Branagh on ‘The Godfather’ inspiring him for ‘Artemis Fowl’

For filmmaker Kenneth Branagh, the best approach to present author Eoin Colfer’s young protagonist in Artemis Fowl was through an intimate yet distanced father-son story.

To execute this plan, the actor-director referred to Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 masterpiece The Godfather.

Branagh said his film explores a trajectory similar to that of Michael Corleone in The Godfather, who is brought into the terrifying family business reluctantly.

“He has to decide whether he’s going to do what they asked him to do or not, whether he’s going to enjoy it, whether he’s going to continue to do it and perhaps even surprise himself by being very good at it and that he enjoys it,” Branagh said. “I wanted our origin story to particularly live through this idea of the father and son connection. It is there in Thor and in lots of the films that I’ve made. I don’t know why, but maybe I just had a very strong connection with my own father and I’m always trying to kind of work that story out.” With Artemis Fowl, the director dives into the magical world of fairies, dwarves and centaurs as he presents the story of the titular criminal mastermind, played by Ferdia Shaw. Branagh said he was drawn to the idea of crafting an origin story about a character unfamiliar to audiences.

“When you’re introducing a character that may not be known to everybody, who aren’t aware of books or comics or whatever, then I enjoy the idea of creating an origin story. This is something that appealed to me when I made Thor.

“There’s a boy who’s at school and who then transforms into what Eoin essentially wrote and as he puts it, into a Bond villain, an 11-year-old Bond villain. I wanted this film to be for those who weren’t aware of the books, a journey of that happening,” he said.

But the filmmaker was also cautious in his approach as he did not want the audience to feel a detachment with the character because of his privileged background.

“For a popular movie like this, I felt we needed to see him in a more human context from the beginning, particularly in relation to his concern for his father.”