Daniel Radcliffe, best known as the boy-wizard Harry Potter, is set to star in classic stage play Equus later this summer about a young man who blinds six horses in a torrid ritual. Check out these promo pics of the 17-year-old!

Daniel said, “I’m really excited to be part of this production. I’m thrilled to be working with Richard Griffiths (Harry Potter’s Uncle Vernon Dursley) again. This is obviously a huge departure for me as an actor, but Equus is such an amazing play that this really was an opportunity not to be missed.”

UPDATE :: For pictures of Daniel Radcliffe’s butt in Equus, CLICK HERE!

Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix director, David Yates, share a brief moment together on the set of the film.

This week’s Newsweek features an article on David Yates and how he feels about working on the 5th installment of the film series. Here’s an excerpt from the Newsweek interview:

Mention the name of the new “Harry Potter” director and the near-universal response is, “Who?” After creating a $3.5 billion franchise with a string of high-profile filmmakers—Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón and Mike Newell—Warner Bros. hired David Yates to take the reins for “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” which will be released next summer. Yates is unknown here, but he’s been building an impressive résumé in his native Britain. His movie “Sex Traffic,” about women forced into international prostitution, was widely praised. In 2004 he won a British Directors’ Guild award for the TV series “State of Play,” a political thriller. And his last film, HBO’s “The Girl in the Café,” is a romance set at the G8 economic summit (yes, really), and earned an Emmy this year. “He’s one of the most exciting directors coming out of this country at the moment,” says longtime “Potter” producer David Heyman. Fair enough. But what’s a guy who makes gritty, hyperreal socially conscious films doing in the “Harry Potter” universe? “Well,” Heyman says, “this movie is bit of a revolution.”

“There’s a really interesting principle at the heart of this story,” says Yates, in an exclusive NEWSWEEK interview. “The ministry is this bureaucratic authoritarian regime trying to impose a fundamental doctrine on this liberal wacky school. The ministry isn’t very good at accepting the beauty of differences. Everything has to fit in a box, and if it doesn’t fit, it must be removed. The wonderful thing this story tells kids is that it’s OK to be different.”

Yates has pushed all the actors, in particular Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry, to deepen their performances this time around. “I’ve stretched Dan quite a bit. He’s a very intuitive person, very bright, quite sensitive,” he says. “I’m just helping him wake those things up. You can see his determination and ambition, and he can switch things on a sixpence, so I can’t wait for people to see what he’s achieving.”

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix also stars Imelda Staunton as Dolores, Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort, Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore, and Gary Oldmanas Sirius Black.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be out nationwide on July 13, 2007!

Take a look at the scans below from French magazine Cine Live on Harry Potter. There’s even a neat little “morphing” section to show how Daniel Radcliffe’s character has changed in appearance over the years since the first Harry Potter film. Unfortunately, I don’t read French so I can’t translate. But if anybody wants to volunteer their language service, do feel free to!

TEEHEE! New Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix have swooped out of the sky and have arrived!!!! Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and Cho Chang (Katie Leung) share an on-screen kiss above.

Below are some of the other characters in the film: Imelda Staunton as Dolores, Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort , Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore , and Gary Oldmanas Sirius Black Mark. your calendars… Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be out nationwide on July 13, 2007!

The teaser trailer for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will make its online debut on Monday, Nov. 20 @ 3PM ET/PT on the Happy Feet website.

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How exciting! Here are the very first look stills for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. More pictures in the gallery including Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge, Emma Thompson as Sybil Trelawney, Maggie Smith as Minerva Mcgonagall, and David Bradley as Argus Filch. Here’s an excerpt from yesterday’s Newsweek:

Harry Potter might lose one of its stars. The fifth film in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is currently filming at Leavesden Studios north of London. Negotiations to lock in Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) for the final two films are in the preliminary stages, and while the boys are likely to commit, Watson, 16, is unsure. “I don’t know yet,” she told Newsweek near the set of 12 Grimmauld Place, secret headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. “Every film is such a huge production, and it’s a long time.” Saying yes would mean she’d be playing the studious Hermione until she’s 20. Watson scored near-perfect grades on her national exams. College must be on her mind, not to mention a career, and she’s not sure acting is in the cards. “Daniel and Rupert seem so sure,” she says, and looks sincerely plagued that she isn’t. “I love to perform, and there are so many things I love doing.” Pause. “Maybe that sounds ungrateful. I’ve been given such an amazing opportunity, but I’ll just have to go with the flow.”

Top row (L-R): James Phelps as Fred Weasley, Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom, Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood, William Melling as Nigel, and Alfred Enoch as Dean Thomas.

Bottom row (L-R): Ryan Nelson as Slightly Creepy Boy, Nick Shrim as Somewhat Doubtful Boy, Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley, Shefali Chowdhury as Parvati Patil, Oliver Phelps as George Weasley, Afshan Azad as Padma Patil, and Katie Leung as Cho Chang.