Rowling to attend Potter film premiere

LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) Bestselling author J K Rowling will join the young stars of the Harry Potter movies later today at the London premiere of ''Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'', the fifth in the seven-part franchise.

Organisers have promised to recreate the atmosphere of the Ministry of Magic, where much of the action in the latest film takes place.

Hundreds of Potter fans are also likely to be in Leicester Square to see the teenaged stars on their way into the Odeon Cinema.

Daniel Radcliffe, who plays the boy wizard, Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) lead the cast, along with Imelda Staunton, who steals the scenes she appears in as the sinister control freak Dolores Umbridge.

''Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'' follows Harry as he gathers a band of fellow magicians at Hogwarts and prepares them for the battle that he knows lies ahead.

It has been described by critics as darker than previous Potter movies, focusing more on the students' inner journeys. Reviews have been mixed, with some critics confessing confusion over the plot.

The London premiere comes five days after the world premiere in Tokyo but is likely to be the biggest of the film's regional launches, with most of the main cast due to attend along with a host of British celebrities.

It kicks off a month-long outbreak of Pottermania, with the release of the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series set for July 21.

Fans are speculating which characters will die at the end of ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'' after Rowling said she would kill off at least two of them.

More than 325 million copies of the first six books have been sold worldwide, helping to turn Rowling into the first dollar-billionaire author. Online pre-orders for the final instalment have already broken records.

REUTERS PD PM1828