I came across something yesterday which really sparked my interest. I’m not that much of a Harry Potter fan, but I was intrigued to learn that a new film, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, will soon be released. What interests me is the change in media: instead of writing a book first, JK Rowling is writing the script and it’s going straight to film. It strikes me that this changes the dynamic: potter is no longer a literary phenomenon, but a filmic one. It’s also pretty telling that these new films – there will be several – will be set in 1930s New York rather than somewhere around the contemporary uk; it’s as if rowling and Warner Brothers are trying to reorient the Potter franchise towards America. That’s why they’re going straight to film, as it’s much more amenable to americans. Rowling is obviously just going where the money is, and who can blame her? Yet one could also accuse her of selling out, deserting her origins as a novelist and letting her creation become the moneyspinner of a massive media corporation.