An adaptation of the popular YA property Artemis Fowl has been in the works at Disney for a long time now, but it looks like the studio is finally ready to push forward with the project — and they’ve got a very familiar director lined up. Cinderella director Kenneth Branagh has signed on to help Disney bring Artemis Fowl to the big screen.

Per Variety, Branagh has officially signed on to direct the Artemis Fowl film, with Irish playwright Conor McPherson in talks to write the screenplay based on Eoin Colfer’s book series. The popular YA book franchise centers on Artemis Fowl II, a teenage mastermind who captures a fairy named Holly Short and hopes to ransom her to the Fairy People in an attempt to restore his family’s lost fortune. In doing so, he finds himself attracting all manner of dangerous mythical creatures.

There are eight books in the Artemis Fowl series, which means Disney has more than enough material to launch a new franchise should the first film take off. Branagh recently directed the studio’s live-action Cinderella film and delivered a surprisingly refreshing and solid take on the classic fairytale. The director also recently signed on to helm a remake of Murder on the Orient Express for Fox, and his exciting staging of Macbeth drew the interest of Martin Scorsese — the two have been discussing a way to bring Branagh’s version of the play to the big screen.

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