J.K. Rowling may be exec producing the new Harry Potter series for Max, but Warner Bros. Discovery is now starting the search for a writer-showrunner.David Zaslav and his team officially unveiled plans to turn the YA fantasy book series into a TV series this morning as part of its rollout of the newly rebranded streaming service.Author Rowling, Neil Blair, and Ruth Kenley-Letts are exec producing with David Heyman is currently in talks to do the same. Brontë Film and TV is producing with Warner Bros. Television.Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, said that the search for someone to shepherd the series now begins in earnest.“We have been trying to be very close to the vest,” said Bloys. “We haven’t gone out to agencies. We have our own internal process where we’ve been thinking about people but we have not wanted to go out into the world. Now that the news is out there, we will start working with the Blair Partnership and we’ll start going out to the business.”It was announced today that the Harry Potter series will run for 10 years. It would be up to the writer/showrunner to figure out how the seven Harry Potter books would be split up, Bloys said, adding that the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, could carry the entire first season, which also could pull bits from other books.The series is expected to take a few years to get on air with sources suggesting a 2025/2026 premiere.
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