Disney is getting ready to try to bring author Eoin Colfer‘s book series Artemis Fowl to life once again in a live-action adaptation. The studio teamed up with The Weinstein Company back in 2013 for the project, but making the movie happen has proven difficult. The Weinsteins first acquired the rights to adapt, when they were Miramax, around when the first book came out back in 2001 before Disney bought the company and they went on to found TWC.

Now comes word that they’ve brought in Thor and Cinderella director Kenneth Branagh to develop and direct the movie. It’s also being reported that Irish playwright Conor McPherson is in talks to pen a new screenplay for the movie.

Artermis Fowl is described by its author as “Die Hard with fairies.” Here’s a description of the first book from Amazon:

Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is a millionaire, a genius-and, above all, a criminal mastermind. But even Artemis doesn’t know what he’s taken on when he kidnaps a fairy, Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon Unit. These aren’t the fairies of bedtime stories; these fairies are armed and dangerous.

Artemis thinks he has them right where he wants them but then they stop playing by the rules.

The book was first brought to the attention of Harvey Weinstein by none other than Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal. This is what Weinstein had to say when the news broke that he was working with Disney again back in 2013:

If things work out and the movie is finally made and does well, the hope is that it could become another Harry Potter type success story, with plenty of books to make sequels from already published.

As for when we might see the movie, it’s still too early in its current development to know for sure.

[Source: The Tracking Board via Variety]