'Harry Potter' director may ride 'Fantastic Beasts' spinoff
Director David Yates is in talks to take on the Harry Potter spinoff "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by author J.K. Rowling.
Who better to direct author J.K. Rowling's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" than the same director of the last four Harry Potter films, David Yates?
Yates, the filmmaker who directed "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" and "Part 2," is currently in talks with Warner Bros. to direct "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them." Rowling has also agreed to write the screenplay adaptation of the book, the Collider entertainment site reported last week.
"Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for seventeen 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," Rowling explained last week in Variety of the upcoming film trilogy.
While the story takes place within the Harry Potter universe, it will be in 1920s New York -- 70 years before events in "The Sorcerer's Stone." The film will focus on the main character, Newt Scamander, a "magizoologist" and author of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" book, which is widely used in classes at Hogwarts.
Though no actors have been officially named by Warner Bros., the release date for "Fantastic Beasts" is set for November 18, 2016.