Fantastic opportunity
MAGIC MAN: Redmayne was filmmaker’s only choice to star in Potter prequel
You would expect a protective cocoon to surround J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
After all, Rowling’s original Fantastic Beasts script was nurtured by her trusted Potter confederacy of producer David Heyman and director David Yates.
But headliner Eddie Redmayne insists there was nothing precious associated with the much-anticipated film.
“We were made to feel incredibly included and we were involved long before we started shooting,” says the Oscar-honoured actor who appeared with Yates at the Toronto stop on a world promotional tour.
Set in 1920s New York — so decades before the world of Harry Potter — the fantasy features Redmayne, who plays eccentric British wizard Newt Scamander.
Scamander’s on a worldwide mission to rescue magical creatures when he arrives in the U. S. city.
When some of the critters escape from his battered leather case, a crisis ensues. Yet there’s a more serious issue brewing as a dark force is unleashed in the metropolis.
To recapture his beasts, Scamander is joined by Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), a witch working for the Magical Congress of the United States. Also along for the ride is Tina’s mind-reading sister Queenie (Alison Sudol) and Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), a human No-Maj (Muggle, in Potter speak, or someone without magical powers).
Other notables include Colin Farrell, who portrays Percival Graves, the U. S. Director of Magical Security. Ezra Miller is Credence Barebone, a troubled wannabe wizard and spy for Graves.
Carmen Ejogo is wizard president Seraphina Picquery. Samantha Morton plays the determined leader of an anti-wizard-and-witches group. Ron Perlman has moments as goblin gangster Gnarlack and Jon Voight portrays New York publisher and power broker Henry Shaw, Sr.
As a tease, Johnny Depp shows up in a cameo as a Voldemort-like Dark Wizard Gellert Grindelwald.
There are many more wand-waving, spell-inducing Potter references as you might expect from the film’s conceit: Hogwarts’ schoolboy Harry Potter reads Scamander’s Fantastic Beasts book 70 years later.
And like the wildly successful Potter movie series, Fantastic Beasts special effects action blends with some comedy and lots of harrowing drama as good confronts evil.
All things considered, Yates says, there was only one actor capable of leading the way.
It’s Redmayne, who previously earned an Academy Award for his portrayal of scientist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything and another nomination for defining transgender pioneer Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl.
“I knew (Scamander) would be a challenging character and it needed to be brought to life in a certain way,” says Yates, who directed the last four Potter pictures.
“You have to be fascinated and intrigued by Scamander, but you also have to be drawn in. Eddie has this amazing charm, but he’s also brave and fearless.”
But he wasn’t on his own. He had strong support from a cast of personalities fully formed.
“One of the things that I loved about the script when I first read it was that every person you met at the beginning was a different person at the end,” Redmayne says. “It really was like an ensemble from the old school of movie making.”
All credit goes to Rowling, says the director.
“She has the ability to create these individuals and they all have a universality,” Yates says. “It’s really an invaluable gift to write characters that you immediately feel you know.”
Expect Redmayne to become more familiar as Scamander.
Recently, Rowling predicted that the Fantastic Beasts franchise would have a five-film run, two more than the planned trilogy.
As it is, the second movie, set for a 2018 release, will also feature Depp’s Grindelwald and a younger Albus Dumbledore, not yet cast.
Whatever the future might hold, Redmayne is thrilled to be affiliated with Yates, Heyman and Rowling.
“The truth is they have a closeness and friendship that creates a calmness and intimacy to the process for every one else,” the actor says.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens Friday.