Photo: REX USA/Paul Grover/Rex.The Harry Potter era may be behind us, but J.K. Rowling's fans always have something to look forward to. After being revealed as the real author behind last year's critically acclaimed The Cuckoo's Calling, her cleverly disguised literary work as "Robert Galbraith" shot straight to #1. Now, she has another iron in the fire: her 2001 book, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, will get priority treatment from Warner Brothers, who are confirmed to be developing it into a trilogy.
"Three megamovies are planned," The New York Times reports in a profile on Time Warner CEO Kevin Tsujihara. "The main character will be a ;magizoologist' named Newt Scamander. The stories, neither prequels or sequels, will start in New York about seven decades before the arrival of Mr. Potter and his pals."
At only 54 pages, the Harry Potter spinoff book was originally meant to be a whimsical anthropological textbook — an extension of the wizardly world readers already knew and loved. But Tsujihara saw far more potential in the text, which has sold more than 500,00 copies so far. "When I say he made Fantastic Beasts happen, it isn’t P.R.-speak but the literal truth,” Rowling has said. "We had one dinner, a follow-up telephone call and then I got out the rough draft that I’d thought was going to be an interesting bit of memorabilia for my kids and started rewriting!" No word just yet on the Fantastic Beasts timeline, but we're sure if anyone can endure the anticipation, it's Rowling's most loyal fans. (Variety)