British film director Mike Newell will direct the film "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", the fourth movie in the series about the boy wizard's adventures, the Times newspaper reported on Monday.

Production of the movie, based on Scottish author J.K. Rowling's book with the same title, is due to begin next April in Britain for a worldwide release in late 2005.

Filming is currently under way on the third film in the series, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", directed by Mexican Alfonso Cuaron, which is due for release in June next year.

Mike Newell

The Times said Newell, who directed the hit comedy "Four Weddings and a Funeral", would be paid $1 million and had a budget of $130 million for the movie. It will be filmed at Leavesden Film Studio, north of London.

Newell has just completed "Mona Lisa Smile", a romantic comedy starring Julia Roberts. Other hits include the Al Pacino thriller "Donnie Brasco" and "Enchanted April".

The first two Potter films had a combined box-office gross of almost $1.9 billion.

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