Florida goes potty as Harry heads for Orlando

IF YOU believe in theRiddikulus, then plans for thelatest Florida theme park are just the ticket for every muggle or mudblood among you.

JK Rowling, author of the most successful children’s book series ever, has given the go-ahead for a theme park dedicated to schoolboy wizard Harry Potter.

By 2009, the delights of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will have risen above the fictional confines of the seven Potter novels to allow adults and children alike indulge their imagination.

Here, the real delights of butter beers and Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans will be readily available to anyone brave or barmy enough to try them.

Likewise, anyone who fancies their chances at Quidditch — a game played aboard a broomstick at a speed that makes hurling look slow as a snail in syrup — can give it a lash in the grounds of a lifesize Hogwarts Castle.

Yesterday Ms Rowling said she had seen the plans and approved.

“The plans I have seen look incredibly exciting and I don’t think fans of the books or films will be disappointed,” she said.

The park is a joint venture between Warner Bros Entertainment, whose Potter films have so far grossed more than $3.5 billion (€2.6bn) worldwide.

Work is to get under way within weeks on recreating Hogwarts, where visitors to the theme park will encounter some of thecharacters from the series.

The theme park will alsofeature the Forbidden Forest and the village of Hogsmeade, home to wizards, magical creatures and site of shops selling cauldrons and broomsticks.

In a statement issued by the builders of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, they announced plans to “create the world’s first immersive HarryPotter-themed environment”.

Barry Meyer, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros Entertainment, said: “Over the years we’ve received thousands of letters from fans around the world wishing they could visit Hogwarts School and the wonderful locations described in each of JK Rowling’s beloved stories. We are confident that we will be able to provide an incredible experience.”

The park’s opening could help to quell the withdrawal symptoms of Potter fans around the globe who have bought 320 million copies of her wizard tales and turned every one of the films into a box office hit.

Pottermania is set to scale new heights in July with the last novel hitting the bookstands and thelatest film being launched in a deluge of global publicity.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final installment in her hugely successful series, is being released on July 21.

Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix, the fifth film in a blockbuster series based on the books, is being given its official world premiere in London on July 3.

Rowling, whose books are always released under tight security, has said two characters will die in the seventh and final book but she has refused to give any clues.

www.jkrowling.com

harrypotter.warnerbros.com