Rowling announces screenwriting debut

LONDON - Agence France-Presse

Rowling is to make screenwriting debut for films set in a magical world. AFP photo

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is to make her screenwriting debut by penning a series of spin-off films set in the magical world of the British boy wizard, she announced on Sept. 12, putting her in line for another huge payday.

The first film will be called “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” and will be based on a textbook of the same name used by Harry and his classmates at their school Hogwarts, Rowling said on her Facebook page.

Set in New York and featuring magical zoologist Newt Scamander, the author of Harry’s textbook, it will be set 70 years before the events of the core Potter novels.

The Warner Bros. film comes two years after the final movie in the eight-part series spawned by her phenomenally successful novels.

“I always said that I would only revisit the wizarding world if I had an idea that I was really excited about and this is it,” the 48-year-old Rowling said.

She pitched the idea to Warner Bros. herself after the US studio approached her about making “Fantastic Beasts” into a film.

“As hardcore Harry Potter fans will know, I liked him so much that I even married his grandson, Rolf, to one of my favourite characters from the Harry Potter series, Luna Lovegood.” Rowling added: “Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for 17 years, ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world.