No./4 Artemis Fowl
[ON-SETREPORT] We visit the set of Disney’s latest liveaction gamble: an adaptation of the fairy-napping kids’ book
WHERE? Longcross Studios, Surrey WHEN? 12 April, 2018
Because Kenneth Branagh is adapting Eoin Colfer’s tooled-up fantasy novel into a spared-no-expense Disney blockbuster. Think Harry Potter, if Harry Potter were a cunning, Irish criminal mastermind who kidnapped a fairy to extort its gold. So, not actually much like Harry Potter.
A whacking great mansion — Fowl Manor has been built in its entirety, inside and out. Empire pores over the shelves of Fowl Library, stocked with 12,000 books (from Simone de Beauvoir to Nick Hornby), peeps into the master suite (gold bedsheets, pure luxury), walks the portrait gallery decked with paintings of Fowls past, and wanders around Artemis’ bedroom. 3D printer? Check. LEGO Death Star? Check. Raspberry Pi computer? Check. it’s the ultimate geek-kid haven. Outside is Josh Gad, looking like Hagrid 2.0 — massive beard, covered in mud, in a huge, leather trenchcoat. “This? Oh, I woke up looking like this,” he deadpans. “I just throw on whatever animal this is, and we go from there.”
WHY WAS JOSH GAD THERE? He’s playing fan-fave Mulch Diggums, an oversized dwarf whose (wait for it) powerful farts propel him through the crust of the earth. “We’ve sort of grounded the infamous flatulence from the books,” he says. “You can get away with it in books in a different way. We’re still doing it, but he’s very embarrassed by it. It provides a nice comedic vulnerability to the character.”
WHAT WAS BEING FILMED? A troll smashing its way into Fowl Manor, bearing down on Artemis (Ferdia Shaw), fairy cop Holly Short (Lara Mcdonnell) and Butler (Nonso Anozie). There’s a giant troll-head prop for the cast to react to — though it’s destined to be replaced by CGI.
HOW’S SIR KEN COPING? He’s totally zen, post-thor. “Once you’ve been in a world of Frost Giants with an enormous, blond Australian person who lands in New Mexico and takes his shirt off in front of a scientist, then it isn’t so weird to have a 13-year-old Irish boy summon up ancient Celtic spirits to potentially prevent a troll attack on his house,” he says. “It’s creatively scary, but that’s the only place to be. On that note, I’m off for a creatively scary lunch.”