Now that Murder on the Orient Express has officially released in theaters, director, and star Kenneth Branagh is looking towards the future. At a recent press junket for the film (via CinemaBlend), Branagh talked a bit about the next Agatha Christie novel that he would like to see adapted to the big screen: Death on the Nile.
“It’s a great book, you know. Michael — Michael Green, our screenwriter — wanted to feel this Poirot who never gets a holiday. You could call it, instead of Murder on the Orient Express, you could say Hercule Poirot Tries To Take A Holiday. First in Istanbul, then on the Orient Express, then at the end he gets sent to Egypt. Death on the Nile — if we did one, we’d love to. The public will decide; they come to see this in sufficient numbers we’ll be there… I’d love to play Poirot again and that’s a very, very passionate book about obsessive love. So it’s very dangerous. And given that we have a Poirot who has this mysterious relationship to Katherine. Who is she? What is she? And where does he sit when it comes to the world of romance — beyond the hint that it never goes unpunished? I think there’s gold in them thar hills if we get the chance.
Murder on the Orient Express is faring pretty well critically, and it would be fair to say that we will probably see another of Hercule Poirot’s exploits on the big screen. Given the amount of source material to be mined here — Agatha Christie is the author of more than 80 works — this could be the start of a promising new franchise.
What starts out as a lavish train ride through Europe quickly unfolds into one of the most stylish, suspenseful and thrilling mysteries ever told. From the novel by best-selling author Agatha Christie, “Murder on the Orient Express” tells the tale of thirteen strangers stranded on a train, where everyone’s a suspect. One man must race against time to solve the puzzle before the murderer strikes again.
Murder on the Orient Express stars Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot, alongside Johnny Depp as Edward Ratchett, Michelle Pfeiffer as Caroline Hubbard, Judi Dench as Princess Dragomiroff, Leslie Odom Jr. as Doctor Arbuthnot, Daisy Ridley as Mary Debenham, Josh Gad as Hector MacQueen, Penelope Cruz as Pilar Estravados, Olivia Colman as Hildegarde Schmidt, Derek Jacobi as Masterman, Willem Dafoe as Gerhard Hardman, Sergei Polunin as Count Andrenyi, Lucy Boynton as Countess Andrenyi, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Beniamino Marquez, Marwan Kenzari as Pierre Michel and Tom Bateman as Bouc.
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