Harry Potter's new adventure

The teenage wizard's eighth story is to be released in July, US publishers Scholastic, UK publishers Little, Brown and digital company Pottermore said on Wednesday.

The book is the script version of an upcoming London play and will be available in printed form in Britain and the US and digitally worldwide. The book will be released on July 31, Harry Potter's birthday and the day after the play premieres in London.

"J.K. Rowling and her team have received a huge number of appeals from fans who can't be in London to see the plan and who would like to read the play in book format - and so we are absolutely delighted to be able to make it available for them," David Shelley, CEO of Little, Brown Book Group, told reporters.

The play, based on an idea by Rowling, describes Harry's life 19 years after "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." The story features Potter as an overworked employee at the Ministry of Magic. The father of three grapples "with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs," Scholastic, Pottermore and Little, Brown, said.

The play features actors Jamie Parker as Harry Potter and black actress Noma Dumezweni and opens on July 30 this year. Potter fans are also looking forward to watching the movie version of Rowling's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" in November this year.

The seven novels in the Harry Potter series have sold more than 450 million copies worldwide and been translated into 79 languages. The movies have grossed seven billion dollars.

mg/jil (Reuters, AFP)