One need only take a look through the We Got This Covered archives to learn that a big-screen adaptation of Artemis Fowl has flirted with development for years. Miramax first picked up the rights for the adaptation all the way in 2001, and since then the budding project has been stopped and started numerous times. But today, Tracking Board has broke the most promising piece of news for the titular anti-hero: Thor and Cinderella director Kenneth Brannagh is on board to spearhead the long-gestating film for Disney.
In collaboration with The Weinstein Company, the outlet reports that Harvey Weinstein is attached to produce, while Judy Hofflund will executive produce the nascent project.
Spanning no less than eight beloved sci-fi novels, Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series orbits around the titular 12-year-old genius (Artemis Fowl II). More of an anti-hero than a morally perfect protagonist, Artemis often engages with the fairy people, even holding them to ransom in the first book in a bid to restore his family’s wayward fortune. Like a futuristic twist on Robin Hood, albeit with decidedly less men in tights.
In tandem with Brannagh’s recruitment, Irish scribe Conor McPherson is in contention to pen the screenplay, who is only the tenth writer to tackle the source material in a bid to bring it to cinema across its long and turbulent history.
As a sci-fi YA fantasy series, it’s small wonder why it’s taken so long for Eoin Colfer’s creation to make his bow on the silver screen, though with Brannagh now attached to direct Artemis Fowl, Disney will be keen to fire up casting and production as soon as possible. It’s only been fourteen years in the making, after all.
