Kenneth Branagh has set another A-list ensemble for his next Agatha Christie adaptation with Kyle Allen, Camille Cottin, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Jude Hill, Ali Khan, Emma Laird, Kelly Reilly, Riccardo Scamarico and Michelle Yeoh joining the cast of A Haunting In Venice for 20th Century. Branagh is set to reprise his role as Inspector Hercule Poirot and will also return to direct the pic. Michael Green adapted the script, which is based on Christie’s Hallowe’en Party, with production currently under way at Pinewood Studios outside of London.
Set in eerie, post-World War II Venice on All Hallows’ Eve, “A Haunting in Venice” is a terrifying mystery featuring the return of the celebrated sleuth, Hercule Poirot. Now retired and living in self-imposed exile in the world’s most glamorous city, Poirot reluctantly attends a séance at a decaying, haunted palazzo. When one of the guests is murdered, the detective is thrust into a sinister world of shadows and secrets.
“This is a fantastic development of the character Hercule Poirot, as well as the Agatha Christie franchise. Based on a complex, little known tale of mystery set at Halloween in a pictorially ravishing city, it is an amazing opportunity for us, as filmmakers, and we are relishing the chance to deliver something truly spine-chilling for our loyal movie audiences,” Branagh says.
A Haunting in Venice, the studios’ third film based on a novel by Christie, reunites the team of filmmakers behind 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express and 2022’s Death on the Nile and includes Branagh, Green, producer Judy Hofflund, and executive producers Louise Killin and James Prichard, along with filmmakers Ridley Scott, Simon Kinberg, and Mark Gordon.
“We are enormously privileged to continue our long collaboration with the incomparable Sir Kenneth Branagh and couldn’t be more excited by the bold new creative direction Ken, Michael, and the rest of the filmmaking team have taken with this latest film. We also remain grateful to James Prichard and the rest of our friends at Agatha Christie, Ltd., for their partnership and for once again entrusting us with, as Poirot modestly calls himself, ‘probably the greatest detective in the world,’” said 20th Century Studios President, Steve Asbell.