A 12-year-old criminal mastermind gets embroiled in the world of fairies in the first trailer for Disney’s film adaptation of sci-fi/fantasy novel Artemis Fowl. And we’re not talking Tinkerbell. These are badass fairies with neutrino handguns, capable of stopping time. It all makes for some spectacular eye-candy, and having Kenneth Branagh (Thor) at the helm bodes well for the film’s success.
There are eight books in the Artemis Fowl series by Irish author Eoin Colfer, detailing the extensive exploits of the titular character. The debut novel received generally positive reviews and a few comparisons to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, although Colfer’s books have never achieved the same stratospheric commercial success. Disney is betting there’s an equally strong appetite for the Artemis Fowl series on the big screen.
Colfer describes his novels as “Die Hard with fairies.”
The comparison understandably irritates Colfer, who describes his novels as being more like “Die Hard with fairies.” That’s a fairly accurate description. Artemis is the anti-Harry Potter. He’s a thief and a kidnapper, among other misdeeds, and he is largely untroubled by remorse. That’s part of his charm.
In the first book, 12-year-old Artemis is living mostly unsupervised in the Fowl home. His father (Artemis Fowl I) is missing, and his mother has gone mad with grief. He relies on his loyal protector, Butler, for companionship. They stumble across a portal to the fairy underworld, and Artemis decides to kidnap a fairy and hold her for ransom to fund his search for his father. The fairies retaliate, and Artemis must pit his wits against their magical powers. It’s fiction, so he naturally succeeds, plus his mother is cured of her madness.
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