‘Harry Potter’ stage production in the works in London

A new stage production inspired by the “Harry Potter” novels by J.K. Rowling is in the works from producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender. Rowling is expected to be involved with the production, but won’t be writing the drama, which is expected to be a prequel of sorts recounting the young Potter’s orphan days.

The news of the project was first reported Friday by the British tabloid the Daily Mail. A London representative for Friedman confirmed the Daily Mail report, saying that the production is in the “early stages of development” and that Callender is also involved, but declined to provide additional detail.

The stage production is expected to bow on London’s West End within two years, though no date has been announced. The Daily Mail quoted Rowling saying that the project put forth by Friedman and Callender 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.”

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It remains unclear who will write the production and what form the stage production will take. (The Daily Mail describes the project as a play.)

Friedman is a veteran London and New York stage producer whose many credits include “The Book of Mormon” and the current Broadway run of “Twelfth Night” and “Richard III” from Shakespeare’s Globe. Callender, the former head of HBO Films, partnered with Friedman earlier this year on the Broadway run of Nora Ephron’s “Lucky Guy,” starring Tom Hanks.

Rowling wrote seven “Harry Potter” novels, starting with “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” which was published in the U.S. in 1998. There have been eight movies adapted from the the series.

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