J.K. Rowling already writing Fantastic Beasts 3 screenplay
The Harry Potter author is hard at work penning the third installment of the Fantastic Beasts film franchise.
Wizarding fans everywhere should be thrilled to learn that author J.K. Rowling is busy writing the script for Fantastic Beasts 3, before Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald hits theaters this November.
"I'm now writing the screenplay for Fantastic Beasts 3," Rowling told fans in an online Q&A hosted on her website on May 30.
When asked about her feelings on collaborating with Warner Bros. and director David Yates on the upcoming Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Rowling pointed out the pressure to make something magical.
"When I go down to WB Studios Leavesden and see a thousand people at work on Fantastic Beasts, building sets, making costumes, doing digital effects, making models and props and all the hundreds of other things that go into making a movie, it can feel utterly overwhelming," Rowling revealed. "Terrifying thoughts run through your mind, such as, I must not break an arm, because all these people's jobs depend on me getting the screenplay finished."
After writing so many bestselling books about Harry Potter and the wizarding world as a whole, it might surprise fans to learn that Rowling found writing the Fantastic Beasts screenplays to be a very different experience for her compared to writing books.
"I found screenwriting utterly different from novel writing and very challenging at first," Rowling said on her website. "Basically, I learned how to write a screenplay as I went along, knowing that the movie was definitely going to be made, which is, to say the least, atypical."
Writing a movie -- even one based on a universe of your own creation -- can seem daunting, but it sounds like Rowling is excited to be penning the third Fantastic Beasts movie.
J.K. Rowling reveals a lot about her writing process to fans on her official website.
"The thing with movies is, however frustrated you get with the screenwriting process, and right at the moment when you think 'never again, this is too hard,' you go down to the film set and join in with one big glorious game of pretend, with the world's best pretenders saying your words, and dressing out of the most fabulous dressing up box, and what with the lights and the smoke and the music you're suddenly in love with the process all over again," Rowling added.
The trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald starring Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, Jude Law as a young Albus Dumbledore and Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald -- dropped in March.
Once Rowling has completed her work writing Fantastic Beasts 3, she'll be writing more kids books -- that won't take place in the wizarding world.
"I've been playing with the (non-Harry Potter/wizarding world) story for about six years, so it's about time I get it down on paper," Rowling said.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald will be released by Warner Bros. worldwide in theaters on November 16, 2018. Fantastic Beasts will debut in 2020.
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