JK Rowling to write new Harry Potter-inspired film, 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'

BESTSELLING author JK Rowling is writing a new movie based on the wizarding world of Harry Potter.

The new film, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which is named after a textbook that boy wizard Harry Potter studies, will follow the adventures of the textbook's author, Newt Scamander.

It will be Rowling’s screenwriting debut and is planned to be the first in a new series of films with Waer Brothers, which the movie studio hopes will follow the success of the Harry Potter movie franchise, which eaed $7.7 billion worldwide.

Rowling says the new story will feature creatures and characters that devoted Potter fans may recognise, but that the film is an expansion of that world, rather than a prequel.

"I always said that I would only revisit the wizarding world if I had an idea that I was really excited about and this is it,” Rowling said.

"Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for 17 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," she said.

The Harry Potter books have sold more than 450 million copies worldwide.