HARRY POTTER Apparates Into the West End; J.K. Rowling to Co-Produce Stage Play Based on Magical Book Series!

A play based on J.K. Rowling's worldwide phenomenon HARRY POTTER will soon be apparating into the West End, produced by the author herself.

The Daily Mail writes that Rowling will co-produce and collaborate with a playwright to create a stage play based on her seven-part magical series. Producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender are working with Rowling on the project, which will focus on "the previously untold story of Harry Potter's early years as an orphan and outcast."

Rowling told the Mail that Friedman and Callender's pitch "was the only one that really made sense to me, and which had the sensitivity, intensity and intimacy I thought appropriate for bringing Harry's story to the stage. After a year in gestation, it is very exciting to see this project moving onto the next phase."

Read the original report here.

HARRY POTTER began with The Philosopher's Stone in 1997 and has since ballooned into an eight-part movie series starring Daniel Radcliffe -- with spin-offs to come -- as well as a theme park in Orlando and more. The HARRY POTTER series has sold more than 450 million copies and has been translated into 77 languages.

Warner Bros, the studio behind the HARRY POTTER films, will have a hand in the show's development. A creative team has not yet been set, but the HARRY POTTER play is aiming for a 2015 reveal in the West End.

Friedman is currently producing The Book of Mormon and Mojo in the West End -- the latter stars HP film actor Rupert Grint. Callender previously produced the TV version of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Nicholas Nickleby, as well as Broadway's Lucky Guy, starring Tom Hanks.

Aside from her hugely successful HARRY POTTER series, Rowling is the author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Quidditch Through the Ages, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, The Casual Vacancy and The Cuckoo's Calling.