All Alex Pettyfer needs is a good fantasy

Who will be the next Daniel Radcliffe? The next Robert Pattinson?

It might be a guy named Alex Pettyfer.

With the "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" franchises entering their own twilights this year, the film industry is clearly searching for another series about a cute guy in a supernatural world. It's a popular genre, to say the least. Go to Barnes & Noble and find the section labeled "New Teen Paranormal Romance" - you'll see multiple shelves filled with books hoping to be picked by Hollywood to become the next multi-movie property.

Enter Pettyfer, a 20-year-old British actor mostly unknown here. For the moment. Already he's building a resumé of fantasy films tailored to a teen and tween demographic. Last month he starred in "I Am Number Four," based on the novels by James Frey and Jobie Hughes, as an alien high schooler who falls for an Earth girl. Pettyfer also plays the lead role in "Beastly," a kind of Goth-teen retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" that opened Friday. And the Internet Movie Database lists him as an "unconfirmed" member of "The Mortal Instruments" and a "rumored" star of "The Seventh Son," both based on young-adult fantasy novels.

If even one of these movies spawned a series, Pettyfer would have his career locked up for years. That could be a blessing or a curse. Radcliffe has done little to no film work outside of "Potter" (although he has certainly done well on Broadway, starring in "Equus" and the upcoming revival of "How to Succeed"). And Pattinson wasn't able to convince "Twilight" fans to buy tickets for his much-maligned weepie "Remember Me." Even actors in fantasies must eventually face reality.