"Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe takes on "Woman in Black"

LONDON  - Daniel Radcliffe, best known for playing boy wizard Harry Potter, is confirmed to take the lead in James Watkins' movie adaptation of Susan Hill's novel "The Woman in Black," backers said on Monday.

Radcliffe, who turns 21 this week, will play a young lawyer who is ordered to travel to a remote corner of Britain and sort out a recently deceased client's papers.

As he works alone in an old and isolated house, he begins to uncover its tragic secrets, and his unease grows when he discovers that the local village is held hostage by the ghost of a scorned woman set on vengeance.

The movie will be produced and co-financed by Hammer Films and Alliance Films from a script by Jane Goldman ("Kick Ass"). Production is expected to begin in the fall of 2010.