19 July is the publication date for “the official complete screenplay of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore by J.K. Rowling & Steve Kloves, accompanied by illuminating behind-the-scenes content and commentary.” That date, of course, is tomorrow. You’ll be forgiven if you forgot that a new book by J. K. Rowling will be available for reading when bookstores open Tuesday — there won’t be any Midnight Madness events naturally — and when the Amazon Prime trucks begin deliveries. I think it’s fair to say that not since Philosopher’s Stone or Cuckoo’s Calling has a book by The Presence been published with so little fanfare from book vendors and so little enthusiasm from Wizarding World fandom. At Amazon its sales ranking is only #2356 (the DVD is at #21 for films).

The Amazon page for the book tells us this about what screenplay readers can expect for only $25, 11% off the list price of $28:

Professor Albus Dumbledore knows the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald is moving to seize control of the wizarding world. Unable to stop him alone, he entrusts Magizoologist Newt Scamander to lead an intrepid team of wizards, witches, and one brave Muggle baker on a dangerous mission, where they encounter old and new beasts and clash with Grindelwald’s growing legion of followers. But with the stakes so high, how long can Dumbledore remain on the sidelines?

The official screenplay of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is the ultimate companion to the film, and invites readers to explore every scene of the complete script penned by J.K. Rowling & Steve Kloves. Special features include behind-the-scenes content and commentary from David Yates, David Heyman, Jude Law, Eddie Redmayne, Colleen Atwood, and more.

Three quick notes after the jump! All as preface to the question, “Are you buying a copy of the Beasts 3 screenplay?” [Read more…]

It looks like Ezra Miller is even less likely to return to his role as Credence Barebones-Aurelius Dumbledore than he was before. According to reports in Deadline and in Rolling Stone magazine, the parents of a teenage woman have gone to court in pursuit of a restraining order for the non-binary movie idol because of his supposed grooming of their child beginning at the age of twelve and culminating last year in her needing to be taken to a mental health facility to recover from a “bad LSD trip.” Per the parents’ request from the courts for help, “Ezra uses violence, intimidation, threat of violence, fear, paranoia, delusions, and drugs to hold sway over a young adolescent Tokata.” 

This news, of course, comes on top of Miller having been arrested twice already this year for a bar-fight and for second-degree assault. If the Beasts franchise dumped Jonny Depp over Amber Heard’s #MeToo allegations, accusations since found in a jury trial to have been spurious, I’m having a hard time seeing Miller being invited back for Beasts 4, assuming there will be a fourth episode, or thinking that there will be more Flash drives featuring the mentally unstable and violent actor.

I have heard, on the other hand, that Disney is now excited about reviving The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise now that Depp has been vindicated (sort of) in the A-List Nightmare Trial of the Century (assertion post verdict and denial of rumor pre-verdict). Perhaps Depp could return to Fantastic Beasts, too, as an older, broken Credence Barebones, years after the Secrets of Dumbledore revelations, for a final showdown with Gellert Grindelwald in Beasts 5, the finale set in 1945.

Talk about a wild latch for the series ring! In the first film, Depp only appears as Grindelwald in the last seconds, another actor having played that part throughout the movie. If Depp returns in the last installment of the series, he can confront the Bad Guy playing Gellert who so groomed and abused Credence in Beasts 1. This is not to mention the spin of Miller’s being accused of grooming a helpless innocent and being burned in the process, a too-close-for-funny replication of what Grindelgraves did to him in the first Beasts…

Yesterday it was announced that your close study of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore based on uninterrupted private viewings next week when ‘Premium Digital Ownership’ (PDO) becomes available and dinosaurs like me can control the stop-start action with a remote beginning on 28 June when the DVD Blu Ray edition with all its extras becomes available at last. The movie is still in three theaters in Oklahoma City where I live but I assume that option for viewing will be long past by the end of June; it may end as early as next week when the movie can be watched on HBO in addition to the PDO option. Thomas Miller at Seat42f.com reports that “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore arrives for Premium Digital Ownership at home on May 30.The film will also be available to stream on HBO Max on May 30 and will be available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD beginning on June 28.”

Having lasted this long without seeing the film, I think I can wait until the Complete Screenplay is published on 19 July, three weeks after the DVD release and almost eight weeks after HBO/PDO viewing begins. It remains a great mystery, to me at least, why Scholastic agreed to hold the book until there is little to no interest in the film, all the publicity and excitement about it having been washed out to sea after the tsunami waves over the premiere red carpets and the backwash currents with the various film-media releases thereafter. It is evident that Rowling, on her own or at Warner Brothers direction, has distanced herself significantly from the series, hence her twitter silence about this installment’s release and token appearance at the premiere (from which she beat a hasty exit). 

I’m hopeful that the Complete Screenplay, though we must assume that it is no more than an annotated with actor anecdotes transcript of the movie as cut, contains something of the “original screenplay” by Rowling that Kloves re-wrote to create the shooting script. Why else would the publisher delay the book’s publication until so long after the movie has passed from public-theater viewing? Both the previous screenplays, each an Original Screenplay rather than a Complete one were released concurrently with their respective films and sold very well.

The Secrets screenplay is currently #4909 on Amazon’s best seller list, which gives it an equivalent status in anticipated Rowling works to the Box Office for Secrets and the Potter film adaptations. Just as an FYI, Ink Black Heart, though it is published a month after the Secrets Complete Screenplay, is currently at #1560 on Amazon — with absolutely no publicity to promote it.

Your comments and correction are coveted. Is anyone else waiting for the book? Looking forward to repeated viewings at home via PDO, HBO, or DVD? Let me know!