In Hollywood there are no closed doors, only revolving ones. The Weinstein brothers, Bob and Harvey, are to work with Disney for the first time since the two sides rushed through an acrimonious divorce almost a decade ago.
The siblings' production unit The Weinstein Company is teaming with the Hollywood studio on an adaptation of children's fantasy series Artemis Fowl, by the Irish author Eoin Colfer. The Robert De Niro-produced film will be based on the first and second instalments of Colfer's eight-novel saga, which has sold more than 21m copies in 44 languages worldwide.
Disney and the Weinsteins have not worked together since a row over the release of Michael Moore's George W Bush-baiting documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004. At the time the studio owned Miramax, the Oscar-winning unit which Bob and Harvey founded in 1979 and built into a hugely successful distributor for hit independent movies over the subsequent quarter of a century. The refusal of then Disney chief Michael Eisner to countenance the release of Moore's film, which went on to be the highest-grossing documentary of all time, was the last straw for Harvey Weinstein, who had repeatedly clashed with his boss.
The sibling producers formed a new firm, The Weinstein Company, to release the documentary and have kept their distance ever since. Disney, however, is a different beast in 2013 and the rapprochement has been welcomed by both sides.
"If you would have told me five years ago I would be producing a project with Disney I would have thought you were crazy," said Weinstein in a statement. "I feel as though everything is coming full circle, considering Bob De Niro and Jane Rosenthal brought me this book while I was still at Miramax and within hours I told them I wanted the rights to the film."
Incoming Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn, who previously worked with The Weinstein Company while at Warner Brothers, described Harvey as "one of the pre-eminent producers in the industry, with impeccable taste and creative instincts." He added: "I had a wonderful time working with Harvey during my tenure at Warner Bros, and I'm very happy to continue that relationship here at Disney."
Disney said the Artemis Fowl film was "about 12-year-old Artemis who is a millionaire, a genius – and above all, a criminal mastermind. But Artemis doesn't know what he's taken on when he kidnaps a fairy (Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon Unit) to harness her magic to save his family. These aren't the fairies of the bedtime stories – they're dangerous."
The film is being scripted by Michael Goldenberg, who wrote Warner Bros's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The Weinsteins retained the rights to produce the project under their separation agreement with Disney in 2005. So far, there is no director on board and no casting details.
