LOS ANGELES British actors Jason Isaacs, who played the villain in American civil war film ***"The Patriot,"*** and Kenneth Branagh will star in the next series of ***"Harry Potter"*** movies, producers said Monday.

The new film, ***"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,"*** is scheduled for release in November, a year after the release for the first smash hit picture about the English boy wizard, ***"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."***

Isaacs, who also stars in combat drama ***"Black Hawk Down"*** and ***"The End of the Affair,"*** will play the malevolent Lucius Malfoy, the father of Harry's nemesis Draco Malfoy in the Warner Bros. film.

Shakespearean actor, director and writer Branagh will take the role of professor Gilderoy Lockhart, an egotistical new teacher of defense against the dark arts at Harry's magical Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Branagh has starred in films such as ***"Hamlet,"*** which he also directed, ***"Wild Wild West"*** and ***"Mary Shelley's Frankenstein."***

***"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"*** was the biggest grossing movie of last year and second best performing film in history, taking more than 930 million dollars around the world so far.

The celluloid version of the second book in Scots author J.K. Rowling's best-selling series, "Chamber of Secrets" tracks the adventures of young magical apprentice Harry in their second year at Hogwarts.

British child actors Daniel Radcliffe will reprise his role a Harry in the new film, as Will Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, as Harry's pals Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, to fight a new dark force at the school.

Other actors joining the cast in the new ***"Harry Potter"*** include Miriam Margolyes, Mark Williams, Shirley Henderson and Gemma Jones, who starred in ***"Bridget Jones' Diary,"*** ***"Wilde"*** and ***"Sense and Sensibility."***

Reprising their ***"Harry Potter"*** roles are John Cleese as nearly headless Nick, Robbie Coltrane as the gentle giant Hagrid, Warwick Davis as master of levitation professor Flitwick and Richard Griffiths as Harry's uncle Vernon.

Also returning will be Irish star Richard Harris as Hogwarts' all-knowing professor Dumbledore, Alan Rickman as the enigmatic potions professor Snape, Dame Maggie Smith as professor Mcgonagall and Julie Walters as Mrs. Weasley.

The film, like the first in the series, will be directed by Chris Columbus and produced by David Heyman and is expected to generate as many dollars and as much of a social phenomenon as the ***"Sorcerer's Stone."***