I think most of us are in agreement that the Fantastic Beasts franchise hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire. Heck, if I’m being perfectly honest, the second film in the series, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is absolutely rubbish. Unlike the inspiring Harry Potter movies, the Fantastic Beasts movies feel disjointed, messy and horribly paced. It’s a shame as a lot of the core story ideas are actually pretty intriguing.
The problem with these films largely lies with the screenplays, both of which were penned by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling is a fantastic author but screenwriting is a completely different ball game altogether. I believe one of the reasons why the Harry Potter films worked really well is because the scripts weren’t penned by Rowling but by Academy Award nominee Steve Kloves, who took Rowling’s brilliant novels and adapted it wonderfully for the big screen. Watching the Fantastic Beasts movies, it’s obvious that Rowling has plenty of great ideas, but struggles to convey these ideas in a cohesive way in about 120 pages (general rule of thumb of scriptwriting: 1 page equals to 1 minute).
Thankfully, it looks like, after two films, J.K. Rowling has a good grasp of her strengths and weaknesses. Deadline reports that Fantastic Beasts 3 will be co-written by the one and only Steve Kloves. As someone who desperately wants the Fantastic Beasts franchise to be great, I think the decision to have Kloves pen the screenplay alongside J.K. Rowling would prove to bear plenty of fruits. Almost similar to the Harry Potter series, I believe Kloves will do a great job in taking Rowling’s stories and ideas and moulding it into a narrative structure fit for the big screen.
Fantastic Beasts 3 has had a rocky pre-production. However, it looks like things are finally starting to take shape nicely. The sequel to Crimes of Grindelwald has been greenlit at Warner Bros and will move forward with production next year. The film is set to be released on 12 November 2021.
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