Branagh, Artemis Fowl, between young Thor and The Godfather

Eight novels released from 2001 to 2012, capable of selling over 21 million copies worldwide with translations in 44 languages ​​(in Italy he publishes Mondadori). These are the numbers of the global success of the fantasy saga Artemis Fowl created by the Irishman Eoin Colfer. The protagonist is a brilliant and very rich 12 year old belonging to a lineage of crime masters who confronts parallel magical worlds. Another Irishman, Kenneth Branagh ("we grow up listening to fantastic stories like these, make us want to become storytellers") to sign the first film adaptation of the same name, in a $ 125 million blockbuster.
In the main role is Ferdia Shaw, in a cast that includes, among others, Lara McDonnell, Tamara Smart, Nonso Anozie, Colin Farrell and Judi Dench. The film had a theatrical release scheduled for May 29, but given the pandemic, it will debut worldwide directly on the Disney + platform on June 12. "It was an inevitable decision - explains Branagh via the web -. I am happy that the film can reach the public like this. In reality, my 9 and 11 year old grandchildren asked me to make an adaptation from these books, even before it arrived Disney's proposal. Now I am very happy to be able to see it on Disney +. In the circumstances we live in, I hope even more that it will offer a good opportunity for fun and escape. " The actor and filmmaker born in Belfast in 1960, is also among the interpreters of the highly anticipated new dystopian thriller by Christopher Nolan, Tenet and we will see him as the protagonist and director of a new adventure of Hercule Poirot, in Assassination on the Nile. For him, the coronavirus is changing the film industry and the relationship with the public: "As a spectator I want to return to theaters but I don't know how widespread a desire will be, surely as long as you perceive a risk, people will be more cautious. We live a new normal but I don't think it will be as abnormal as many fear. "
Coming to Artemis Fowl, Branagh, who hopes to develop the story in other chapters, starts with a 'history of origins': "In the eight books, it is as if Artemis slowly emerged from his" bad "state. The magical creatures teach him to be more human and less restless. In the film there was the same challenge I had when making Thor, to be able to introduce to the cinema audience a world that maybe he doesn't know, creating identification with the protagonist ". The director makes Artemis "more normal": he goes to school, he is like a privileged and brilliant little Lord, who lives an extraordinary lifestyle. "He is less cynical than he appears in the first books.
In my mind he was like Michael Corleone at the beginning of The Godfather. At the start he is not the type who kills or embezzles but in the end he certainly has become one. Artemis also makes his path ".
The character (Ferdia Shaw) is an ironic, lonely and ingenious boy who beat the European chess champion at the age of 7; at 9 he won the competition to design the Dublin Opera House and at 10 he cloned a goat named Bruce.
The sudden disappearance of his father (Farrell), accused of being a global criminal, projects Artemis into a meeting / clash with parallel worlds inhabited by armies of magical creatures, including gnomes, goblins, fairies, elves, trolls and centaurs. "Shakespeare in the last period of his life wrote almost only stories imbued with magic, such as The storm, Winter's Tale, Cimbelino and The two noble nobles - underlines Branagh -. It was as if he wanted to tell not so much the world as it was but how it could have been. The challenge for me facing fantasy is not to fall into stereotypes. A child's world is more direct, open, truthful, I try to get closer to that simplicity ".
For him, who carries out several projects at the same time, it was not easy to reduce the energies during the lockdown period: "My mother always said to me that I could not stay still. In recent months I have vented myself doing a lot of exercise, yoga and I think I have the dog that has taken the longest walks on the planet. "