Hercule Poirot's small-screen sleuthing recently reached its conclusion with David Suchet's final appearance, but there's more to come from Agatha Christie's famous Belgian detective. Producers Ridley Scott, Mark Gordon and Simon Kinberg are planning to dust off one of Christie's most famous novels, **Murder On The Orient Express, for a new cinema outing, Poirot's first since 1988.
The book was first published in 1934, and sees Poirot exercising the little grey cells over the murder of an American tycoon on a journey from Istanbul (Constantinople at the time) to Paris. Without giving the game away, let's just say that the solution is one of Christie's most famous, tortuous, ingenious and unlikely.
It's been filmed before: in 1974 by Sidney Lumet, starring Albert Finney as the detective (supported by an all-star cast including Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave and Anthony Perkins); and as a 2001 American TV movie with Alfred Molina in the lead. Obviously there was also an ITV/Suchet version, which happened in 2010.
Little is yet known about the plans for this new movie, aside from the producing backbone detailed above. What does seem clear is that Sir Ridley is not planning to direct himself, so aside from the small matter of a screenplay and a Poirot, the new film also currently lacks someone behind the camera. The train is still in the station then, but we'll keep you posted on its eventual journey.