Warner Bros. Plans Two-Part Film Adaptation for Harry Potter

BURBANK, March 14: Warner
Bros. Pictures announced that the screen adaptation of J.K. Rowling's final
book in the hit series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be released in two parts.

The first part of Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows
will open during holiday 2010, with the second part to be released in summer
2011. Both parts will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros.
Entertainment company.

Director David Yates, who
earlier helmed the 2007 summer blockbuster Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix and is currently in
production on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, will direct Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows. This marks the first time
any one director will helm more than two releases in the Harry Potter film franchise.

In addition, David Heyman,
who first brought the project to Warner Bros. in 1997, will be completing the
film franchise as the producer of all of the Harry Potter films. David Barron will also continue as
producer. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be adapted by screenwriter Steve Kloves.

Jeff Robinov, the
president of Warner Bros. Pictures Group, stated: "It has been an honor
for our studio to be entrusted with bringing J.K. Rowling's extraordinary book
series to the screen, and we have always felt a great responsibility to be true
to her vision. In concluding the film franchise, we recognized that Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows is
packed with vital plot points that complete the story arcs of all of its
beloved characters. That said, we feel that the best way to do the book, and
its many fans, justice is to expand the screen adaptation of Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hallows and
release the film in two parts. We could not imagine the final chapter of the
film franchise being in better hands than those of David Yates."

"This is a very
special moment for us, as it is the final episode in the great journey that
J.K. Rowling undertook more than a decade ago," added Alan Horn, the
president and COO of Warner Bros. Entertainment. "It has been a journey
for all of us at Warner Bros. as well, and we are confident that our filmmakers
will finish our series of films as a fitting complement to Jo's completion of
Harry's story on the page."

—By Irene Lew