Miniseries Based on Rowling Novel Set to Air

For those who just can’t get enough J.K. Rowling, a miniseries based on her novel, A Casual Vacancy, will air in the UK on the BBC mid-February and then on HBO in North America in late April.

EastEnders’ Sarah Phelps is writing while In the Flesh’s Jonny Campbell is directing the series, which will focus on a seemingly picturesque English village with a lot of tension underneath the surface. Michael Gambon, Keeley Hawes, Rory Kinnear, Monica Dolan, and Julia McKenzie star.

Entertainment Weekly has more here.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Film Them

JK Rowling has completed the script for the screen version of the Harry Potter spin-off, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. According to Harry Potter producer David Heyman, the script is “wonderful.” From The Telepgraph:

Heyman praised Rowling's debut scriptwriting efforts: "She is so smart, and her turn of phrase, the precision of the language she uses, is a joy to behold."

Heyman's company, Heydey Films, has produced all eight of the blockbuster Harry Potter films, as well as 2013's space epic Gravity. He will work with Rowling and Warner Bros studios on the Fantastic Beasts trilogy, which is set 70 years before Hogwarts and follows the adventures of Newt Scamander, the author of the titular textbook that Harry and his classmates will later study from.

January Magazine reviewed the book when it first came out in 2001. The screen version is anticipated for 2016.

Rowling Shifts Pen to the Screen

With all of the Harry Potter movies firmly in the can, one can imagine Warner Brothers was happy to get author J.K. Rowling to sign on to adapt her Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them for the big screen. From Deadline:

Rowling says it’s not a sequel or a prequel to the Potter adventures, but will kick off in New York, 70 years before Harry’s story starts. No timeline or director has been identified yet. If the films follow the Harry Potter process, they’ll make use of Warner Bros’ Leavesden studios outside London which Warner acquired and revamped after the last Potter film was shot. Warner Bros noted today that the relationship between Rowling and the studio will be managed in London by Neil Blair of Rowling’s literary agency The Blair Partnership, and by Warner UK, Ireland and Spain chief Josh Berger.

The book was published in 2001 along with another, Quidditch Through the Ages, both intended to look and read like Harry Potter’s Hogwarts textbooks.

The books were both charming, if slight, their chief redeeming quality being that Rowling had created the brace of books as an aid to fundraising for Comic Relief, a hugely successful UK organization whose chief goal is to “create a just world free from poverty.” To that end, the web site currently says that Comic Relief has raised more than 900 million pounds that has helped thousands of individuals in 70 countries. One can imagine that a successful move to the screen for Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them will stimulate book sales once again and raise still more money for Comic Relief, which can’t be bad. Back in the real world, though, it seems likely Rowling will have another hit on her hands. And then, the following year, another still:

Fantastic Beasts will also be developed across Warner Bros’ video game, consumer products and digital initiatives businesses. As part of the newly extended relationship, Warner Bros has also boarded the BBC adaptation of Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy which goes into production next year.

Rowling Outed as “Mystery” Novelist

Though it started out as a big secret, the fact that Harry Potter creator JK Rowling published a mystery novel under a pen name earlier this year didn’t stay secret for long.

The Cuckoo’s Calling was published in April under the name of debut detective novelist, Robert Galbraith.

In a statement sent out through Rowling’s publicist yesterday, the novelist expressed regret at the loss of her temporary anonymity. “I hoped to keep this secret a little longer because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback from publishers and readers under a different name.”

Sales of the novel have escalated since the author’s true identity was revealed by The Sunday Times over the weekend, leaving bookstores everywhere short of stock.