Just last month, the news arrived that yet another adaptation of Agatha Christie’s _Murder On The Orient Expres_s was in the works. Kenneth Branagh was in talks to sit in the director’s chair, and we were wondering who he might choose to play detective Hercule Poirot if he did go ahead with the idea. Now we know who Branagh has hired: someone called Kenneth Branagh.
Yes, having now committed to the movie as director and producer, Branagh has decided to play the Belgian master investigator himself, taking on the role for the new version of the story that was first published in 1934. The mystery sees Poirot (“monsieur Parrot?”) exercising the little grey cells over the murder of an American tycoon on a journey from Istanbul (Constantinople at the time) to Paris.
Blade Runner 2 man Michael Green is at work on the script, and the film will wait for Branagh to finish up his latest stage work, co-directing and appearing in The Winter’s Tale and getting ready for a run as co-director and co-star in Terrence Rattigan’s Harlequinade. We’d expect the Orient Express to start chugging into production at some point next year.