3 Oct – The "Harry Potter" franchise producer David Heyman has now confirmed that he'll produce J.K. Rowling's spin off based on her "Potter" companion book "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". Heyman confirmed the news to MTV at the premiere of the film "Gravity", which he also produced for director Alfonso Cuaron. He also noted that Rowling is still working on her first draft of the script. "Jo (Rowling) is at work," exclaimed Heyman, "She's not doing it for any other reason other than she loves the world and she had a story that she wanted to tell."
"It's incredibly exciting," he continued. "She doesn't have to go back to this world, but something pulled her back. This is not Harry Potter. This is not Harry, Ron, and Hermione. This is a separate story within a universe related to the Potter universe." JK Rowling briefly described the story by saying that it is "an extension of the wizarding world." She continued, "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." A release date for Fantastic Beasts is not set, but we expect to see the first movie in theaters by 2016.