While at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival J.K. Rowling revealed that she plans to write at least seven Cormoran Strike novels under her pseudonym Robert Gaibraith. The first two, The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm have already been released and Rowling stated that she is halfway through the third novel and is starting the plot for the fourth. Some quotes from Rowling at the event may be read below:

“The next book is quite different,” she said. “You find out quite a bit more about what happens to people after they leave the military.”

Asked whether it was true that she would write a total of seven novels under the Galbraith name, Rowling replied: “It’s not seven. It’s more. It’s pretty open ended. I really love writing these books, so I don’t know that I’ve got an end point in mind. One of the things I absolutely love about this genre is that, unlike Harry, where there was an overarching story, a beginning and an end, you’re talking about discrete stories. So while a detective lives, you can keep giving him cases.”

Asked why she chose to write crime stories after the Harry Potter series, she replied: “I love crime fiction. I’ve always loved it. I read a lot of it and I think, in many ways, that the Harry Potter books are whodunnits in disguise. I enjoy, I suppose, the ‘golden age’ book. That’s very much what I was trying to do in these books – to take that finite number of suspects, the genuine whodunnit style, but make it very contemporary, bring it up to date, and make sure this is a credible person with a credible back story for nowadays.”

She also quickly mentioned the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them script, which she is still working on: “It’s been challenging, it’s been fascinating, it has been a lot of fun. But as fun as it’s been, my first love is definitely novels.”

Digital Spy revealed today that the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them trilogy will be shot at Leavesden Studios in the UK. So far not much is known about the film. But here is what we do know:

• The first film, of what is believed to be a trilogy, will be released on November 18th 2016
• J.K. Rowling is writing the screenplay
• David Heyman is producing
• It is set 70 years before the events of the Harry Potter and will center around ‘magizoologist’ Newt Scamander.
• No director or cast have been announced

Warner Bros. Entertainment U.K., Ireland and Spain president Josh Berger recently spoke about how Harry Potter helped the VFX business in Europe as well as some new tidbits on the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them films. On visual effects he says:

Berger noted that with the first Harry Potter film in 2000, less than 15% of the VFX work was done in the UK. By the final film’s production in 2010, more than 85% of the effects were done in Britain. “There was an expansion of the skill base, the assets, the sheer numbers of people working in the industry.”

It was that base of skills and talent that Warner could again tap into for the groundbreaking Gravity, with London-based Framestore leading the VFX.

He then mentioned a bit about the Fantastic Beasts films:

The film is set to be released in Nov. 2016 and is expected to be followed by further movies. Fantastic Beasts is set in 1920s New York and features U.S. and British wizards, he told his audience, but didn’t discuss the status of the script.

Last week we posted a rumor stating that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban director Alfonso Cuaron was in “talks” to direct the new Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them films. And, just as we predicted, it turns out to be false.

In an interview with EFE he says:

“It was a very beautiful experience for me. I have a lot of love for that universe and I tremendously admire J.K. Rowling, but today, for the present, projects based around lots of visual effects don’t attract me. I’m coming out of a five-year process of doing visual effects and now I sort of want to clean my palate of that a little bit,” the director said.

Thanks to SnitchSeeker for the tip!

Earlier today, Nikki Finke (founder and former Editor in Chief of Deadline) posted the following statement to Twitter:

I hear Alfonso Cuaron (‘Gravity’, ‘HP/Azkaban’) deep in talks to direct JK Rowling’s Harry Potter spinoff ‘Fantastic Beasts’. Perfect pick.

— Nikki Finke (@NikkiFinke) May 19, 2014

This should obviously be taken with a grain of salt since this was not posted by someone close to the film, but it is interesting to note that Alfonso may be in the running to direct. Fans know and love him from directing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and the recent Academy Award winning Gravity. David Heyman has already been announced to produce the films, and he worked with Alfonso on both Potter and Gravity, so it is definitely a possibility.

Variety is reporting that the first film in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them series will be released on November 18th 2016. Cast and a director still have not been announced but as we’ve reported in the past, J.K. Rowling is writing the screenplay and David Heyman is producing.

Warner Bros. topper Kevin Tsujihara revealed in March that the studio was following in the footsteps of “The Hobbit” franchise with three “megamovies” for “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”

Tsujihara persuaded Rowling last year to revive the Harry Potter movie magic by adapting her Hogwarts textbook “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” for the big screen. Rowling wrote the 54-page book in 2001 between publication of the fourth and fifth Potter books.

Set initially in New York about seven decades before the start of the Harry Potter story, the films will follow magizoologist Newt Scamander. They’re not prequels or sequels, but an “extension of the wizarding world.”