“Fantastic Beasts” Roundup: Award Season and Behind the Scenes

by · January 24, 2016

We’re nearly a month into the new year, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them news has been slow to get going. All the same, a few things have trickled our way so far, and we’re here to round them up for you in one handy place – including award nominations and Pottermore interviews.

This week, producer David Heyman picked up the David O. Selznick Achievement Award at the Producers Guild Awards. The award is given

each year to an individual who displays outstanding work in the production of films.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Heyman also spoke about his decision to return to the wizarding world.

It was exciting to move on and to embrace new challenges with Gravity and Paddington, but when it finished, there was a not-insignificant sadness because [the Potter films] had been such a big part of my life. Jo Rowling created such an incredibly rich and deeply conceived world. What you read in the books is in some ways just the surface of this world. I’d ask her about the [character Sirius Black’s] family tree because we had to paint it on the wall [for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix], and the book only had two names, and half an hour later I’d receive a family tree going back six generations with 100 people. I’m sure Newt Scamander and his story have been in her mind for many years. We were sitting around wondering what else we could do in this world, and [producer] Lionel Wigram, who is the person I first brought the first [Potter] book to, thought about maybe doing a documentary about Newt. That idea was floated to Jo, and she responded to doing a film about [that character].

He also reflected on the main differences between working on Potter and Fantastic Beasts.

Not having to work children’s hours. (Laughs.) And it’s set in 1920s New York as opposed to the U.K. in the ’90s.

Fantastic Beasts star Eddie Redmayne (Newt Scamander) has been nominated for several awards for his role in The Danish Girl – including the BAFTAs, Golden Globes, and the Oscars – will he triumph again this year? He also presented an award earlier this month at the Golden Globes.

Katherine Waterston’s (Tina) film, Steve Jobs, has also been nominated for several awards at the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes.

Lobster, featuring Colin Farrell (Graves), has also been nominated for a BAFTA.

The BAFTAs will take place on February 14 while the Oscars will take place on February 28 – make sure to tune in then to see if Eddie and the other Fantastic Beasts stars pick up the coveted awards!

In other news: Matt Lewis (Neville Longbottom) reassured fans that the wizarding world was in safe hands after visiting the set earlier this month.

In an interview with MTV, Matt also spoke about Fantastic Beasts and whether he’d like to appear in it. You can find out here.

The Pottermore correspondent has been busy, sharing plenty of snippets and interviews from behind the scenes of the film over the past few weeks:

  • An interview with wand designer Molly Sole, which reveals the process behind choosing the design for each character’s wand.
  • Costume designer Colleen Atwood on Graves’s (Colin Farrell) coat, including how she came up with the design.
  • Stunt coordinator Eunice Huthart discusses the stunts that she has choreographed and working with Eddie.

And finally, MuggleNet’s newest podcast, SpeakBeasty, released its third episode last week. Make sure to listen for plenty of in-depth Fantastic Beasts discussion.

That’s it for this week’s roundup – join us again soon for the next roundup! What was your highlight from the recent Fantastic Beasts news? What do you hope we learn next?