Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them sets release date; Cuaron denies being attached to the project

Surely, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a movie that Harry Potter fans are looking forward to, but it may take quite some time before its release date. Warner Bros. has announced that Fantastic Beasts will have its theatrical release on November 18, 2016. The film is based on the J.K. Rowling book of the same name, which takes place within the Harry Potter universe but doesn’t involve any of the main characters from the insanely popular book series. Development of the project is moving along quietly. Rowling herself is penning the screenplay for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but a director has yet to be attached. Alfonso Cuaron, who directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, was initially attached to direct this project, but has denied these reports.

While speaking with Spanish news agency EFE (via Digital Spy), Cuaron stated that he will not be directing Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Cuaron's quote goes:
“[Directing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban] was a very beautiful experience for me. I have a lot of love for that universe and I tremendously admire JK Rowling, but today, for the present, projects based around lots of visual effects don’t attract me. I’m coming out of a five-year process of doing visual effects and now I sort of want to clean my palate of that a little bit.” [hit the jump to continue]


Rowling’s book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a “textbook” in the Harry Potter universe that was penned by the mysterious Newt Scamander.  The film will be an original story that focuses on Scamander, and when the project was first announced, Warner Bros. made it clear that they intend for Fantastic Beasts to be the first in a series of films.

Rowling previously specified the film’s connection to Harry Potter thusly:
“Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for seventeen years, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world. The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, seventy years before Harry’s gets underway.”

Warner Bros. has been trying in vain to find “the next Harry Potter” ever since the film series came to a close with Deathly Hallows in 2011, and no doubt Fantastic Beasts will sufficiently fill that gap. 
[source: Collider]

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