Harry Potter première date set

The film is expected to break box office records

The hotly-anticipated Harry Potter movie will get its world première in London on 4 November, it has been revealed.

The screening, at the Odeon cinema in Leicester Square, is expected to attract a host of celebrities as well as the stars of the $125m (£86m) blockbuster, and will be followed by a glittering party.

Rowling: Wanted assurances about the characters

The film will go on public release in the UK and North America on 16 November.

Based on the first novel by JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is widely expected to break box office records.

Daniel Radcliffe, aged 12, will play the young magician who discovers his parents were wizards, and that he possesses magical powers.

The film also stars John Cleese as ghost Nearly Headless Nick, Robbie Coltrane as the school groundskeeper, and Richard Griffiths and Fiona Shaw as Harry's uncle and aunt.

Daniel Radcliffe plays the young magician

Alan Rickman, Richard Harris, John Hurt, Rik Mayall and Julie Walters also star.

Director Chris Columbus, who also worked on the Home Alone films, recently said he has not changed the book's winning formula.

Rowling only agreed to let her adventures be adapted for the big screen after assurances that "characters won't be led off in any inappropriate directions".

Success

The film comes on the back of worldwide success for the four Harry Potter books, which have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide.

Rowling is one of the highest UK female earners and was made an OBE by the Queen earlier this year after famously writing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone while sheltering from the elements in an Edinburgh café.

A fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is expected to be released in the middle of 2002.

Work on a film sequel has already started.