What was J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter screenplay for the cinema?
Answer
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter screenplay for the cinema was Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
The 2016 film was written by Rowling and directed by David Yates. It follows Newt Scamander, a British magizoologist, in 1920s New York after magical creatures escape from his case. The story is set decades before Harry Potter’s time and expands the wizarding world beyond Hogwarts and Britain.
The title comes from a fictional Hogwarts textbook that Rowling published in 2001 as a charity companion book. The film is not a direct adaptation of that short textbook; instead, Rowling used its title and subject as the basis for a new screenplay.
Fantastic Beasts began a film series that also includes The Crimes of Grindelwald and The Secrets of Dumbledore. Eddie Redmayne portrays Newt Scamander in the films.