Skip to footer

'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them': Will David Yates direct?

Yates is reportedly in negotiations to direct 'Beasts,' a new story set in the world of 'Harry Potter.' Yates directed the well-received final four movies in the 'Potter' film series.

'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' is by J.K. Rowling.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

Will “Harry Potter” director David Yates take the helm for the upcoming movie based in the “Potter” universe, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”? 

Variety reporter Justin Kroll wrote that “Yates … has agreed to return” for “Beasts” and that “both sides are in negotiations.” Meanwhile, Borys Kit of the Hollywood Reporter also wrote that Yates is “in negotiations.” 

Warner Bros., the studio behind “Beasts,” had no comment, according to Variety. 

“Beasts” is based on a book of the same name written by “Potter” author J.K. Rowling in the style of a textbook for magic students. The movie will reportedly center on “Beasts” author Newt Scamander and his adventures. The screenplay for the first movie is being written by Rowling.

Yates directed the last four “Potter” films, from “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” based on the fifth “Potter” volume, to the two movies based on the book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” The last four movies were some of the most critically acclaimed films of the series, with “Deathly Hallows – Part Two” holding a score of 87 out of 100 on review aggregator website Metacritic, the highest score of any “Potter” movie on the site.

Monitor film critic Peter Rainer wrote of Yates’s work on “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” “’Half-Blood Prince’ is in every way superior to its immediate predecessor, 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,' which, like this film, was directed by David Yates. Maybe he just felt more comfortable this time around dealing with kids whose emotions were rampagingly human. He's good with the other stuff, too – the sinister elements without which ‘Harry Potter’ wouldn't be ‘Harry Potter.’” 

The “Potter” trilogy was directed by four different directors, with “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief” director Chris Columbus taking the lead on the first two installments, Alfonso Cuaron of “Gravity” directing the third film “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” “Great Expectations” helmer Mike Newell taking on the fourth film “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” and Yates directing the rest.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them': Will David Yates direct?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2014/0822/Fantastic-Beasts-and-Where-to-Find-Them-Will-David-Yates-direct
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe