J.K. Rowling has announced on her Facebook page that the Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be directed by the marvellous David Yates, who directed the last four films in the series.
Warner Bros. have confirmed that the new film series, written by J.K. Rowling and featuring the magical creatures and characters inspired by Harry Potter’s Hogwarts textbook ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ and its fictitious author, Newt Scamander, will be a trilogy, with release dates of 2016, 2018, and 2020. The studio has also confirmed that the films, set in the wizarding world but predating Harry Potter himself, will be directed by David Yates and will reunite the filmmaking team of David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram.
Warner Bros. already announced the ‘trilogy of mega-movies‘ back in April, but we’ve now got a release date – not too far off in the future. David Heyman and Lionel Wigram produced the Harry Potter film series and Steve Kloves penned six of the films. Jo has already penned the first script for Fantastic Beasts however. I still owe Steve Kloves several pokes in the eye for some of his cuts from the six Harry Potter (although his Wonder Boys is one of my all-time favourite films). David Yates is the best news of all. Steve was not on board for David’s first adaptation, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Does anyone else remember leaving the cinema with the strange sensation of having finally seen a brilliant Harry Potter film after four lacklustre efforts? It’s not surprising Warner Bros. snapped him up for the next three films – a huge relief after hearing Chris Columbus wanted to come back for the last film. Well we know the next trilogy will be in safe hands.
