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!
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