FINAL 'HARRY POTTER' TO BE SPLIT INTO TWO FILMS; YATES, KLOVES BACK ON BOARD (VAR, LAT)

By Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte

The final �Harry Potter� book is to be split into two films which will be released six months apart, it was announced yesterday. As anticipated, Warner Bros. has set David Yates to direct with Steve Kloves on writing duties. The films will be shot concurrently.

Part one of the final tome, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will bow in November 2010, with the second to debut the following May. (A Cannes red carpet for the boy wizard, anyone?)

The decision is being met around the world with fans' cheers but also plenty of cynical smirks, says The Los Angeles Times. The publishing industry is learning to live without new "Potter" releases, but Hollywood just pulled off a trick that will keep its profitable hero on his broom into the next decade.

The strategy solves a difficult issue for Warners which had been wrestling with a way to adapt J.K. Rowling's hefty last book and successfully conclude its lucrative franchise, notes Variety. The series has thus far amassed $4.5 billion at the worldwide box office.

Warner Bros. president Alan Horn and Jeff Robinov, president of Warner Bros. Pictures Group, are expected to discuss their plans for "Deathly Hallows" during the studio's ShoWest presentation this afternoon.

Daniel Radcliffe, the star of the franchise, told the LAT it was the dense action of the final novel that made the decision, not any executive or ledger.

"I think it's the only way you can do it, without cutting out a huge portion of the book," Radcliffe said. "There have been compartmentalized subplots in the other books that have made them easier to cut -- although those cuts were still to the horror of some fans -- but the seventh book doesn't really have any subplots. It's one driving, pounding story from the word go."

The sixth movie in the franchise, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," debuts in theaters in November this year. It is also being directed by Yates, who helmed the previous installment, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."

With the upcoming films, Kloves will have written seven of the eight adaptations, having missed only "Order of the Phoenix."