A Lake and Shed Reading of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Screenplay)

Today’s Lake and Shed framed conversation is about J. K. Rowling’s first “original screenplay,” Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Nick does his signature deep dive into the history of the Fantastic Beasts film franchise’s origins in Warner Brothers’ determination to keep the Wizarding World profit-pillar in their portfolio alive after the last Harry Potter adaptation — and Rowling’s equal determination that they not use their copyright privilege to muck up her legacy with an Indiana Jones meets Crocodile Dundee knock-off. John takes the Shed pole in the conversation and shares his months long pursuit of the shooting text screenplay, the actual last screenplay over which Rowling had control. He lays out the (1) twelve scenes that were cut from that shooting script by Steven Kloves, David Heyman, and David Yates as they “fit the woman to the dress” of Hollywood blockbuster formula, and (2) how it made a mess of the movie’s chiastic integrity. Hat tip to Kelly Loomis!

New to the Lake and Shed Kanreki Birthday series? Here’s what we’re doing:

On 31 July 2025, Joanne Murray, aka J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith, will be celebrating her 60th birthday. This celebration is considered a ‘second birth’ in Japan or Kanreki because it is the completion of the oriental astrological cycle. To mark JKR’s Kanreki, Dr John Granger and Nick Jeffery, both Nipponophiles, are reading through Rowling’s twenty-one published works and reviewing them in light of the author’s writing process, her ‘Lake and Shed’ metaphor. The ‘Lake’ is the biographical source of her inspiration; the ‘Shed’ is the alocal place of her intentional artistry, in which garage she transforms the biographical stuff provided by her subconscious mind into the archetypal stories that have made her the most important author of her age. You can hear Nick and John discuss this process and their birthday project at the first entry in this series of posts: Happy Birthday, JKR! A Lake and Shed Celebration of her Life and Work.

Tomorrow? It’s back to a book we know was written by Joanne Murray, aka Robert Galbraith, Lethal White, the fourth Cormoran Strike novel. Nick promises to lay out the tensions between classes and castes in this book and how the story told reflects those tensions in Rowling’s own life. John is set to discuss how Ibsen’s Rosmersholm, the source of this book’s epigraphs, is also a story template for this turning point of the first seven books. Stay tuned!

Links to posts mentioned in today’s Lake and Shed conversation for further reading:

Unlocking Fantastic Beasts: Finding the Text

• Preface: ‘The Original Screenplay’ – Not the Shooting Script or Even a Faithful Movie Transcript (What the Movie Makers Changed or Left Out)

• Preface 2: Comparing the Original Screenplay with the Actual Film: What the Film Makers Left Out, Changed, or Deleted (with Kelly Loomis)

• Part 1: J. K. Rowling, Screenwriter — Who is Working for Whom?

• Part 2: The Film Makers and Decision Makers?

• Part 3: The Six Scenes You Missed in Fantastic Beasts and the Seventh: GrindelGraves’ Vision

• Part 4: Fantastic Beasts Revelations from the Far Side Sources (Can You Say ‘Lego Movie’?)

• Part 5: So What? The Found Text and Its Meaning

• 5.1 The Story of the Text We’re Looking For

• 5.2 Theseus the Hero and Newt Scamander

• 5.3 Jacob Kowalski: Is He Bigger than Newt?

• 5.4 The Grindelwald-Credence Relationship

• 5.5 Lumos and the Barebone Orphanage

Interpretation and Speculation: Ring Structure, Christian Content, Elder Wand, Etc.

• On the Story Structure of Fantastic Beasts: Is It a Ring?

• On the Deep Back Story Revealed in Fantastic Beasts

• On the Christian Content in Fantastic Beasts — and the New Controversy

• Rune Magic in ‘Fantastic Beasts’? I wish

• Why the Film Franchise Cannot Win a Major League ‘Oscar’

• Nicolas Flamel to Appear in the Sequel? Don’t You Believe It!

• Who is the Death Stick’s Master? The Elder Wand and Fantastic Beasts

Podcasts:

• Fantastic Beasts Ring Composition: A ‘Reading, Writing, Rowling’ Podcast (with Katy McDaniel and Brett Kendall)

• On Rowling’s Missteps and Misappropriatrions in ‘History of Magic in North America‘ (with Dr. Amy H. Sturgis and Allison Mills, MuggleNet Academia podcast)

• The HogwartsProfessors Talk ‘Fantastic Beasts’ (with Louise Freeman, Emily Strand, and Elizabeth Baird-Hardy; MuggleNet Academia podcast)

• Eugenics in American History and Fantastic Beasts (with Professor Chris Gavaler of Washington and Lee University; MuggleNet Academia podcast)

Elizabeth Baird-Hardy’s Fantastic Beasts Posts

• Throwback Thursday with Narnia, Newt Scamander, and Fantastic Beasts: Part I

• Throwback Thursday with Narnia, Newt Scamander, and Fantastic Beasts: Part II

• Pack Your Bags! Newt Scamander’s Fantastic Beast-y Suitcase, Hermione’s Handbag, and their Literary Relatives

• Five Spoiler-Free Reasons Potterphiles will Love Fantastic Beasts

• Thanksgiving Thoughts on Terrific Treats from Fantastic Beasts!

• Fantastic Beast Flashbacks: The Five Things We Want to Know about What Happened BEFORE Newt’s NY Adventure

• Fairies and Wizards? A Midsummer Night’s Dream and What We Might Expect from Crimes of Grindelwald

Guest Posts:

• Wayne Stauffer: Names in Fantastic Beasts

• Beatrice Groves: On ‘Nagini Maledictus’ – Literary Allusion in Fantastic Beasts

The twelve HogwartsProfessor birthday videos posted thus far in this series can be read at the links below:

• A Lake and Shed Reading of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

• A Lake and Shed Reading of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

• A Lake and Shed Reading of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

• A Lake and Shed Reading of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

• A Lake and Shed Reading of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

• A Lake and Shed Reading of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

• A Lake and Shed Reading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

• A Lake and Shed Reading of Casual Vacancy

• A Lake and Shed Reading of Cuckoo’s Calling

• A Lake and Shed Reading of The Silkworm

• A Lake and Shed Reading of Career of Evil

• A Lake and Shed Reading of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child