In what seems to be a bit of genius counter-programming, the next Agatha Christie novel to be directed by and star Kenneth Branagh, will be released in cinemas on the same day as the next instalment in the Star Wars saga. The film in question is Death On The Nile and is adapted from the Christie novel of the same name which was first published in 1937. Deadline reports the news.
The film will follow on from last year’s Murder On The Orient Express which was met to decent box-office and acclaim from the critics. Branagh will direct and lead the cast as Hercule Poirot.
Here’s the story from the source material:
Agatha Christie’s most exotic murder mystery, reissued with a striking new cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers.
The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish and beautiful, a girl who had everything – until she lost her life.
Hercule Poirot recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: ‘I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.’ Yet in this exotic setting’ nothing is ever quite what it seems…
The film will launch on the same day as the JJ Abrams-directed Star Wars Episode 9 and the film version of the hit musical Wicked. The date for your diaries is December 20th, 2019 – just a few days before Christmas. What a weekend at the cinema that will be.
