Colin Farrell has signed on to co-star in the upcoming ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' as Graves, a wizard that Newt Scamander crosses paths with in New York.
The Irish actor joins Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol and Dan Fogler in Warner Bros. big-screen adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s literary creation.
The upcoming spinoff focuses on a story drawn out from Harry Potter’s Hogwarts textbook and its fictitious author, Scamander, also known as the Wizarding World’s finest magizoologist.
The story is expected to put forward a wide range of magical beings, as suggested by the book’s title, with which some of these creatures will be familiar to fans who have already gone through the ‘Harry Potter’ books and its corresponding movies.
Scamander’s story begins in New York, at least seven decades before Potter’s story came to be.
“The experience of conjuring up these worlds is such fun. So to do it with [Rowling] and with Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram is involved too, and with David Yates, and Stuart Craig will be designing it – it’s great. It’s exciting. And it’s a great world to return to,” producer David Heyman shared.
The second and third movies in the ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ trilogy have also been scheduled for a release on Nov. 16, 2018 and Nov. 20, 2020, respectively.
Directed by David Yates, the film follows Redymayne’s character and his travels through which he met and documented countless magical creatures, eventually resulting to his writing of the Hogwarts School textbook “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”
The highly anticipated spinoff is being produced by David Heyman, who also worked on all eight of the blockbuster ‘Harry Potter’ films.
J.K. Rowling also serves as producer alongside Steve Kloves, who penned most of the installments in the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise, and Lionel Wigram, who worked as an executive producer on the last four movies.
Warner Bros. Pictures has scheduled the first ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ for a worldwide release in 3D and IMAX on Nov. 18, 2016.
Meanwhile, despite mixed reviews for the HBO’s ‘True Detective’ season two, Farrell has garnered positive reviews for his performance as the shady and scheming Detective Ray Velcoro, with a 90-minute season finale set to be unveiled this Sunday.
His next big screen appearance will be opposite Anthony Hopkins in the mystery thriller ‘Solace’ and in the sci-fi romantic thriller ‘The Lobster’ alongside Rachel Weisz.
