David Yates to Direct 5th Harry Potter movie
courtesy of variety

British director David Yates will helm Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for Warner Bros. Pictures. Michael Goldenberg is taking over scripting duties from the first four films' scribe Steve Kloves for producer David Heyman.

In the fifth book, by J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter is faced with the unreliability of the very government of the magical world and the impotence of the authorities at Hogwarts. Despite this (or perhaps because of it), he finds depth and strength in his friends, beyond what even he knew; boundless loyalty; and unbearable sacrifice.

The movie is scheduled to start production late 2005 and hit theaters in Summer 2007.

Yates directed the 1998 feature The Tichborne Claimant and the prize-winning TV dramas The Way We Live Now and miniseries State of Play. He's also attached to direct Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany in the Warner Independent Pictures' Brideshead Revisited.