Harry Potter heads for the stage
Harry Potter fans have enjoyed the boy wizard and his world on the page, on the big screen, in games, amusement parks, even US postal stamps聽 and Starbucks drinks.
Now, they can experience his life on stage.
Potterphiles, rejoice: J.K. Rowling is working on a play about Harry Potter, to hit British stages within the next two years.
The play will focus on his life before he attended the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and as Rowling said in a statement, 鈥渆xplore the previously untold story of Harry鈥檚 early years as an orphan and outcast.鈥�
Rowling will collaborate on the script with a writer, but will not write the script herself, according to a statement announcing the project as . She will co-produce the show with veteran British theater producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender.
Rowling said she had received many pitches for a stage adaptation of Harry Potter鈥檚 story, but that Friedman and Callender鈥檚 pitch convinced her to pursue the venture.
鈥淥ver the years I have received countless approaches about turning Harry Potter into a theatrical production, but Sonia and Colin鈥檚 vision was the only one that really made sense to me, and which had the sensitivity, intensity and intimacy I thought appropriate for bringing Harry鈥檚 story to the stage,鈥� Rowling said in a statement.
Though the play has no writer or director yet, and no scheduled opening date, it is expected to premiere on London鈥檚 West End within the next two years, according to .
The seven-book Harry Potter saga has sold more than 450 million copies around the world and was made into eight Warner Bros. feature films. According to , Rowling has also made plans to create a film, 鈥淔antastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,鈥� based on a Hogwarts textbook of the same name.
Next up on our holiday wish list: Harry hits Broadway.
