Fantastic Beasts coming soon

Today, we got our first peek at "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", the new Potter-world film slated for release in 2016.


The timing is interesting (at least to me) since today is also the day the first reviews of the new Star Wars film have come out (with wide release either today or tomorrow) -- I wonder if the Potter people were sending notice to the Star Wars people that there's a new cinematic bully in town that isn't planning on giving up its position of dominance so easily.


Hmm....


That being said, I approached the new FB trailer with a great deal of enthusiasm.


First, I am very excited to see J.K. Rowling's debut as a screen writer. She's proven her skill in so many different forms of writing over the years: novels for children, novels for young adults, novels for adults, mysteries, (fictional) text books, (fictional) history books, short stories and even newspaper articles (for the Daily Prophet) but this is her first attempt to write a film.


But, for some reason, she always left the screen writing to others. And I think the film versions of the Harry Potter books were much the worse for that.


So I am very interested to see how Rowling shapes up as a script writer. I have no reason to expect anything but greatness in this script but I find myself quite excited to find out how great the final product really is.


Second, I just love the initial creativity of Rowling's play on the title of the original book (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) in the approach to the plot for the film. The book is written as a text: here is a description of a fantastic beast and here is an explanation of its natural habitat.


Not surprisingly, the film abandons the text-book approach and introduces a plot that still ties closely and effectively to the title: we've brought in a case full of magical beasts, we've lost some of them, and now we have to figure out where to find them again.


Cool.


Now, the trailer is the only thing I have seen or heard with regard to the plot of the new film so I may have missed some information out in the virtual world that might address some of the following questions but here are a couple of things I am already wondering about based on the brief trailer:


1. Since the film's plot apparently involves the arrival in New York City (from England, I suppose) of Newt Scamander with a case full of beasts, the escape of some of which causes the chaos that ensues, does that mean that there are no such beasts that are native to North America?
2. Since the beasts in question arrive inside a brief case, does that mean that they are all tiny? So no Centaurs, Grindylows, Hinkypunks, Hippogryffs, Dementors or anything like that?


And finally, on the trailer itself, while I think it's brilliant that the trailer begins with a well-known Potter-world spell ("lumos maxima"), I have to admit that I am very frustrated that the filmmakers have chosen to continue the ridiculous conceit that "lumos maxima" is a spell that needs to be renewed over and over again. This conceit was introduced in one of the early movies and, to be honest, makes no sense at all.

A new source for clues to an long-considered question

I'm a little disgusted with myself, to be honest.


As anyone who has read this blog will know, I am fascinated by the process by which J.K. Rowling wrote the seven Harry Potter novels, by how her planning for the series developed over time and was (or perhaps was not) influenced by other factors, such as the success of the early books, the making and release of the early films, and input from media and fans.


To date, I have limited my search for clues as to that process solely to the books themselves. And there has been plenty of evidence there.


But, today, for some reason, I stumbled upon a new source of information on this issue that so strongly interests me, a source that has existed and been available to me almost since the day I started this blog. I had simply never thought of accessing it.


The source is early interviews with Rowling herself. Interviews that were written or recorded while she was still in the process of writing the books.


I know, I know, I have also long proclaimed that I am not particularly interested in what Rowling has had to say since the books were released on how to interpret them or what happens to the characters after the time period covered in the books is over.


That's still, for the most part, true.


But I think I have been a bit of a fool not to avail myself of the mountains of information available in these early interviews when it comes to coming to an understanding of the process of planning and writing and the impact other factors had on the yet-to-be-written books.


For example, I found today this fantastic video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn7nlfoMcwQ.


It features an interview conducted in a Scottish coffee shop with J.K. Rowling after The Philosopher's Stone had become a success in England but before it had actually appeared on book shelves in other European countries and in North America.


In the interview, J.K. talks with some awe at the size of the advance she has just received from Scholastic Books in the U.S. for that first novel -- I wonder if she knew at that point that Scholastic would require so many ridiculous changes to The Philosopher's Stone (including to the title) to make it more palatable to American readers?


She mentions her hopes that the book will be popular in Finland and she talks about how she is currently in talks with film studios about doing a movie version.


Most importantly to me, she makes several comments about her plans for the Harry Potter series. She says she has already completed the second book (The Chamber of Secrets), that she is working on the third (The Prisoner of Azkaban) and that she envisions the series as comprising seven books, with Harry ultimately achieving the status of being a fully trained wizard.


And she admits that the success of the first book, and the massive interest in it in the United States, caused her to develop writer's block for a month while she was writing the second novel. That's the kind of impact by outside factors that interests me. I also wonder: how much did her vision of Harry Potter, the other characters, the plots and the magical world, change as a result of those outside factors as she continued to write the books?


I have to watch this video a couple of more times to glean from it all that I can. And then I have to scour the internet for more interviews (whether in print or in video format) with Rowling that were conducted while she was still writing the books, when the completion of the series was still in the future.


It's an exciting thought. I can't wait to start on that journey.

Harry Potter and the Duel that Never Ends

Well, that worked out well.

I waited 36 hours and 20 minutes and managed to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, in 3D, in a half empty-theatre. No talkers, no people leaving all the time to get snacks, and only one guy who, once during the movie, rattled his plastic bag too much.

I know, I know. What about the movie? 90% great. The ending, well... not so happy.

Why or why do the filmmakers have to make everything so big, so splashy, so long?

Compared to the long, drawn-out duel between Harry and Voldemort in this film, J.K.'s novel version is a tightly-written, brief and satisfying encounter.

And the 3D version gave me a headache after about an hour.

More later. Gotta run.

13 days and counting

We're now deeply into the final two weeks. I'm looking forward to getting the answers to so many questions. I have a mixed feeling of anticipation and fear: anticipation, because I expect it to be a great movie; fear, because I'm afraid that the movie makers have once again made the wrong calls and failed to have faith in J.K.'s story rather than inventing new scenes of their own.

I expect it to be such an intense, action-packed film that I'll have to see it four or five times before I can start to feel I've taken it all in.

Weird as it may sound, I can't wait until it comes out on Blu Ray!