After nearly 20 years of Weinstein-fueled development hell, Eoin Colfer’s young-adult book series Artemis Fowl is finally coming to the big screen. We were in the target audience for this specific series, given that we were of the Harry Potter generation in the worst way, but somehow this particular “classic” eluded all of us. Apparently it’s about a kid robbing a bunch of fairies? Well, that’s not a terrible idea for a film, we guess, and at least Disney is sticking away from the shameless product placement with this one. Disney dropped a trailer for the film early on Tuesday morning, and, well, it is definitely a thing.
Here’s the trailer:
Well, that’s kind of underwhelming. However, it’s directed by Kenneth Branagh, who has a bad habit of making things that we’re not really interested in seeing on screen into decently entertaining blockbusters — see Cinderella from a number of years back — though we hope this is more of that quality than something like Jack Ryan: Shadow Agent. Blech. It’s got a weird cast, as well, including Josh Gad and Judy Dench, and we spend a surprising amount of time in this trailer with a shapeshifting Hong Chau (remember her from Downsizing? We’ve tried to forget, but it turns out there’s no alcohol strong enough to wash away the pain that film caused us), though it’s fronted by two newcomers: Ferdie Shaw as the titular character, and Lara McDonnell as the Fairy captain opposing him in his efforts. So, hey, we’ll definitely keep an open mind when we check this out next year.
Here’s a synopsis:
Directed by Kenneth Branagh and based on the beloved book by Eoin Colfer, ‘Artemis Fowl’ follows 12-year-old genius Artemis Fowl, a descendant of a long line of criminal masterminds, as he finds himself in a battle of strength and cunning against a powerful, hidden race of fairies who may be behind his father’s disappearance.
Artemis Fowl hits theaters on August 9.
Featured image via Disney.