Disney Taking Artemis Fowl to the Big Screen
Nidhi Mathur ‘16 / Emertainment Monthly writer
Twelve years after the first book of this bestselling eight part series was published, Artemis Fowl is finally ready for the big screen.
Written by the Irish author Eoin Colfer, the series follows a twelve year old criminal mastermind, who finds himself in a pickle when his encounters with a certain fairy are not what he had imagined at all. The series is full of fairies, megalomaniac pixies, the Russian mafia, and demon races. It sold over 21 million copies worldwide and the book’s fan base could not be happier at the announcement.
The unlikely pairing of Harvey Weinstein, who is currently signed on as a producer, and Disney comes after a disagreement between former Disney Chief Michael Eisner and the Weinstein brothers. The situation began after the brothers were rejected in 2010 for trying to buy back the Disney owned company that they had once cofounded. However, Harvey Weinstein is now excited about this endeavor.
“If you would have told me five years ago I would be producing a project with Disney, I would have thought you were crazy. This is a special project for me because my children absolutely love this book. This story is for everyone and there is no one better than Disney to make a film that will excite people young and old,” said Weinstein.
Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, the executive producers of the film, are the ones who brought Weinstein the book and within hours, he wanted the rights to the film because of his love for children’s books.
Michael Goldberg who wrote the adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, will be working on the screenplay, which is based on 2001’s Artemis Fowl and 2002’s The Arctic Incident.
I can’t believe it took this long. These books are tailor-made for the screen. My only complaint is that the movie, like so many films based on popular literary phenomenons, will be an amalgam of two of the novels. It’s almost as bad as when they stretch the last book in a series into two films. But not quite.