'Harry Potter' producers and J.K. Rowling have not discussed more movies

LONDON - "Harry Potter" author and creator J.K. Rowling created a buzz last month when she told Oprah Winfrey she was open to writing new books in the "Potter" universe, something she'd never discussed publicly before.  With the second to last "Potter" film, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 1," opening next week, HitFix asked franchise producers David Heyman and David Barron if they had spoken to the author about possible new wizardly adventures.  The duo made it clear there are no plans for future movies at this time nor have they discussed such with Rowling.

"Jo writing new books? She will write new books," Heyman says. "If they are 'Harry Potter' books or not I have no idea what they will be. If she does write 'Harry Potter' books I think they will be expanding the universe.  Things along the lines of 'Monster's Books of Monsters' or [about] 'Quidditch' because she has such a deep knowledge of this world and what we read in the books is really just the surface.  There is so much more.  Whether we actually see 'Harry and the Bureaucrats'?  I don't know."

As surprising as it sounds, neither Barron or Heyman have even approached Rowling to discuss spinoffs from the billion dollar franchise.

"No. No. I would not be so presumptuous," Heyman insists. "Jo is not a screenwriter, she's an author. She's not writing things for films.  She's writing books. And I know that she writes pretty much every day, that's what she is.   I would not try and say, 'Please, will you please do this' or 'Please will you do that.'" 

"If she has something she would like for David or for us to look at, it will turn up eventually," Barron notes.

"The films are born out of Jo's fiction," Heyman says.  "And however brilliant [franchise screenwriter] Steve Kloves is and there are scenes that Steve has written that Joe has gone, 'I wish I'd written that.  I wish I'd done that.'  Even with that I think that there is only one Jo Rowling and we could not make a film without her source material."

Barron adds, "I mean, 'Harry Potter' was seven books, but it was a singular story and the seventh book was the end of that story and It's hard to imagine how she would re-enter that story.  She could take a character I guess and go in a completely different direction, but we have no indication that that's what she might intend to do."

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 1" opens nationwide and on IMAX Nov. 19."  The final film, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 2" opens July 15, 2011.