Fans of Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl book series may finally have reason to be happy about a film adaptation. After 14 long years of Disney toying with the property and multiple directors having gone through concepts, it was announced that Disney is in discussions and may have already signed Kenneth Branagh (‘Thor’,’Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit’) to bring this series to the big screen. Having just worked with the studio in ‘Cinderella‘ he is already quite familiar with how Disney likes to have their movies done. Working with him would be Conor McPherson (‘The Eclipse’,’The Actors’) who is set to handle the script.

Colfer, who penned the series, describes it as “Die Hard With Fairies.” The adaptations have been on Disney’s plate for a while and never seems to get past the planning stages. However, with a director attached and Harvey Weinstein stepping up to produce, it would appear that the first film is actually going to happen. The studio has 8 books to adapt into an ongoing cinematic series so it should be quite obvious as to why a potentially multi-billion dollar franchise has to be handled with care. With over 13 million copies of the series having been sold world wide there is already a huge potential built in fan base to help stir up excitement when the first commercial eventually drops.

The story itself follows a 12-year-old named Artemis Fowl. Only, unlike other 12-year-old’ Artemis is a criminal mastermind that is looking to extort the Fairy People’s gold. Artemis is an anti-hero who goes from villain to potential world savior in a way that follows the trend of many of today’s onscreen heroes.

I probably shouldn’t point out my concerns that the last time we heard about the film was two years ago when it also had Weinstein set to produce with a script by Michael Goldenberg (‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’). Hopefully the movie won’t once again grow stagnant and suffer the same fate.

Are you a fan of the ‘Artemis Fowl’ series? Do you think they’ll be able to properly adapt the novels to film for a mass audience appeal? Share your thoughts below!

Source: Cinema Blend