Fantastic Beasts screenplay published this November

Little, Brown will release J K Rowling’s screenplay debut Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them this November.

The publication of the screenplay will closely follow the release of the Warner Bros film of the same name on 18th November, directed by David Yates and starring Eddie Redmayne.

Bloomsbury published the original book in 2001 - an introduction to the magical beasts that feature in the non-muggle world, written under the pseudonym of the fictitious author Newt Scamander. However, Little, Brown c.e.o David Shelley said the screenplay - the first written by Rowling - was an “entirely new story”.

The e-book edition of the screenplay will be published by Pottermore, the global digital publisher of J K Rowling’s Wizarding World, simultaneously with the print editions in collaboration with Little, Brown UK, and Scholastic in the US and Canada.

Shelley said: “We’re incredibly excited to be publishing J K Rowling’s screenplay of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", the first screenplay she has written and an entirely new story. This is such a big year for all fans of J K Rowling’s Wizarding World and we are thrilled to be part of the team helping to bring it to readers.”

The film opens in 1926 as Newt Scamander, played by Academy Award winner Redmayne, 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 briefcase, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds,” a spokesperson for Little, Brown said.

The screenplay will be released as a hardback priced at £16.99 on 19th November 2016.

The release follows that of the stage play script for the “eighth story” in the Harry Potter series – Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I and II - set to be released on 31st July this summer to coincide with the first performance at the Palace Theatre in London. The play, by Rowling and Jack Thorne, continues the story of Harry, Ron and Hermione 19 years after the end of the seventh novel.

Booksellers have previously described the release of the eighth story as the “publishing event of the year”.