For adult filmgoers, the most fun thing about a Harry Potter movie is seeing all those great classically trained British actors--Maggie Smith, Gary Oldman, Emma Thompson--hamming it up mercilessly. The installment arriving this November, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, brings us more: Miranda Richardson as reporter Rita Skeeter and Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort. It also brings us something we haven't had before on a Harry Potter film: an English director.
Several British directors were approached for the initial Potter film. "And, in a kind of classically English way, everyone said, 'It's just kids' stuff,'" says Mike Newell, who is...