The books have ended, the final film instalment is in the can and the recent valedictory Bafta was collected en masse by cast and crew. But still more, apparently, can be squeezed from the Harry Potter franchise.
A Guardian article last week reported that J.K. Rowling is to be the subject of a straight-to-TV biopic called Strange Magic. The magic in question will be purely financial, detailing Rowling’s rise to fame and fortune all thanks to her wordy wizardry.
Rowling is the latest author, and the youngest by a century or two, to get the silver-screen treatment. Shakespeare (Shakespeare in Love), Jane Austen (Becoming Jane), Beatrix Potter (Miss Potter) and Oscar Wilde (Wilde) have all been the subject of decent films, and, in the case of Shakespeare in Love, the recipient of considerable if largely inexplicable Oscar success.
Of course, being long-dead gives a screenwriter licence to embellish and to romanticise.
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