Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them — Featurette: 'A New Hero'

added: Thu, Jun 23rd '16

Up until now, J.K. Rowling has never written a film, let alone a "Harry Potter" movie. Well, she's now making her feature film debut as the sole screenwriter of the forthcoming "Harry Potter" spin-off/prequel "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," which is loosely based on her 2001 pseudo-Hogwarts textbook of the same name.

In a newly-released featurette for the highly anticipated fantasy movie, Rowling introduces the film's protagonist: Quirky magizoologist Newt Scamander (played by Academy Award-winning actor Eddie Redmayne), who is described as "a new hero for a new era of magic." And he has one hell of a magical briefcase to prove it.

Directed by "Harry Potter" vet David Yates, the film takes place in New York City in the 1920s. And Rowling is given a wide platform to create a whole new wizarding community -- this time, in America, which has its own rules and terminology.

Also starring Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Colin Farrell, Carmen Ejogo, and Samantha Morton, "Fantastic Beasts" will be coming to theaters in November.

synopsis:
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens in 1926 as Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident...were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.

directed by David Yates

starring Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Colin Farrell, Carmen Ejogo, Samantha Morton, Ezra Miller, Ron Perlman, Gemma Chan, Jon Voight

release date November 18, 2016

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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them