After an attempt at getting a movie off the ground back in 2008, it looks like the Artemis Fowl young adult novel series is going to get another stab at it. With Disney backing it, it looks like Kenneth Branagh has set his sights on developing it while he works on Murder on the Orient Express. Branagh has done well by Disney the last few years, first with Thor and then this year’s release of Cinderella, which did $542 million on a $95 million budget. According to the first blush information, Branagh will be directing based on the script by Conor McPherson that’s being worked on. With eight books in the series, you can see Disney attempting to make this a strong series they can work with for several years.
Property concept: Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is a millionaire, a genius-and, above all, a criminal mastermind. But even Artemis doesn’t know what he’s taken on when he kidnaps a fairy, Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon Unit. These aren’t the fairies of bedtime stories; these fairies are armed and dangerous.
[Source: Variety]
Branagh has done some solid work, and this seems to be right up his alley, adapting written works, although its not quite the Shakespeare that first made his name.
Branagh has done many roles, but his most iconic will always be Doctor Arliss Loveless 🙂