There's a new wizarding at “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” by J.K. Rowling

 Leading up to the November 18th release of Warner Bros. Pictures’ highly anticipated feature “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” J.K. Rowling has crafted a collection of new original writing entitled Magic in North America, to introduce audiences to a new place and time in the wizarding world that she has created.

The first installment, “History of Magic in North America,” was introduced today with the global launch of a 100-second specially produced video that serves as a prologue to the new original writing by J.K. Rowling. The video may be viewed at https://youtu.be/un348OTIs0Y.




The writing will be posted on pottermore.com over four consecutive days beginning tomorrow, March 8th, at 6am PST. These four pieces will enlighten readers about a previously unexplored corner of the wizarding world: North American witches and wizards, their history and their magic. The video broke simultaneously on selected media sites around the world and links viewers to “History of Magic in North America,” which will soon be available exclusively at pottermore.com.
The video and the writing provide context and backstory for the feature film “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”

Rowling, who first conceived the wizarding world in her enormously popular Harry Potter books, had introduced wizards and witches from other parts of Europe in the series, most notably in the Quidditch World Cup and Triwizard Tournament. However, this marks the first time we’ll learn the fascinating story of the history of magic in North America.

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is an all-new adventure returning us to the wizarding world created by J.K. Rowling. Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne (“The Theory of Everything”) stars in the central role of wizarding world magizoologist Newt Scamander, under the direction of David Yates.

“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.

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” also stars Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Ron Perlman, Carmen Ejogo, Jenn Murray, Faith Wood-Blagrove, and Colin Farrell.

The film marks the screenwriting debut of J.K. Rowling, whose script was inspired by the Hogwarts textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, written by her character Newt Scamander.
The film reunites a number of people from the “Harry Potter” features, including producers David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram.

Opening across the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2016, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Eddie Redmayne plays Newt Scamander in "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"

Academy Award-winning actor Eddie Redmayne has been cast as Newt Scamander in Warner Bros. Pictures’ much-anticipated wizarding world adventure “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” The announcement was made today by Greg Silverman, President of Creative Development and Worldwide Production, Warner Bros. Pictures.

Redmayne will play J.K. Rowling’s creation Newt Scamander, the Wizarding World’s preeminent magizoologist, who in his travels has encountered and documented a myriad of magical creatures, ultimately leading to his penning the Hogwarts School textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

In making the announcement, Silverman said, “Eddie Redmayne has emerged as one of today’s most extraordinarily talented and acclaimed actors. We are thrilled to welcome him into J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, where we know he will deliver a remarkable performance as Newt Scamander, the central character in ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."

Making her screenwriting debut on the film, J.K. Rowling has developed the character of Scamander and his primer—taken from her globally beloved Harry Potter series—to further explore the unique wizarding world she has crafted in print and bring it to life on screen.

David Yates, who directed the last four “Harry Potter” films and will direct “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” stated, “Eddie is a fearless actor, brimming with invention, wit and humanity. I couldn’t be more excited about the prospect of working with him as we start this new adventure in J.K. Rowling’s wonderful world, and I know she feels the same way.”

The film is being produced by David Heyman, producer of all eight of the blockbuster “Harry Potter” features; J.K. Rowling; Steve Kloves, who scripted all but one of the “Harry Potter” films; and Lionel Wigram, who served as an executive producer on the last four installments of the franchise.

Eddie Redmayne won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the 2014 biopic “The Theory of Everything.” His stunning portrayal of Stephen Hawking in that film also brought him Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards. In 2012, Redmayne starred as Marius in Tom Hooper’s screen adaptation of the hit musical “Les Misérables,” with Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried. In 2010, Redmayne won a Tony Award for his performance in “Red,” which marked his Broadway debut.

On screen, he next stars in Hooper’s true-life drama “The Danish Girl,” due out this November.

Warner Bros. Pictures has slated “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” for worldwide release in 3D and IMAX on November 18, 2016.

“THEORY OF EVERYTHING” EXCLUSIVE AT AYALA MALLS CINEMAS FEB 25

One of the year's multi-awarded films, Universal Pictures' “The Theory of Everything,” the extraordinary story of one of the world’s greatest living minds, will be shown exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas nationwide starting February 25.

Nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor (Eddie Redmayne), Best Actress (Felicity Jones) and Best Adapted Screenplay, the film is an inspiring biopic of renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who falls deeply in love with fellow Cambridge student Jane Wilde.

Once a healthy, active young man, Hawking (Redmayne) received an earth-shattering diagnosis at 21 years of age. With Jane (Jones) fighting tirelessly by his side, Stephen embarks on his most ambitious scientific work, studying the very thing he now has precious little of – time. Together, they defy impossible odds, breaking new ground in medicine and science, and achieving more than they could ever have dreamed.

The film is based on the memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen, by Jane Hawking, and is directed by Academy Award winner James Marsh (“Man on Wire”).

Screenwriter and producer Anthony McCarten has long been fascinated by Professor Hawking, in particular the time and effort it took for the severely physically compromised man to write his seminal book. "He has illuminated physics for the world, and there is a sense of the profound in all his work," says McCarten. "That was enhanced by Stephen's own physical situation, which only allowed him to compose his communications at the agonizing rate of one word per minute; here, in one man, was an unprecedented juxtaposition of extraordinary mental prowess and extraordinary physical incapacity.
"His mind continued to open up one frontier after another in relentless exploration, so he was contracting yet also expanding which was apt for a man whose life is devoted to studying the universe."

McCarten was moved to read Jane Hawking's memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen. He discovered "a marvelous love story between two people, incredibly intense and challenged in the extreme: first by the physical decline, and then by the advent of fame in their lives. When news of his imminent death proved exaggerated, and two years became 10, then 20, their situation demanded that their love take bold and unorthodox forms if it was to survive. Theirs was a love story without precedent."

Producer Lisa Bruce remarks, "A lot of people don't even think about Stephen Hawking's domestic life, much less know that he walked and talked, and they certainly don't know that he fathered children. When you look deeper into his life, you see so much more than just the genius: you find a father, a husband, and under it all an eternal optimist.

"But, for me, the most powerful element of this story was the sense that he would never have achieved what he did without a partner like Jane."
The marriage would evolve and adapt while Stephen made significant strides in his work. Bruce notes,

McCarten asserts, "For them to have marched through that difficult terrain together and had a marriage that lasted decades was nothing less than a triumph. Stephen and Jane both show us all what human beings are capable of when they set their minds to something. But in writing the script, I had to allow for showing their moods and frustrations that were completely understandable. Our film celebrates Stephen, but it doesn't try to mythologize him; he had very strong negative emotions about the loss of his physical powers and we show that, as well as the highs and lows of the marriage. `The Theory of Everything' is as much about the physics of love as it is about the love of physics."