# Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them to be a FIVE part movie series. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 13, 2016, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474 "2016-10-13T23:12:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/21 "2016-10-15T07:22:48Z")
Five movies, that’s, like, ten hours of looking at Eddie Redmayne’s punchable face? No thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/22 "2016-10-15T07:27:02Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > I truly have no idea what you mean. What came after. The whole splitting one book up into two or even three (or in this new case, five) movies. I’m aware LotR is three books. I’m not talking about that. That was covered in the “Let’s not only make a movie for each and every book…” part, which it applies to and, IMO, is at least somewhat reasonable. What came after doing that, however (the “but let’s start even making two or even THREE movies for one book!” craze" part of that post), was the Deathly Hallows being divided up into two movies, The Hunger Games book being divided up into two movies, the Hobbit being divided up into three movies…etc. Do you get what I’m saying now? : p ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/23 "2016-10-15T10:25:19Z")
The book is not really a novel, it’s more a bestiary. You can turn that into any story, or as many stories, as you want. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/24 "2016-10-15T12:23:40Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > What came after. The whole splitting one book up into two or even three (or in this new case, five) movies. I’m aware LotR is three books. I’m not talking about that. That was covered in the “Let’s not only make a movie for each and every book…” part, which it applies to and, IMO, is at least somewhat reasonable. > What came after doing that, however (the “but let’s start even making two or even THREE movies for one book!” craze" part of that post), was the Deathly Hallows being divided up into two movies, The Hunger Games book being divided up into two movies, the Hobbit being divided up into three movies…etc. > > Do you get what I’m saying now? : p I was confused by what I bolded in my previous post, where you said LotR “seemed to be the start of” what you’re complaining about - splitting a single book into multiple movies. Since it _didn’t_ do that, I don’t see how it could be the start of that trend. But if that’s not what you’re saying, fine. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/25 "2016-10-15T14:41:17Z")
What LotR did start was the trend of making multiple big movies in a series without first stopping to see how the first one did. At the time, that was considered quite risky, to Hollywood. Except that, even with LotR to set the example, Hollywood still doesn’t do that much. All of the one-book-split-to-multiple-movies have been following on after highly successful single-book movies earlier in the same series. The more apt comparison for that is probably the Matrix movies, where the first one was so successful that they made 2 and 3 at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/26 "2016-10-15T16:36:15Z")
Or, before that, _Back to the Future_ 1 and 2 were shot concurrently, based on the success of the first one. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/27 "2016-10-15T18:34:05Z")
Yea, it might be interesting. I can’t really thing of a modern case where a studio said they were going to make 5 movies based on an original story (maybe the new Star Wars movies?) Who knows if they’ll be good or not, but it seems like a neat experiment. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/28 "2016-10-15T18:56:11Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > I was confused by what I bolded in my previous post, where you said LotR “seemed to be the start of” what you’re complaining about - splitting a single book into multiple movies. Since it _didn’t_ do that, I don’t see how it could be the start of that trend. But if that’s not what you’re saying, fine. What you bolded was this sentence: “it seemed to be the start of the “Let’s not only make a movie for each and every book, but let’s start even making two or even THREE movies for one book!” craze.” This part of that sentence: "it seemed to be the start of the “Let’s not only make a movie for each and every book…” DOES apply to LotR. “a movie for each and every book”. Do I need to explain further or do you understand what I was trying to say now? Haha. : p ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/29 "2016-10-15T18:59:18Z")
Put more simply, my post was trying to say: It went from making a movie for each book (LotR) to making two or three movies for one book (DH, HG, Hobbit). To me it reads that way, but maybe I didn’t make it clear. I’m sorry. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/30 "2016-10-15T19:06:58Z")
The Hobbit had at most 4 hours of movie in the story, so I fully agree there. Shameful and poorly done money grab. Lord of the Rings, was still a little short even with the 12 hour extended editions. The last 2 Harry Potter movies was borderline, mostly as #7 or part 1 was slow and boring. The others you listed were as silly and poorly done as the Hobbit sadly. I guess technically the Godfather might have been the first book split into 2 movies and it was done perfectly of course. So it can be done correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/31 "2016-10-15T20:13:53Z")
