Hamburg  - The fantasy movie Inkheart, the first film based on the best-selling juvenile fiction series by author Cornelia Funke, premieres next week, one day before Funke turns 50.

Los Angeles based Funke is often described as a German equivalent of JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series.

She has hooked huge numbers of adult readers worldwide, along with the children and teens who relish the magic worlds of her novels. The movie release seems likely to mark a change of gear for her from being just big to going mega.

Many Germans remain bewildered that the world publishing industry prefers smash-hit fantasies by Funke - 15 million books sold and climbing - to long, poetical musings by German Nobel laureates.

The German literary world only began to take her seriously with a long delay. But fame talks. Her books - she is now beyond the 50th - are discussed nowadays on high-brow book-review pages.

Anyone who enjoyed the Harry Potter or Narnia movies is likely to be a pushover for Inkheart, in which Mo Folchart, played by US actor Brendan Fraser, unwittingly conjures literary villains into real life.

To fight the evildoer Capricorn, he has to travel the world with his daughter Meggie, played by British child actress Eliza Hope Bennett, who develops the same strange power. His eccentric sister Elinor is played British character actress Helen Mirren.

The cast is expected in Berlin for the world premiere on Tuesday evening at the plush Potsdamer Platz cinema used for the Berlin Film Festival.

Funke, who was a kindergarten teacher and a children's book illustrator in the German city of Hamburg before her writing career took off, marks her 50th birthday on Wednesday.

She moved three years ago to the United States with her two children and her late husband, who was fighting a losing battle with cancer.

Germany is first up with the Inkheart release on Thursday, followed by Britain on Friday and Italy on January 9. The United States is not to see the New Line Cinema production till January 23.

Unlike many German authors who fear money and celebrity will sully their talents, Funke is accustomed to working with cinema people, with many of her books previously filmed for television or the big screen in her native Germany.

She has said she already had Fraser in mind to play Mo when she was writing Inkheart, and he later became a good friend.

Though she lives in California, Funke continues to write all her books in German. Inkheart and its sequels were translated into English by Anthea Bell. But Funke kept close control of the 60- million-dollar movie project and held a co-producer title.

Like all movies, a lot of the detail in the book, first published in 2003, has vanished from director Iain Softley's movie, which boils down 550-plus pages to less than two hours of action drama.

Much of the film was shot at Shepperton Studios near London.

Debate has swirled around the books, with adults, who especially savour the dialogue, trying to recognize historical people including Adolf Hitler among the villains, or admiring poignant characters such as Dustfinger, played by British actor Paul Bettany.

The young-adult audience enjoys the action and the magic, which require rich digital special effects in the movie including a desert sandstorm that becomes flesh and blood.

Younger children can hold their breath, just hoping good will win out over evil.

Funke lives these days with daughter Anna, 18, and son Ben, 14, in a Los Angeles home stuffed with books, DVDs and toy dragons, which she collects as a hobby.

If Inkheart, which was delayed more than eight months by a writer's strike and marketing hesitations, does well at the box office, Funke is expected to ratchet up more millions in her book sales.

There are also further film prospects. There are two Inkworld sequels left to film: Inkspell and Inkdeath.

Internet: http://www.inkheartmovie.com/ (dpa)