Harry Potter's "Wedding" Director

It's official, Mike Newell's hopping aboard the Hogwart's Express.

The director of films as diverse as Donnie Brasco and Four Wedding and a Funeral is making the move into the wizarding world. Warner Bros. has tapped Newell to helm Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth feature based on J. K. Rowling's hugely popular fantasy series.

"We're really happy to bring Mike on board to direct this movie," says Jeff Robinov, president of production at Warner Bros. Pictures. "He has the ability to get tremendous performances from his actors, and handles drama and comedy equally well. We've been lucky to have worked with excellent filmmakers on the first three Harry Potter movies and we are looking forward to continuing that tradition as we start on this next movie with Mike."

Newell, who had been in negotiations with Warners since last month, will be getting a Gringott-sized salary of $1 million to guide the now 14-year-old lightning-scarred boy magician into his fourth year at Hogwart's School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, a term in which Harry will take part in the life-threatening inter-school Triwizard Competition.

Newell follows Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron, who took over the reins for the third installment, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, from original director Chris Columbus, who piloted the first two films in the franchise, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to blockbuster success.

The first two Potter flicks grossed a combined $1.9 billion in worldwide ticket sales and broke records faster than a snitch. The third movie, Azkaban, is currently finishing up principal photography at Leavesden Studios north of London and locations in England and Scotland.

Azkaban's original release date was for this November, but after several production delays, including the recasting of Professor Dumbledore with veteran British thesp Michael Gambon following the death last year of Richard Harris, Warners execs decided to push the film back to June 2004 to give the filmmakers enough time to complete the film's complicated special effects.

The studio hopes Newell's penchant for balancing lighter fare with edgier material will be a perfect fit for Goblet of Fire, which sees Harry hitting puberty, flirting with girls, and facing death for the first time.

Says producer David Heyman: "Mike's rich and diverse body of work show him to be the perfect choice. He has worked with children, made us laugh, and had us sitting on the edge of our seats. He is great with actors and imbues all his characters, all his films, with great humanity. I'm thrilled."

Newell's biggest hit to date was the 1994 romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral, starring Hugh Grant and Andie Macdowell, which grossed north of $244 million worldwide.

Other credits include an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, the 1996 mob drama Donnie Brasco starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp and 1999's air traffic control comedy Pushing Tin with Billy Bob Thornton, Angelina Jolie, John Cusack and Cate Blanchett.

Steve Kloves, who adapted the first three Potter tomes to the big screen, is once again on board and, this time, is charged with translating the Goblet of Fire's hefty 734-pages into a script befitting a two-and-a-half-hour movie.

Afraid of alienating die-hard Muggles by cutting scenes, the studio and scribe initially had talked about breaking the book into two separate films to be released in the same calendar year, à la The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions, but Warners has now opted for a single movie.

A rep for Warners said the studio will likely bring back the franchise's aging kid stars--Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint--for the fourth adventure, but it's possible filmmakers may decide to recast. A separate announcement regarding those roles will be made soon.

Goblet of Fire--with a projected budget of $130 million--is slated to start production in England in April 2004 and is expected to hit theaters in late 2005.