A brand new trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them was shown at tonight’s MTV Movie Awards! The trailer, which is over 2 minutes long, gives us a much bigger glimpse into the American Wizarding World and gives some back story to Newt Scamander.
Pottermore has made a fun announcement this morning regarding new content on North Anerican Magic from J.K. Rowing. There will be four stories in all with the dust being released tomorrow morning. Entertainment Weekly shared the following:
The History of Magic in North America, a new series of four original stories by Rowling, will debut this week on Pottermore. The author’s interactive web portal is the only place you’ll be able to read the new tales, which will finally shout “Lumos!” at a time and place in wizarding history previously unexplored in the films and novels of the Harry Potter series.
To tide excited fans over until the first story apparates on March 8 at 9 a.m. ET.
The History of Magic in North America will cover a number of topics in America’s magical history including:
—The U.S. Hogwarts, Ilvermorny
—Skin-walkers, a Native American legend
—The Salem witch trials, a formative event for the country’s national magical identity
—Our Ministry of Magic, the Magical Congress of the United States of America
Today we’re sharing our final video from the 2016 Celebration of Harry Potter. This 37 minute video contains a wide variety of clips from the weekend. From opening night fireworks to more cast Q&A sessions you’re sure to find something you missed during the weekend! It also includes the preview for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Enjoy!
During the Harry Potter Film Tribute at A Celebration of Harry Potter, Warner Bros. released a special look at Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The clip has been posted online and you can watch it below! We will have loads more coverage from this weekends events next week, stay tuned!
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Harry Potter (and now Fantastic Beasts) producer David Heyman talks about the films and working in the industry. He is set to receive the David O. Selznick Achievement Award at the 27th annual Producers Guild Awards this weekend. The Fantastic Beasts related questions may be read below:
Why did you decide to return to the world of Harry Potter?
It was exciting to move on and to embrace new challenges with Gravity and Paddington, but when it finished, there was a not-insignificant sadness because [the Potter films] had been such a big part of my life. Jo Rowling created such an incredibly rich and deeply conceived world. What you read in the books is in some ways just the surface of this world. I’d ask her about the [character Sirius Black’s] family tree because we had to paint it on the wall [for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix], and the book only had two names, and half an hour later I’d receive a family tree going back six generations with 100 people. I’m sure Newt Scamander and his story have been in her mind for many years. We were sitting around wondering what else we could do in this world, and [producer] Lionel Wigram, who is the person I first brought the first [Potter] book to, thought about maybe doing a documentary about Newt. That idea was floated to Jo, and she responded to doing a film about [that character].
Is Beasts designed as a franchise?
We’ve talked about making a couple, but with all these things — and this may be a failing of mine — I don’t look at them as franchises; I look at them as films. We want to make each film as good as we can because if you don’t, you won’t have a second film or a third.
What’s the biggest difference between Fantastic Beasts and the Harry Potter films?
Not having to work children’s hours. (Laughs.) And it’s set in 1920s New York as opposed to the U.K. in the ’90s.
He also answers a question about what he wishes he knew when he first started producing.
It’s something I know but I struggle to do: not take it all personally. On the one hand I think it’s important to take it all personally because you have to fight to the bitter end to make it as good as it can be, but at the same time, as one faces rejection on a daily basis, it can be hard at times.
Empire Magazine has released a new photo of Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander in the upcoming film, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The photo shows Newt and his magical briefcase ascending some steps in New York City with a crowd behind him. The picture comes from their February issue, on stands December 31st. The issue will have interviews with cast and crew, including producer David Heyman. Empire released a short snippet of their interview with him:
“Newt is a magizoologist who’s just completed a global journey to find and document magical creatures for a book he plans on writing,” Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts producer David Heyman tells Empire. “His case is important because it contains some of the creatures he’s been researching. It may be small, but there’s a whole world within.”
A bottomless case filled with magical beasties, then? Might there be a dragon or two? Heyman isn’t saying but he did give an insight into the scale of the production, currently filming at Potter HQ, Watford’s Leavesden Studios. “On some days we’ve had several hundred extras, all done up in 1920s costumes. We are going into the magical world, but we’re bringing the magical characters into the Muggle, or ‘Nomaj’, world.”
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