Posted in: Movies, Recent Updates | Tagged: harry potter, j k rowling

J.K. Rowling Developing Harry Potter Prequel For The Stage

Published Fri, 20 Dec 2013 14:09:44 -0600

We all knew there was going to be more Harry Potter, it just makes business sense for the still incredibly lucrative franchise to continue, and a stage version seems like an easy fit, but I wonder how much interest there is in a pre-Hogwarts prequel, like this new show seems to be.

The good news is J.K. Rowling is co-producing the show with Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender for London's West End, but while she will work with an as-yet-unnamed writer, she won't be writing it herself. The show will follow Harry in his early years, before he learns the truth about who he is and before life in a cupboard under the stairs became small potatoes compared to the trauma he would go through as a teenager.

This is the official synopsis:

What was it like to be the boy in the cupboard under the stairs? This brand new play, which will be developed for the U.K. theatre, will explore the previously untold story of Harry's early years as an orphan and outcast. Featuring some of our favorite characters from the Harry Potter books, this new work will offer a unique insight into the heart and mind of the now legendary young wizard. A seemingly ordinary boy, but one for whom Destiny has plans…

And this is what Rowling had to say:

Over the years I have received countless approaches about turning Harry Potter into a theatrical production, but Sonia and Colin's vision was the only one that really made sense to me, and which had the sensitivity, intensity and intimacy I thought appropriate for bringing Harry's story to the stage. After a year in gestation it is exciting to see this project moving on to the next phase. I'd like to thank Warner Bros. for their continuing support in this project.

I spend most of the prologues to the various Harry Potter books and movies impatiently waiting for Harry to get away from the Dursleys and back to Hogwarts with Ron and Hermione, so I'm not sure this holds much interest for me, but I'm sure millions of more die-hard fans would disagree.

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