Colin Farrell joins new Harry Potter spin off movie

Colin Farrell is currently on screens in True Detective season 2 and he's just added a major project to his future slate with a role in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

It's a new movie, potentially the first of a series, based in the same universe as Harry Potter but set 70 years before the Boy Who Lived showed up at Hogwarts. It also transplants the story to New York with a look at the life of Newt Scamander - a famed creature hunter who penned a book young Harry uses in franchise.

That all sounds a bit convoluted but it boils down to this - a period film with an entirely new cast about a wizard who researches fantastical creatures. And what a cast it has, including Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne in the title role as well as Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller and Dan Fogler.