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Fans may know Daniel Radcliffe as the first (and only) actor to ever portray a character named Harry Potter, but it looks like they're wrong.

Film director John Carl Buechler cast former "Battlestar Galactica" actor Noah Hathaway to play a character named Harry Potter Jr. in his movie "Troll" -- produced more than a decade before J.K. Rowling published her first book on the boy wizard -- and is planning to use that character once again when he remakes the movie set for a 2009 release.

"Harry Potter Jr. is based on the character first introduced to the world in 1986 in the original motion picture," Buechler told Airlock Alpha's Michael Hinman. That means that he won't try to be anything like Rowling's character, but instead will be taking his cues from the Hathaway character.

"Harry Potter Jr. is very like the character in the original," he said.

"Troll" spawned two sequels in the 1980s and 1990s, but hadn't been touched again until recently. The remake is budgeted for $20 million, according to a weekend story in The Daily Mail in London, and like the original, does feature Potter in an wizard-like environment.

Casting has already begun on the film, with Buechler taking his search for a new Harry Potter Jr. to the Internet. He has set up a Web site at troll.sharenow.com where he hopes to find a boy and a girl between the ages of 11 and 14 to portray both Harry and his sister, Wendy Anne.

Buechler is already marketing the film on the Web site as how, in 1986, he "brought to the screen the magical tale of a young boy who entered a fantastical world of bizarre creatures, wizards and witches where he fought an evil magician, who was horribly transformed into a grotesque wizard troll. The magical creature took over the form of the boy's sister, and attempted to transform the world into a nightmarish land. Learning the ways of magic from a guardian witch, the young boy was charged to try and save the world."

The original story reported by The Daily Mail quoted Buechler's production partner, Peter Davy, as if to challenge Warner Bros. and Rowling in her creation. However, Buechler told Airlock Alpha that Davy was misquoted by the paper. The movie's Web site already has taken steps to distance itself from Rowling and Warner Bros., but despite a warning from the studio, Buechler has no plans to change the name of his character, since it's the same name used in the original movie.

Olswang Solicitors of London, a firm that says they represent author J.K. Rowling, contacted Airlock Alpha Tuesday demanding the removal of an earlier story based on The Daily Mail publication, which they said they had successfully removed. They called the story "inaccurate and defamatory," and threatened legal action against Airlock Alpha if the story was not removed by Wednesday.

Since Airlock Alpha does not remove stories simply from a generic demand from an attorney, the site instead went out and worked to independently verify information in the story, and reached out to Buechler, who in turn provided an update on the project. The original Airlock Alpha story was removed because of the misquotes, and because Buechler said the story's writer from The Daily Mail jumped to conclusions that were not accurate.

It is not clear what other news outlets besides The Daily Mail and Airlock Alpha Olswang contacted, but other versions of the story picked up by news outlets like News.com.au, MyNews.in, ShortNews.com and ContactMusic had already been removed.

Buechler has not sought any legal remedies over the use of the Harry Potter name or even his magical background from Rowling, and it's unclear if he ever will do so. Rowling herself has been busy in a court in New York City this past week suing another Web site over its attempt to publish a lexicon on the Harry Potter universe.

This isn't the first time someone else had claimed prior use of Harry Potter. American author Nancy Stouffer in 1999 claimed that ideas from her novels "The Legend of Rah and the Muggles" and "Larry Potter and His Best Friend Lilly" were stolen and used for the Harry Potter book series. However, her lawsuit was unsuccessful.

Hathaway, who played Boxey in the original 1978 "Battlestar Galactica" series, has been cast as a much older character named Turok, according to the Internet Movie Database.

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Hear Michael Hinman on SyFy Radio every Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, and Sundays at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT at www.BlogTalkRadio.com/syfyradio.