In 2001, Harry Potter author JK Rowling spent 12 days knocking out a slim volume called Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them in aid of Comic Relief.

This week, it has been unveiled that the 42-page book is being turned into a trilogy of movies. Who said Hollywood is scraping the barrel?

After saying she wasn’t interested in any more movies for the time being, Warner Bros boss Kevin Tsujihara persuaded Rowling to adapt the book for the big screen. Three times.

Fantastic Beasts was billed as one of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts textbooks, written by “magizoologist” Newt Scamander. It is unlikely to involve any of the Potter clan, being as it is an “extension” of “Harry’s wizarding world.”

The films will likely be set in 1930s New York, the same as the book.

Given the speed at which Rowling can knock out words, expect these films sooner than you’d normally think.

In more pleasing casting news, Kevin Spacey is set to play Winston Churchill in a new biopic called Captain of the Gate, written by Ben Kaplan.

It’s unknown which period of Churchill’s life will be covered, but it’s going to be interesting to see Spacey tackle the role.

From his work in House of Cards we know he’s adept at playing a sneaky, immoral politician, so seeing him as someone rather more respectable will be a welcome change.

There has already been some dissent online at the idea of an American playing one of our greatest prime ministers, but with the amount of time he’s spent here, the work he’s done for the Old Vic theatre and his general curmudgeonliness he’s basically one of us.

Director Paul Feig’s latest collaboration with Melissa McCarthy who starred in his films Bridesmaids and The Heat has fallen off the excitement radar altogether. And that’s in spite of the inclusion of Jason Statham.

What could cause the star of this spy-comedy with a great director and talented lead actor to fall so spectacularly?

Miranda Hart. That’s what.

For some baffling reason, Feig has cast the British “funnywoman” in the film which also features Rose Byre and Jude Law.

No idea what part she’ll be playing, but we’ve poisoned the planet, so we only have ourselves to blame if it turns out to be substantial.

Hart said: ”I am beyond excited to work with Paul who I am a huge, huge fan of. And it will be nothing less than a hoot to work with Melissa McCarthy. By the end of the film I plan to have married Jude Law and have Melissa as our adopted daughter.”

And then she fell over and pulled a face at the camera. Probably.

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As if that Miranda news wasn’t bad enough, things are always able to get worse.

In this case “worse” is Mrs Brown’s Boys: D’Movie. Yes, that’s right, the worst sitcom ever, ever, ever made is getting a feature length spin-off. It involves fruit and veg and Russian gangsters or something equally stupid.

There’s a teaser-trailer out on the internet right now if you did something particularly hateful to your fellow man today and need to pay penance.

The only way this could get worse is if Miranda Hart was ‘in’ the Mrs Brown’s Boys movie. The seas would boil and the skies would rain fire, human sacrifice, snagged nails, dogs and cats living together… the thought alone is too terrible to bear.

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The excellent horror-comedy Tucker & Dale vs Evil is getting a second instalment.

The original gorefest left cinemas relatively splatter-free when it was released in 2010, but like so many good films these days, the satire on teen slasher films has found a rabid audience on DVD and streaming services.

In case you missed the first one, the story follows two well-meaning rednecks (Tucker and Dale) who head into the mountains to relax in a run-down cabin. However, a group of college kids are also visiting the wilderness with the hopes of getting drunk and assume the two loveable friends are killer hillbillies.

What follows is a series of entirely accidental, increasingly violent deaths.
The sequel will star original leads Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine.

Track down the original this weekend - it’s on Netflix right now.