Magical month for Harry Potter fans Posted on Harry Potter fans around the globe are looking forward to a magical month of July, as the fifth film in the series premieres in London Tuesday while the final book will be released in three weeks. Japanese fans wait for British actor Daniel Radcliffe LONDON (AFP) - Indeed, the only thing that is more eagerly anticipated than the release of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" in cinemas around the world may be the seventh part of JK Rowling's best-selling books, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Gallows," due out July 21. The six books published thus far have sold 325 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 64 languages, while the four films have grossed 3.

5 billion dollars (2.6 billion euros) worldwide. They have even spawned a theme park in Florida -- The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is expected to open in Orlando in late 2009.

Rowling's final tome, however, is generating even more excitement than her last six -- the author's British publisher Bloomsbury said last month that export orders for the latest edition are 17 percent higher than the total for the sixth instalment, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." L-R: Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe Anticipation for the book's release has reached such a fever pitch that an Internet hacker claimed to have broken in to the computers of the publishers of the "Harry Potter" books and discovered the ending of the series -- Bloomsbury rejected the claims. Rowling has said she will kill off two characters from the series, without revealing which ones.

But much of the betting has been on the bespectacled wizard himself, played by Daniel Radcliffe, dying -- bookmakers William Hill stand to lose 17,000 pounds if Potter does indeed die. Retailers fear that the ending of the series and the accompanying deaths could cause such level of distress among fans that Waterstone's, a major bookseller, are planning to set up a helpline for readers. Even the cast of the latest Harry Potter are awaiting the release of the finale, with Radcliffe reticent to venture his own theories, saying that Rowling would "come up with something far more interesting or exciting than anything we can ever predict or imagine.