Despite its eight volumes sold in 25 million copies, Artemis Fowl, the fantastic saga of the Irish novelist Eoin Colfer has taken more than twenty years to see his adventures transposed to the big screen. An eternity compared to other franchises like Harry Potter or Twilight . Passed from directors to screenwriters, the adventures of the young Artemis, precocious genius of the crime from the height of his twelve years were finally put in image by Kenneth Branagh. The result, released last Friday on Disney +, sometimes disconcerted fans as it moved away from the original text. But for Eoin Colfer, this freedom is on the contrary a chance!
LE FIGARO.- Kenneth Branagh's film comes out nineteen years after the rights were bought for the cinema. How do you feel now that the big day is finally here?
EOIN COLFER.- At the beginning, the reactions of the public worried me a lot because we Irish people are very caustic. But after two decades of gestation, I'm ready! And I am very proud of this adaptation. I know that with all that is going on in the world with the coronavirus epidemic, these worries are a bit silly but Artemis Fowl is the work of my life. I am very happy that with the film, it reaches a new generation of readers.
Why did you leave it to others to transpose your hero?
Ten years ago, my friend Irish director Jim Sheridan ( My Left Foot ) was at the helm of the project. For two years, we wrote a script guided by an overflowing imagination. The result was a little crazy and had little similarities to my novels. It was stronger than me: I did not want to rewrite for the cinema the same thing as in my books! Disney was less happy! When I saw that for a new version, Disney had hired Conor McPherson, one of the best contemporary Irish playwrights, I told myself that Artemis was in good hands. I said to Conor and Kenneth: surprise me. The passage from the book to the screen involves many modifications. It was only the frame - Ireland - that was untouchable. Some of their finds made me rediscover the characters. In my mind, Commander Root was a 40-year-old man. Here it is a woman of more than 80 years, Judi Dench, but such an authority emanates from her glance that one immediately perceives her dangerousness.
Your readers will discover in the film a slightly different Artemis Fowl. More human and loyal. Why was such a rewrite necessary?
In my books, Artemis needs three volumes to discover his conscience, his moral limits. Cinema does not give a cold anti-hero character as much time to settle down. Artemis had to be made more accessible and warm.
You were a school teacher before you imagined Artemis Fowl. How did this idea of a criminal preteen with gadgets as sophisticated as James Bond come to mind?
I wanted a hero for children, who, like me, are not very good at sport, are neither muscular nor strong like all of his protagonists who know how to wield the sword. I designed an Artemis in my image, a being who spends his time in books. I am convinced that literature makes life easier, it helps us to better support everyday life, school. It opens our horizons. I owe a lot to the adventure novels of my youth like The Three Musketeers or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. With Holly, the young fairy, I wanted to avoid the cliché of the Wonder Woman fighter. I wanted to give life to a policewoman who would face very real problems: to be respected in a man's world. Holly is the character that touches me the most.
Eoin Colfer looks at the model of the Fowl Disney mansion
Ireland, as you point out, plays an essential role in Artemis Fowl .
It is vital to this universe because the whole mythology of Artemis Fowl is based on its folklore. Doesn't our oldest myth speak of a facetious boy who captures a leprechaun hoping to find his gold? Artemis Fowl is a variation of this founding tale. I could not have supported the film transposing the action to the United States. Kenneth Branagh, who was born in Northern Ireland, found the happy medium between the green island of castles and ruins and a country turned towards new technologies and high-tech.
Did seeing your heroes on the big screen make you want to imagine new adventures for them?
I have already revisited the universe of Artemis Fowl in 2019 with the novel The Fowl Twins which evokes his twin brothers. But finding Artemis for the moment would not be a good thing because I would do it for the wrong reasons, like making my editor happy! It is to resist this temptation that I sent him into space, he cannot come back anytime soon! On the other hand, if this film is sufficiently successful to have a second part, I will feel ready to get more involved in the writing of the synopsis!