THE next Harry Potter movie will be directed by a self-taught Merseyside man.
As filmgoers queue up to watch the latest Harry Potter instalment tonight, David Yates is already working on the next movie.
Originally from St Helens, Yates has jetted off to a secret location to begin filming the fifth episode in the series of adaptations from JK Rowling's novels.
The relative newcomer beat competition from well-known directors across the world to be appointed director of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. He started making films as a 14-year-old schoolboy and has not stopped since.
Credits include television programmes The Bill and State of Play - starring Liverpool actor David Morrissey - and this year's version of Brideshead Revisited.
Yates, 43, told how he had not read any of JK Rowling's books about the teen wizard until earlier this year because he had been too busy reading scripts.
But he added: "It's the kind of film I've wanted to make since I was 14.
"I'm really looking forward to it and am working my way through all the books and starting to get a bit addicted to JK Rowling's world, which is fantastic and wonderfully realised.
"I grew up in St Helens on Merseyside, had no idea how you became a director, but just got on and did my own thing, hauling in friends and family to star in the little films I made. And I just kept at it."
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