Which 2016 film did J.K. Rowling write as her first screenwriting project?

J.K. Rowling wrote Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them as her first screenwriting project, released as a film in 2016.

The film is set in 1926, decades before the Harry Potter story, and follows magizoologist Newt Scamander after he arrives in New York with a case containing magical creatures. Eddie Redmayne plays Newt, and the story expands the wizarding world beyond Britain and Hogwarts.

The screenplay was inspired by Rowling’s 2001 charity book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which was presented as a Hogwarts textbook by Newt Scamander. The short comic reference book and the film share a title and fictional author but are not the same work.

Rowling wrote the screenplay for the film and its sequels. The movie began a planned series of five films, although only three were released: the 2016 original, The Crimes of Grindelwald in 2018, and The Secrets of Dumbledore in 2022.