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What Warner Bros.’ Mega-Deal With ‘Harry Potter’ Author Rowling Means for TV

Sep 13, 2013  •  Post A Comment

The agreement announced Thursday between Warner Bros. and J.K. Rowling, author of the “Harry Potter” series, involves not only new movies and theme park attractions, but also a television miniseries, The New York Times reports.

As reported yesterday, Rowling will adapt her “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” into a feature film, with Warner Bros. announcing that the movie will be the first in a planned film franchise. Rowling wrote the book as a supplement to the Potter series.

“The studio also said the agreement would permit new attractions and initiatives connected with its ‘Harry Potter’ presence at the Universal Studios theme parks,” The Times notes.

In television, the deal makes Warner the global distributor of a BBC miniseries set for production in 2014 based on Rowling’s first novel aimed at adults, “The Casual Vacancy,” according to The Times.

“The Rowling deal is a significant step for Kevin Tsujihara, who was recently named chief executive of Warner, after a long internal competition for a post being vacated by Barry Meyer,” the report notes.

Warner Bros. began the hugely successful “Harry Potter” film series in 2001 with “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” The final film of the series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2,” released in 2011, earned more than $1.3 billion in worldwide box office.

“Ms. Rowling has broadened her writing since the final Harry Potter book was published in 2007,” the story adds. "‘The Casual Vacancy,’ published last year, featured dark themes like drug addiction and domestic abuse.”

This summer, Rowling published the well-reviewed mystery novel “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

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