J.K. Rowling’s ‘Fantastic Beasts’ gets a trilogy; ‘Fantastic Four’ gets a villain

First we learned that

New York Times

profile of Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara, the author said, “When I say he made ‘Fantastic Beasts’ happen, it isn’t P.R.-speak but the literal truth. We had one dinner, a follow-up telephone call, and then I got out the rough draft that I’d thought was going to be an interesting bit of memorabilia for my kids and started rewriting!” “Beasts” will start off in New York about seven decades before the first “Harry Potter” story, following the escapades of magizoologist Newt Scamander.

has already played a thief in “RocknRolla,” and he’s a sinister simian in this summer’s “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.” So it shouldn’t be a stretch to take on the role of Doctor Doom, the genius villain in Josh Trank’s reboot of “The Fantastic Four.” He menaces good guys Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell for an opening in June 2015.

Two big Broadway musicals that have been languishing on Hollywood drawing boards seem to be moving forward:

• Composer Stephen Schwartz tells

Vulture.com

movie has “started gearing up.” With a movie, he says, creators can “really look at it again and say, ‘Oh, we can do this, and we’ve always wanted to do that and we couldn’t onstage, but we can in a movie.’ We’re actually having a blast.”

• And “Spring Awakening,” the coming-of-age musical set in dour 19th-century Germany, may get going this year, composer Duncan Shiek tells the San Diego Union-Tribune. McG is set to direct.

It’s been more than a month since the Academy Awards. Aren’t you starved for another ceremony? Enter the MTV Movie Awards, hosted by funnyman

mtv.com

. Besides the awards, the show unveils new trailers for some big summer blockbusters.

The Hollywood Reporter

This story was originally published April 2, 2014 at 3:08 PM with the headline "J.K. Rowling’s ‘Fantastic Beasts’ gets a trilogy; ‘Fantastic Four’ gets a villain."