Monday, July 29, 2013
Disney, Weinstein to adapt 'Artemis Fowl' book series into film
A rain spout stylized with the outline of Disney character Mickey Mouse is seen on a building at The Walt Disney Co. studios in Burbank, California August 9, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Fred Prouser
LOS ANGELES |
(Reuters) - Young adult fantasy book series "Artemis Fowl" about a 12-year-old millionaire criminal mastermind will be adapted into a feature film, Walt Disney Studios and the Weinstein Company said on Monday.
The film will cover the first two books in the series and be adapted by Michael Goldenberg, the screenwriter of the young adult book "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."
A release date for the yet-to-be-titled film has not been announced.
The best-selling eight-volume series by Irish author Eoin Colfer was published between 2001 and 2012 and has sold more than 21 million copies worldwide.
The film also marks a renewed partnership between Disney and Weinstein Company founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Disney previously owned the Weinstein brothers' company Miramax Films until 2010.
The Weinstein brothers left Miramax in 2005 after a contentious relationship with Disney and that year founded the Weinstein Company, which is best known for its low-budget, critically acclaimed films, such as Oscar-winner "The King's Speech" in 2010.
"If you would have told me five years ago I would be producing a project with Disney I would have thought you were crazy," Harvey Weinstein said in a statement, adding that he was introduced to the "Artemis Fowl" books by actor Robert De Niro and film producer Jane Rosenthal.
"Within hours I told them (De Niro and Rosenthal) I wanted rights to the film," Weinstein said.
(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Eric Beech)
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