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Disney is finally making an Artemis Fowl movie based on the beloved children’s book series, almost 20 years after its original publish date. The story’s got everything from centaurs to criminal masterminds, and Dame Judi Dench is in the cast. Buckle up for a twisted fairy tale.
The plot: What’s it all about?
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Artemis Fowl is a 12-year-old genius who lives in a mansion in Ireland with his bodyguard. Before the story begins, his crime lord father has gone missing along with the Fowl family’s millions, and his mother has become detached from reality as a result.
For some time, Artemis has been tracking down the existence of the underground fairy world, getting his hands on a copy of its Book of the People through an alcoholic sprite in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He translates the gnommish runes and uses the information to kidnap Lower Elements Police (LEP) elite officer and fairy Holly Short, holding her to ransom in his family’s manor.
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The hostage situation sees Artemis match wits — and his bodyguard, Butler, match physical strength — with a bunch of other characters from the fairy world, including LEPrecon Commander Julius Root, tech genius centaur Foaly and criminal kleptomaniac dwarf Mulch Diggums.
The first of the eight-book Artemis Fowl series, written by Irish author Eoin Colfer, was released almost two decades ago, in 2001 (and boy does that make me feel old).
Kenneth Branagh, the film’s director, said it’s taken a while because translating Colfer’s book to screen was “challenging.”
“It’s taken quite some time to find the balance between humor and emotion and magic and the contemporary world,” Branagh told ET Online in November. “You’re talking about the many kinds of fairies, elves, sprits, trolls [and] goblins that live under the Earth and at the same time, you’re looking to have a very sort of contemporary feeling modern world that embraces technology.”
The trailer: What’s it going to look like?
The first Artemis Fowl teaser trailer was released on Nov. 27 and shows glimpses of Fowl Manor in Ireland, Haven City underground and the fight between Butler and the fairies, as well as the familiar written gnommish.
“Our world has never been in more danger,” Dench narrates. “Human greed is what drove us underground all those years ago — to escape from your rapacious appetite.”
Release date: When can I see it?
Originally slated to release Aug. 9, the movie was pushed back to May 29, 2020.
Branagh said he’s also trying to keep the movie to a 90-minute runtime, because he wants the film, like the books, to be “very rapid, very punchy and pacy.”
If you’re looking for your Fowl fix sooner, fear not: Colfer is about to release the first book in a new series called The Fowl Twins. It’s based on Artemis’ younger brothers Myles and Beckett, who become entangled in the fairy world at age 11.
The book is scheduled to come out on Nov. 5 and is being published by Disney Books.
Cast and crew: Who’s in it?
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There are some pretty big names attached to this movie, with Dench starring as a reimagined female version of Commander Root and Branagh directing. Branagh said the decision to cast Dench was an “uninformed hunch” that she would be great in such a different role.
Disney favorite Josh Gad, who voiced Olaf in Frozen and Frozen 2 as well as shining as LeFou in 2017’s live-action Beauty and the Beast, will fill the role of Mulch Diggims.
Nonso Anozie, who you might recognize as Xaro Xhoan Daxos from the second season of Game of Thrones — and whose Disney resume includes playing the captain of the guards in 2015’s live-action Cinderella remake, also directed by Branagh, will play Artemis’ bodyguard and confidante, Butler.
The two main character roles, Artemis Fowl and Holly Short, will be filled by newcomers. Fowl will be played by young Irish actor Ferdia Shaw, and Short will be played by Lara McDonnell, who’s held small roles in various UK dramas.
Music will be by Patrick Doyle, who for Disney has also written the scores for the Cinderella remake, Pixar’s Brave and Marvel’s Thor.
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According to IMDb, the cast includes:
- Judi Dench as Commander Root
- Josh Gad as Mulch Diggums
- Ferdia Shaw as Artemis Fowl
- Lara McDonnell as Holly Short
- Nonso Anozie as Domovoi Butler
- Nikesh Patel as Foaly
- Joshua McGuire as Briar Cudgeon
- Tamara Smart as Juliet Butler
- Chi-Lin Nim as Trouble Kelp
- Jake Davies as Chix Verbil
- Miranda Raison as Angeline Fowl
- Adrian Scarborough as the goblin chief
- Laurence Kinlan as Beachwood Short
- Diana Alexandra Pocol as a LEPrecon private
- Rebecca Hodgkiss as a LEPrecon officer
- Simone Kirby as Mrs Byrne
- Gerard Horan as Dr. Po
- Ruth Horrocks as a news anchor
- Conor MacNeill as a goblin lieutenant
- Jean-Paul Ly as Nguyen
Colfer in mid-December confirmed a report by The Observer that he would have a walk-on cameo in the movie.
“I walked across a field with a lot of other people,” he told The Observer. It wasn’t too taxing, although I did manage to get it wrong a few times. The only direction they gave was: ‘Walk across the field and don’t look at the camera.’ I must have looked at the camera about 20 times. I have a new respect for actors.”
Rumors: What will change from the books?
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“My great idea was to copy Eoin Colfer and to not get in the way,” Branagh said last year. However, he said he added “a couple of things” to the movie, but he reassures that Colfer has not only liked the ideas but also said they may even be added to the reissue of the books.
“I had enough strength of character to resist meddling,” Colfer told Publishers Weekly in an interview published Oct. 22. “I did not offer any suggestions unless I was asked to. It helped that the screenplay was written by a friend, Conor McPherson, who is a brilliant playwright.”
With several characters reimagined, Holly Short — who doesn’t even appear in the teaser trailer — will of course no longer be the first female member of the LEPrecon, thanks to the leadership of Dench’s Commander Root, the switch of Trouble Kelp to a female character and the casting of other female LEPrecon officers.
It’s also been rumored that we’ll see a little family history about Holly, given the casting of a character named Beachwood Short.
We finally got our first look at both Holly and Mulch Diggums in pictures of the Artemis Fowl 2020 calendar on Oct. 12.
Originally published Aug. 21.
Update, Oct. 17: adds more info on cast, pictures from calendar; Nov. 4: adds comment from Colfer about the film being written by McPherson; Dec. 16: adds info about Colfer’s cameo.
