Eddie Redmayne has opened up about meeting J.K. Rowling along with his "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' director, David Yates. The film will be Rowling's comeback in cinemas for the first time following the conclusion of the highly popular "Harry Potter' film series in 2011.
Helmed by Yates, who took on directorial duties for the last four "Harry Potter' movies, the upcoming spinoff prequel has already entered its production phase since August and has several more months to go to finish filming.
Oscar winner Redmayne has taken on the role of the film's lead, Newt Scamander- a "magizoologist" who pays a visit to New York to seek out magical creatures.
The 33-year-old actor recently spoke with ComingSoon.net to promote his upcoming film "The Danish Girl,' in which he portrays Danish painter Einar Wegener who became the first individual to go through gender confirmation surgery and became the inspirational Lili Elbe. The London native also briefly shared his experience of meeting both Rowling and Yates.
"When I was prepping, I met J.K. Rowling and what's so amazing is that her imagination is so full and thorough-it's so encyclopedic of her world-we had an hour together and I sort of asked her about 800 questions so that was a lot of my wonderful research," Redmayne shared.
The story of the "Fantastic Beasts' is expected to present a wide range of magical beings, as suggested by the book's title, with some of these creatures being familiar to longtime fans who have already read the "Harry Potter' books and watched its corresponding movies.
Scamander's story begins in New York, at least seven decades before Potter's story came to be.
"He's wonderful," Redmayne continued, referring to Yates. "Even though there's a scale to these films that could be intimidating, he has such a kindness but an absolutely brilliant that it feels very intimate, and he's got such a wonderful, eclectic cast."
"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' is being produced by David Heyman, who also worked on all eight of the chart-buster "Harry Potter' movies.
"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," Heyman shared.
"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' has been set by Warner Bros. for a worldwide release in 3D and IMAX on Nov. 18, 2016.
