By James White | Posted 18 Sep 2017

Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh have been working together a lot lately, both on the stage and screen. They're aiming to keep that professional relationship going, as Dench is in talks for Branagh's new live-action Disney adaptation of Artemis Fowl.

Finally emerging from development limbo (some version adapting Eoin Colfer's first book in his series has been in the works since 2001), the film took a leap forward when Branagh came aboard.

The Fowl series, which began with the eponymous tome in 2001 and has continued through seven successive books, follows Artemis Fowl II. A young criminal mastermind with serious parental issues, our villanous hero (who slowly edges more towards the fully heroic type in future books) uses his genius and guile in a search for his dad. Oh, and he also plots to extort gold from the fairy folk through a kidnapping scheme, which slaps a great big target on his back courtesy of some of the most dangerous creatures around. But his misadventures do help shape him into the man he’ll become.

Playwright Conor McPherson is on script duty and The Mouse House recently announced that the film will be out (in the States at least) on 9 August 2019. Dench is on screens now in Victoria & Abdul and is part of Branagh's Murder On The Orient Express, arriving on 3 November.

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