An Artemis Fowl adaptation has long been in the making, but rumors have come and gone with little to show for progress. However, the wheels now appear to be in motion as Disney, who currently owns the rights to the book, has finally gotten a director and the core cast.
Newcomer Ferdia Shaw will play the titular character, a twelve-year-old rich super-genius criminal who discovers that fairies, dwarves, and a host of other mythical creatures are real. Lara McDonnell will play Captain Holly Short, our main fairy protagonist, and Nonso Anozie will play Artemis’s excellent bodyguard, simply named Butler.
They got some big names to fill out the rest of the cast. Josh Gad will play Mulch Diggums, a dwarf with kleptomania who helps Short and the fairy police. Somehow, they got Dame Judi Dench to play Commander Root, the no-nonsense head of the fairy police.
The official synopsis of the film, around to the Disney press release on the cast, is: “Descended from a long line of criminal masterminds, 12-year-old genius Artemis Fowl finds himself in a battle of strength and cunning against a powerful, hidden race of fairies who may be behind his father’s disappearance.”
Kenneth Branagh will direct the film, fresh off his most recent film Murder on the Orient Express. Who is writing the film is a little trickier to say. Early reports and IMDB attribute the screenplay to Irish playwright Conor McPherson, but several sources (and also IMDB) claim the screenwriter in Michael Goldenberg, who wrote the Green Lantern film. The book’s author, Eoin Colfer, does not appear to have a role in a production. Originally, Harvey Weinstein was the producer, but he was cut from the film in October.
Artemis Fowl will premiere in theaters on August 9, 2019.
