MACUSA, Zoos & NYC: we tour the 'Fantastic Beasts' film during our set visit (Part 1) The intersection of Rivington Street and Baruch Place on New York City's Lower East Side during Christmastime 1926 created the setting of one of the key locations for the first installment of J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The movie itself takes place over the span of two days, Eddie Redmayne confessed, in December 1926 (as noted by all the Christmas decorations around New York City). This was the first of many Prohibition-era set locations SnitchSeeker and a group of online reporters got to peruse through and walk around this past December during our Leavesden Studios set visit of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, hitting theaters and IMAX November 18, 2016. Part one of two here will explore the many sets we got to visit, as well as little details about the plots we were able to pick up from props and set pieces. Part two, found here, focuses on the cast, crew and characters brought to life for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Let’s start off by taking a tour of the MACUSA headquarters. The now-famed entrance of the MACUSA headquarters - the exterior of the Woolworth Building in Manhattan (still around to this day, and a working office building), was chosen specifically by J.K. Rowling, noted production designer Stuart Craig. Rowling chose the building for its interior “Gothic decoration,” Craig said, including “the big entrance archway.” Rowling, said Craig (and to no surprise), “had diligently researched her New York of that period” to get it just right. At the top of the Woolworth entrance is a carving of a stone owl, and of course knowing the Harry Potter author, she probably wanted the area to represent MACUSA and the wizarding world for that aspect. • As you walk past the entrance, you’re welcomed to the MACUSA Pentagram. You can liken this to the British Ministry of Magic's large courtrooms featured in the fourth, fifth and seventh Harry Potter movies and books. A few other tidbits about the film’s set and plot that should be noted, especially before seeing the movie, can be read below. For now, this report doesn’t reveal TOO much about Fantastic Beasts, but just enough to get everyone desperate to know more. Stuart Craig wanted to tour the old New York City Subway system, as shown in these photos, but wasn’t granted permission by either the city or the MTA, so they had to rely on old photos to recreate the 1926 set for the underground. We walked into an entire room full of promotional images and concept art for the film, and of particular note were the gold-walled and furnitured interior of City Hall, as well as 20-30ish storey-tall greyish Shaw Tower (owned by Jon Voight’s character, Henry Shaw Sr.) While the trailers and previews revealed a few magical creatures, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Dozens of concept art of fantastic beasts dressed the walls of this promo room, featuring the: niffler, demiguise, picket, swooping evil, occamy (which exactly resembles the 'S' in the Fantastic Beasts official logo), murtlap, bits and pieces a creature (looks like a salamander-shaped creature made of lots of parts of other things). fwooper (looks like an upside-down. tear-shaped pink pygmy puff), streeler, mooncalf, doxy, nundo (like a lion with spikes on its mane), baby thestral, kappa, diricawl, billywig, runesears, lethifold (like a large black creepy parachute/sheet), graphon, giant dung beetle and hippocampus. We’ll finish off by giving a detailed and colorful tour of the wizarding and No-Maj (plural ‘No-Majes’ according to a want ad spotted on the set) world in New York City. • Several stores were spotted on the lower east side of Manhattan as we walked down Rivington Street and Baruch L. intersection, as well as Rivington and Lewis Street a block over (at the end of all streets were massive green screen boards). We then walked toward the park and zoo sections, which definitely looked like they had seen better days. • The Central Park Zoo exterior set featured a large bridge over a grassy area, near a tree (similar to this shot), and this is apparently where Newt and Jacob spot more creatures, and “things occur,” we were told. More CGI-green screens were found in this area.Well, that’s a look around the sets. Now, head here to see what the main cast, David Yates and David Heyman said about bringing J.K. Rowling’s first-ever script to life. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them screenplay book can be pre-ordered now via the following links: Amazon.com (hardcover) | Amazon.com (Kindle) | Amazon.co.uk (UK hardcover) | Warner Bros. Shop (hardcover) |
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