Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay, by J.K. Rowling
Description: (from Little Brown)
When Magizoologist Newt Scamander arrives in New York, he intends his stay to be just a brief stopover. However, when his magical case is misplaced and some of Newt’s fantastic beasts escape, it spells trouble for everyone . . .
Inspired by the original Hogwart’s textbook by Newt Scamander, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original screenplay marks the screenwriting debut of J.K. Rowling, author of the beloved and internationally bestselling Harry Potter books. A feat of imagination and featuring a cast of remarkable characters and magical creatures, this is epic adventure-packed storytelling at its very best. Whether an existing fan or new to the wizarding world, this is a perfect addition for any film lover or reader’s bookshelf.
The film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will have its theatrical release on 18th November 2016.
This screenplay was a very fast and enjoyable read! It helped me realise some details that I didn’t catch while watching the movie (twice!). For instance, some looks exchanged between the characters actually carried way more meanings than I first thought. Sometimes maybe too much : even a great actor can’t carry a whole story with a meaningful look. So the screenplay is an interesting read in this regard, because not everything can be translated to the big screen.
There were some details that weren’t there, but it’s because they were improvised, I guess! Like the way (mild spoiler here) Newt put his wand in his mouth while the Occamy was hatching!
In a way I’m glad we got this story with almost no other information beforehand, because we aren’t disappointed with some things being or not on screen, like it happened with Harry Potter’s books to films adaptation.
Also, to put some context here, I’m a big Harry Potter fan. I still love HP more than this new story, but it’s super interesting to go out of the context of England and school, to understand and explore the wizarding world better.
I feel like this first movie tried to do too many things at once. Introducing us to a new cast of characters, dealing with the wizarding world in America, the politics, the fantastic beasts, the plot. It works well but it didn’t felt well balanced at times.
While I started reading I was thinking that it was too bad they didn’t include a glossary for film terms (like O.S.= off screen). I guessed mostly everything and then saw at the end that they did include a glossary. Too bad they didn’t put it at the beginning, that would have been easier and more logical! I should have guessed and checked, since it happened to me before with some novels, but I forgot. My bad!
The interior design is wonderful. I don’t know what else I could say about it really!
It was a joy to relive this story that way. Even if, to be honest, I would have prefered another novel 
The Cursed Child play (haven’t seen it but read half of it) was a huge disappointment for me, it even made me super angry. So I guess I felt a big sense of relief that Fantastic Beasts was not as crappy. It is not perfect, but I had a good time watching it and reading it. I’m excited to see what Rowling has in store next for those characters. (Note : still disgusted by the casting of G.)
Gorgeous embossing!
I got this one from my boyfriend for Christmas, and my uncle also got it for me but we went to exchange it for something else at the store a few days ago! I guess people know me too well! 😉
a dragon in space 
I have not read The Cursed Child yet, mainly because I don’t know if the script/screenplay format really works for me. Which is why I’ll probably pass on this one too, though I still badly want to see the movie! Glad you thought it was a fast and enjoyable read though, and cool how it gave you some insights you missed from watching the film.
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Yeah the scrip format also isn’t my favourite at all, but since I’m from France I knew it would be years and years before I could actually see the play so that was the only way to learn the story without being spoiled all over the Internet 😅 but it really wasn’t worth it, in my opinion..
The movie is great! Not awesome but worth the watch I think 🙂 I hope you’ll like it! It’s a nice addition to the franchise
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What would you think if the book was sold not in script form, but as a regular book? People were upset that the Harry Potter movies left parts of the book out, but I guess this is movie to book so it would be a bit different
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Yeah I’m glad in a way that the “book” came out after the movie so we weren’t disappointed like we were sometimes regarding the HP movies. But I would have liked the script to be a novel, I find I struggled to connect to characters in this script format. It kinda looses its magic. But I’m still glad we got this addition to the franchise 🙂
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