Next 'Harry Potter' films due out in July

LOS ANGELES: Spectacled boy wizard Harry Potter will return to US theatres in July 2007 and again in November 2008 with the newest installments of the hit movies which have earned more than 3.5 billion dollars worldwide, the Hollywood press reported Tuesday.

Warner Bros. Studios will release the fifth Potter film in mid-summer next year, with "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The studio will time the following movie, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", for the lucrative Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons at the end of 2008, the daily said. Warner Bros. officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Potter has become a virtual global phenomenon since he was introduced to the world in British writer J.K. Rowling's 1997 book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (or "Sorcerer's Stone", in the US version). Rowling has gone on to publish five other volumes, which have sold 300 million copies in 63 languages.

The films of the first four tomes, starring Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, have also been massive hits around the world.

Rowling's seventh and reportedly final volume in the series is expected by next year, with great anticipation and trepidation among fans that she might let the hero die in the end.