The next Harry Potter film will be the most expensive movie ever made, says director Mike Newell.

Goblet Of Fire the fourth Potter film will cost £170 million £5 million more than Return of the King, the last in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Filming is due to begin in April and Newell, whose bigscreen successes include Four Weddings And A Funeral and Julia Roberts' hit Mona Lisa Smile, said: ''I think of myself as being really lucky. I'm going to make the most expensive film there has ever been.

''These things are not like ordinary films they are world events.''

Newell agreed that the job of directing a Potter picture carried huge responsibilities. He said: ''I have millions of 10-year-olds who must not be disappointed.

''Making Harry Potter is like being President of Brazil. It is a colossal undertaking.''

Goblet of Fire, scheduled for release in 2005, will again star Daniel Radcliffe as schoolboy wizard Harry and Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid, the halfgiant grounds man at Hogwarts.

Robbie's character has presented Newell with a giant sized headache finding an 8 ft tall French woman to play Hagrid's love interest, Madame Maxime.

He said: ''We are casting right now. I've been in Paris, looking for giant women and French schoolgirls.''

TOP FIVE MOST EXPENSIVE MOVIES: Fox, 1997.2000. £165m: Return of the King by New Line, 2003. £112m: Titanic by Paramount/ £96m: Water world by £110m: Dinosaur by Disney, Warner Bros, 1999. Universal, 1995.