Helena Bonham Carter officially joins Harry Potter 5

Being married to Tim Burton is clearly getting to Helena Bonham Carter. She’s become a sadistic, murderous, scheming witch. Oh, wait, no… That’s just who she’s playing in Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix.

Bonham Carter’s casting was rumoured weeks ago, but obviously the deals have been sealed, the contracts signed and Warner Bros has cleared its corporate throat to announce that she’s joining the cast. Bellatrix Lestrange is one of the more dangerous villains of the Potter universe, an unhinged Azkaban escapee who is Sirius Black’s cousin and who… Well, that would be spoiler territory, and while the book gives the story away and has been on the shelves for years, we don’t want to ruin it for anyone saving themselves for the film.

Also announced was the choice of composer, the person charged with weaving John Williams’ Potter theme into a new, original score. Director David Yates has gone with the who-you-know theory of composer choice and picked Nicholas Hooper. The pair has collaborated on just about everything Yates has directed, including The Tichborne Claimant, TV’s State Of Play and the TV movie The Girl In The Café.

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The fifth Potter flick sees a load of the old faces back in their usual roles, alongside experienced-but-new-to-the franchisers Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge), George Harris (Kingsley Shacklebolt) and Natalia Tena (Nymphadora Tonks). The Phoenix rises in cinemas July 2007.