

Thanks for sharing the info. I hadn't seen it - and at first I wondered if it might be a false rumor. But it's posted on jkrowling.com, so it's legit. I am mildly excited, but will reserve judgement until there is more news on the plot (unless she intends to keep it all under wraps like HP). I've been rather turned off JK's writing by her two recent books, neither of which I liked. I found them too depressing and moralizing.

On the one hand, I'm thinking this will be a movie about an adult hero, so she may well go the same route as her recent books, and hammer us over the head with class inequality and human hypocrisy. NYC cca 1920's is a great backdrop for that. On the other hand, this movie will be set in the HP universe and contain fantastic beasts, so perhaps she will remember how to write funny, light-hearted things. There's the WB factor, too: they won't want some social manifesto from her, but an entertaining movie script. WIll they have the guts to tell her so if she starts ranting, or will they bow to her every whim? Well, there's no way to tell until we see at least a plot summary.

But having been twice disappointed with her recent work, I'll take my time to jump for joy. If it turns out the movie *is* in the style of HP, then yes, I will be very happy to see it.

[ladywhizbee]

Given that Harry Potter and the original Fantastic Beast text is written for kids, I bet the style of the movie will be in that same vein.

Since Newt as a character will be much older than Harry she might choose to include some darker subject matter (after all many of the magical beasts are restricted and seen as inferior like centaurs, giants, goblins so there is that) but she always seems to be aware of her younger audience...so I bet it will err more on the side of 'magical' than political. It will be interesting to see.

I only read a part of 'Casual Vacancy' before returning it to the library (mainly because I didn't finish it and it was due), but I did enjoy 'Cuckoo's Calling' as a frothy read. I'm sorry that you didn't like it. I will probably read the next in the series as well when it comes out. I'm just too curious. :-)

[megan29]

I suppose if the movie is targeted towards young audiences then it will be light. And I guess that's what WB is aiming for. I forgot about the discrimination against sentient creatures that's all over the series and especially the Fantastic Beasts booklet. She'll have plenty of scope to rant, but maybe in a lighter manner. :-)

Mostly, I was bored with Cuckoo's Calling, though occasionally it went as far as annoyance. It was too long-winded for me and there were too many plot holes. I wrote a review on my LJ at the time. I'm super-critical of mystery books, b/c very few of them have logical plots. Most try to wow you with twists and turns that make no sense - and that, I thought, was the case with CC. I'm the kind of person who watches a movie and instead of getting into the action sequence starts saying, 'but why would he do that, when it would be so much easier to do this other thing?' Then, when the movie is over and the villain is revealed, wonders, 'but if this guy is the villain, why did he do this and that at the beginning of the movie?' And the answer is, of course, that there is no logical explanation, and the plot is full of holes, and the movie-makers are just counting on you being gobsmacked by the big reveal and no longer thinking about the logical side of things. :-)