The Harry Potter-adjacent book series Artemis Fowl is finally getting the big-screen treatment, with Gilderoy Lockhart Kenneth Branagh set to helm.
Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl books are amazing. They also had the misfortune of hitting bookstores in the early 00s, just around the time J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series became massively popular.
Fairly or not, Artemis Fowl was forever compared to Harry Potter: both novels told stories of young orphaned (ish) boys interacting with the magical realm, encountering mystical creatures, and embarking on saving-the-world type quests.
That’s about where the similarities end, however. Artemis Fowl is a teenage criminal mastermind, filthy rich and kind of an antihero, though he does go through some great character development over the course of the series.
It was inevitable that a movie adaptation would be made, and frankly it’s surprising that it’s taken Hollywood this long.
But now, two years after the last update (when Jim Sheridan was reportedly set to direct, with a script by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix writer Michael Goldenberg), The Tracking Board has learned that Kenneth Branagh has signed on to direct the first movie in the series.
Branagh just helmed Cinderella for Disney, and also took a turn in the Marvel ‘verse with Thor.
Related: Artemis Fowl movie in development at Disney, Potter screenwriter attached
Artemis Fowl will be produced by Walt Disney Pictures and The Weinstein Company, and they’re allegedly looking for a new writer (any takers?). The first movie will likely be based on the first two installments of the eight-book saga.
We’re left to wonder whether the world is ready for a well-made Artemis Fowl movie. While we doubt the series will reach the popularity of franchises like Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, the story definitely deserves better than the poor adaptations of His Dark Materials and Eragon.