An eight book series about a tweenage criminal mastermind, with fairies and dwarves and goblins and pixies and theft and death and bio bombs?

“Artemis Fowl” was always bound for the big screen. But with the production company accounts drowning in the red ink of scores of “Legend of the Guardians” and “City of Ember” and too many others to count, one learns to keep one’s hopes low.

Aug. 9, we’ll find out if this is a late summer dazzler.