Warner Bros. Discovery is close to a deal with "Harry Potter" novelist JK Rowling to adapt her seven-book series into a series for its soon to be relaunched/rebranded subscription streaming service, reports Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources.
The news service reports that WBD CEO David Zaslav, along with HBO chief Casey Bloys, have been pushing Rowling to produce the new show.
WBD will announce details next week on plans to relaunch a rebranded version of HBO Max, sans the HBO name. (Reports have surfaced that the service will be rebranded as "Max.")
The new series, should it come to fruition, would run on that platform.
Bloomberg is positioning it as a "scoop," but Zaslav has been pretty clear about his intentions to at least try to mine more "Harry Potter."
Zaslav told investors late last year that his new WBD regime was "going to have a real focus on franchises," specifically mentioning the "Potter" property.
Seven "Harry Potter" films released from 2001-2010 generated $7.7 billion at global box office alone. And this is one story Zaslav wouldn't mind telling over and over again.
“We haven’t had a ‘Superman’ movie in 13 years," he said in November. "We haven’t done a ‘Harry Potter’ movie in 15 years. The DC movies and the ‘Harry Potter’ movies provided a lot of the profits of Warner Bros. Motion Pictures over the last 25 years. So a focus on the franchise -- one of the big advantages that we have, House of the Dragon is an example of that, 'Game of Thrones,' taking advantage of 'Sex and the City,' 'Lord of the Rings,' we still have the right to do 'Lord of the Rings' movies. What are the movies that have brands that are understood and loved everywhere in the world?”
