Move over Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl is threatening to bring his own brand of dark magic to the silver screen. The mastermind child criminal, the subject of five best-selling books by Wexford writer Eoin Colfer, is going to the movies.

Jim Sheridan, the Oscar-nominated director, is currently writing the screenplay for the first movie adaptation with Colfer, with a view to directing the multi-million-euro project.

“I am working on the script outline with Eoin who spent a lot of time with me in Dalkey (where the director lives) recently,” said Sheridan.

Movie adaptations of the popular children’s books have been eagerly awaited for years by fans but became bogged down in disputes over ownership of the film rights.

“All I can say is that the movie is moving ahead,” said Colfer, who refers to the books as Die Hard with fairies, on his website. “I am working on the story outline with the director at the moment. The rest is all very hush-hush.”

Both Sheridan and Colfer want the big-budget project to be made in Ireland, where the characters in the book are based, but the location has yet to be decided by Walt Disney studios, the movie’s main producer. It will depend on whether the film is shot with actors or as an animated feature. “It hasn’t been decided yet if it will be live action or CGI (computer-generated imagery) — I’m more inclined towards live action,” said Sheridan. “I like Artemis Fowl, I like the stories.”

Arthur Lappin of Hell’s Kitchen, Sheridan’s production company, said: “There’s a high level of animation and digital work involved with Artemis Fowl so the studios will have to decide where they can combine the best set-up with the best financial deal. It would be great if it were in Ireland but it’s a bit premature to say.”

No decisions about casting had been reached yet, said Lappin.

Artemis Fowl, the first of the bestselling books about the eponymous child prodigy who tries to regain the Fowl fortune, was published in 2001. Like the Harry Potter series, it captured the imagination of children worldwide. Colfer followed it up with The Arctic Incident, The Eternity Code and The Opal Deception. His latest Artemis Fowl book, The Lost Colony, was released on August 2 and is third on the children’s bestsellers’ list. So far the novels have sold more than 6m copies worldwide.

Miramax, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, bought the rights to the first three Artemis Fowl novels five years ago. But the film project stalled when Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who ran the company, left after a row with Disney, leading to a legal wrangle over the ownership of the film rights. Those rights are now controlled by both Walt Disney and The Weinstein Company. Tribeca Productions, Robert De Niro’s company, is also credited as a producer.

The Irish Film Board confirmed that Miramax had been scouting for locations.

Separately, Sheridan said he was looking for funding for a film “about growing up in Sheriff Street based on my own experiences, a bit like In America was”.

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