JK Rowling Working on Harry Potter Prequel Play

Harry Potter has traveled from page to screen—and now to stage. JK Rowling said today she is working on a play about the boy wizard's life before he attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Rowling's seven-book saga begins when Harry, an unloved orphan grudgingly raised by his aunt and uncle, receives a letter informing him he is a wizard. Rowling said in a statement that the play will "explore the previously untold story of Harry's early years as an orphan and outcast."

Rowling will be a co-producer on the show, along with veteran British theater producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender. The statement said Rowling will collaborate with a writer but will not write the script herself. "Over the years I have received countless approaches about turning Harry Potter into a theatrical production, but Sonia and Colin's vision 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," Rowling said. No opening date has been set for the show. (More JK Rowling stories.)