JK Rowling to release three new wizard movies

LOS ANGELES - Agence France-Presse

JK Rowling is working on new movies to be released starting in 2016.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling is working on three new wizard-based movies to be released starting in 2016, Warner Bros has announced.

The first, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” will be directed by David Yates, who directed the last four “Harry Potter” movies, and reunite the same filmmaking team.        

It is described as “set in an extension of her familiar wizarding world, featuring magical creatures and characters inspired by Harry Potter’s Hogwarts textbook and its fictitious author.”A second movie is set for release in 2018 and a third in 2020, the studio said. The first movie was announced last month.

Rowling, who has sold more than 450 million copies of the Harry Potter books, announced in September that Warner Bros had approached her about doing “Fantastic Beasts.”

“I thought it was a fun idea, but the idea of seeing Newt Scamander, the supposed author of ‘Fantastic Beasts,’ realized by another writer was difficult. Having lived for so long in my fictional universe, I feel very protective of it,” she said, explaining her decision to write the screenplay.

Warner Bros did not announce who will direct or star in any of the three new scheduled films.