You think you’ve escaped, only to be dragged back in. David Yates is set to return to the Harry Potterverse.
Yates, who directed four of the eight Harry Potter movies, is in negotiations with the studio to direct Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Based on JK Rowling’s book of the same name that is based on one of the Hogwarts set texts, Warner Bros is hoping to use the movie as the basis for a new movie franchise according to THR. Rowling is currently writing the screenplay for the movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
David Yates was perhaps best known for directing the acclaimed original BBC miniseries State of Play before making his feature debut with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Half-Blood Prince and parts 1 and 2 of Deathly Hallows followed.
Set 70 years before Philosopher’s Stone, Fantastic Beasts focuses on fictitious author Newton Artemis Fido Scamander. Scamander compiled the reference guide to magical beasts, used as a textbook by trainee wizards and witches, and the movie will follow his adventures after he is commissioned to write it. Unlike the original series’ British setting, Fantastic Beasts will reportedly begin in New York.
The new franchise is set to be a massive undertaking for Warners, who are keen on keeping the Potterverse going. The movie series grossed more than $7.6 billion worldwide. When announcing the Fantastic Beasts movie in September 2013, Warners said the property was also being developed across video game, consumer product and digital initiative businesses.
Dave Bowling
Dave was born at an early age to parents of both sexes. He has been a self-confessed geek for as long as he can remember, having been raised through the 80s on a steady diet of Doctor Who, Star Trek, Red Dwarf and (sigh) Knight Rider. Throw the usual assortment of Saturday morning cartoons into the mix and we have something quite exceptional: someone with an encyclopaedic knowledge of utter tosh; a love of giant robots and spaceships fighting; and the strange desire to leap tall buildings in a single bound while wearing his underpants over his trousers. The death ray is currently in the works and one day you shall all bow to him, his giant space station and fleet of funky orange space shuttles...
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