December 2016 Issue #4 | Page 16

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them NEW MOVIE The adventures of writer Newt Scamander in New York’s secret community of witches and wizards seventy years before Harry Potter reads his book in school. What We Learned on the Set of ‘Fantastic Beasts’ I MDb worked its magic to ap- director David Yates (who made in 1997, and was the “author” of parate onto the set of Fan- the last four movies) returned to a 128-page novella, penned by tastic Beasts and Where to Leaveseden to make this first Rowling for charity in 2001. Find Them, the upcoming Har- part of a new trilogy, with a script So when Heyman was ry Potter spin-off that launches written by J.K. Rowling. considering his next move after a new trilogy set in J.K. Rowl- Set 70 years before Har- the Potter film franchise ended ing’s wizarding world. Read ry went to Hogwarts, Fantastic in 2011, the magizoologist nearon for interviews with the cast Beasts follows the adventures ly resurfaced as the subject of and creators as well as new of magizoologist Newt Scaman- a faux documentary. “We were pictures and teasers from the der, played by Eddie Redmayne, thinking about what to do and Limovie and beyond. — Chako after his menagerie of magical onel Wigram, one of the producSuzuki and Michael Rosser creatures escapes during a trip ers and the executive who I first It’s a Kind of Magic to New York in 1926. sent Harry Potter and the SorcerMagic is back in the air at Leav- “This film has a lot of col- er’s Stone, had the idea of doing seden Studios, just outside of ors,” says Heyman. It’s got dark- a documentary about Newt [ScaLondon, where IMDb was invit- ness, adventure, tender charac- mander],” he recalls. ed to explore the set of upcom- ter moments, and it’s funny.” “I think Jo got word of that ing fantasy adventure FantasFantastic Beasts Was Near- — I mean, we wouldn’t have done tic Beasts and Where to Find ly a Documentary: Although un- it without Jo’s permission — and Them. After making all eight familiar to some, Newt Scaman- said, ‘Well, funny enough, I’d Harry Potter films at the studio, der was first mentioned in “Harry been thinking about something producer David Heyman and Potter and the Sorcerer’’s Stone already.’” 16 4GUYS.CA