Harry Potter films' and Wizarding World's production designer Stuart Craig discussed how he brought the MACUSA interior, located in New York City's Woolworth Building, to life in
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them's first film in a new report.
Craig commented on the MACUSA entrance, its main lobby, and an interesting statue display dead-center of the common area. Bronze statues representing five witches and wizards stand in the middle as a reminder of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials that unjustly killed off manly members of the Wizarding community.
The first installment of the series, as noted by set reports back in November, will delve into the Witch Trials once again, supposedly through the 'Second Salemers' group headed by actress Samantha Morton's character, Mary Lou.
Quote:
Stuart Craig: When you enter the MACUSA building, you come up a flight of stairs to the main lobby...’
‘Above you, in this 750-foot-high building, there are no floors. There’s just a giant cathedral-like space with hundreds and hundreds of windows. The first things you’ll see, probably, are the phoenixes. They’re forty-foot high! Big gilded phoenix sculptures, covered in gold leaf. They’re rather splendid, actually. They’re the work of our principle sculptor, Bryn Court. We are extremely fortunate to have someone so skilled on our team.’
‘In the middle of this vast space, there’s a huge memorial to the witches of Salem. J.K. Rowling wrote it into the script. The witches in the memorial are bronze sculptures, slightly larger than life. They stand in amongst the crowd, if you can imagine, so people can walk through the memorial and right by the witches.’
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them's first movie hits theaters and IMAX on November 18, 2016, and the original screenplay by J.K. Rowling will be published the day after around the world for fans to own, on November 19th.
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Stuart Craig discusses 'Fantastic Beasts' MACUSA lobby set, Salem Trials' memorial 
