Sci-Fi Storm

It seems that two things that people thought would never happen are happening…first, Harvey Weinstein is going to work with Disney again. Harvey and his brother Bob sold their Miramax Films to Disney in 1993, but continued running the studio until 2005, when they had a very public split with Disney and formed The Weinstein Company. But now it appears that a film that’s been on the backburner at Miramax for over a decade has resulted in both sides putting aside the past, with the hopes of finally producing a film based on author Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series.

The books are about an extremely intelligent and rich Irish criminal mastermind, Artemis Fowl II – who happens to be just 12 years old, descended from a long line of criminal masterminds. With his mother suffering from a nervous breakdown, he’s determined to find his missing father, and will stop and nothing…even if it means revealing and potentially destroying the world of the fairies, who have moved underground.

“If you would have told me five years ago I would be producing a project with Disney I would have thought you were crazy,” Weinstein, Co-Chairman of The Weinstein Company, said. “I feel as though everything is coming full circle considering Bob DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal brought me this book while I was still at Miramax and within hours I told them I wanted the rights to the film.

“This is a special project for me because my children absolutely love this book. This story is for everyone and there is no one better than Disney to make a film that will excite people young and old.”

DeNiro and Rosenthal will executive produce the project. Michael Goldenberg, who adapted Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, is tapped to adapt the books. Many consider the character of Artemis Fowl to be the “Anti-Harry Potter”.