In my write-up of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, I said that, if done right, I could totally get behind the upcoming five-part Harry Potter-prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie-franchise, as it (supposedly) expands the Harry Potter-universe, while leaving The Boy Who Lived the hell alone.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (the movie) did just that: set in the 1920s, we follow Newt Scamander (wizard, magical zoologist, author) through New York, where he has to recapture the Fantastic Beasts that escaped from his magical suitcase. With subplots setting up something much bigger and darker that will have to be resolved in the next four installments. Just a few mentions of Hogwarts and Dumbledore, but that is it.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay, J.K. Rowling’s first screenplay, is the original screenplay of the movie in book form. (“Well, duh!”) It is perfectly readable, and from what I remember, pretty close to the movie. Would I have preferred a proper novelization instead of a screenplay? I dunno. (Will we get one? Perhaps, once the series has played out.) I do know it was good fun.
- Book read
- J.K. Rowling — Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay
- First line
- SCENE 1
EXT. SOMEWHERE IN EUROPE—1926—NIGHT.A large, isolated, derelict chateau emerges from the darkness.