If we’re going there, then _The Neverending Story_ was based on the first half of the book. I suppose that if the first one had been a big enough success, they could have made a sequel based on the second half of the book, but they didn’t (there was a _Neverending Story 2_ movie, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t based on the book). Then again, though, the second half of the book would have been a lot harder to make a movie of, and it wouldn’t be remotely the same sort of movie that the first one was. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/32 "2016-10-15T21:20:40Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > Put more simply, my post was trying to say: > It went from making a movie for each book (LotR) to making two or three movies for one book (DH, HG, Hobbit). > > To me it reads that way, but maybe I didn’t make it clear. I’m sorry. We’re good. My final opinion? I want to see good movies. Splitting a huge book into multiple movies may make sense. Combining a few short books in a series into a single movie may make sense. Padding movies just to stretch them out usually makes poorer movies (like the Hobbit). But in this particular case, that isn’t _a priori_ what’s happening. It may be that JK is actually out of ideas and the movies suck. But it isn’t a case of taking a pre-existing story and padding it to a much longer movie, like many other movies are. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/33 "2016-10-15T22:57:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If we’re going there, then _The Neverending Story_ was based on the first half of the book. I suppose that if the first one had been a big enough success, they could have made a sequel based on the second half of the book, but they didn’t (there was a _Neverending Story 2_ movie, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t based on the book). I only saw _The Neverending Story 2_ once, around the time it was released, but the only things that stuck in my mind about it were taken directly from the book (which I didn’t read until years later). There’s an evil sorceress, the story involves Bastian making wishes but each time he does he loses a memory, and near the end Bastian realizes that he’s down to his memory of his father and his memory of his mother. So the movie was at least loosely based on the book, although I couldn’t tell you at this point how many liberties it took. ETA: It was apparently legal problems with author Michael Ende that delayed the sequel; the first movie was a commercial success. There’s actually a [third installment in the series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NeverEnding_Story_III) that never made it to wide release in the US. (Weirdly, it featured Jack Black as a school bully.) I’ve never seen it, but a friend of mine in college had and said it was astonishingly bad. The linked Wiki article states that the third movie was not based on the book at all aside from the characters who were carried over from the earlier movies. ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/34 "2016-10-16T00:18:00Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Or, before that, _Back to the Future_ 1 and 2 were shot concurrently, based on the success of the first one. Or Superman and Superman II in the '70s (though that plan didn’t really work out the way they planned). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/35 "2016-10-16T00:33:31Z")
Richard Lester had already shot _The Three Musketeers_ and _The Four Musketeers_ back-to-back before making the Superman films. ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/36 "2016-10-16T01:21:56Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Richard Lester had already shot _The Three Musketeers_ and _The Four Musketeers_ back-to-back before making the Superman films. Quite right, and I should have remembered that one. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/37 "2016-10-16T03:17:35Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Richard Lester had already shot _The Three Musketeers_ and _The Four Musketeers_ back-to-back before making the Superman films. He didn’t tell the actors though, they wound up suing him since they thought they were only going to be in a single film. ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/38 "2016-10-16T03:55:32Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > He didn’t tell the actors though, they wound up suing him since they thought they were only going to be in a single film. Well, the Salkinds produced it (and Superman), and they’re the ones responsible, not Lester. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/39 "2016-10-16T04:07:56Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Yea, it might be interesting. I can’t really thing of a modern case where a studio said they were going to make 5 movies based on an original story (maybe the new Star Wars movies?) Who knows if they’ll be good or not, but it seems like a neat experiment. Basically what they’re suggesting is five movies set in the same universe, which is not really any different from Marvel deciding to make multiple movies in its superhero universe. All of the studios are trying to establish film franchises or series of interconnected movies. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474/40 "2016-10-16T14:03:50Z")
> [@movie execs](#): > > Ms. Rowling, movies based in your universe have been hugely successful. We’d love a series of five with new characters, sight unseen, and can offer you $Bazzilion per movie with this very generous deal on toy marketing profit sharing and on residuals. Can you come up with screenplays for that series, maybe riffing off that silly little textbook you created? Leave room for plenty of special effects and action scenes and no need to describe too much, the FX people will take of that. Great! Really this is akin to Disney committing to the new Stars Wars Trilogy and multiple other movies set in the universe knowing that the market will more than support the franchise. It is not a book adaptation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-to-be-a-five-part-movie-series/768474.md?page=3)