Kenneth Branagh returns as Hercule Poirot in the new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s crime-mystery “Death on the Nile”, the famous Shakespearean actor has already worked with Christie’s material in “Murder on the Orient Express” which was a critical and financial success. “Death on the Nile” was first adapted in 1978 which saw Peter Ustinov as Poirot and featured theatrical giants like Dame Maggie Smith, George Kennedy and Betty Davis.
Branagh will again be directing the film with his “Murder on the Orient Express” screenwriter Michael Green scribing the script. Other cast includes Gal Gadot, Letitia Wright, Armie Hammer, Annette Bening, Sophie Okonedo, Tom Bateman, Dawn French, Rose Leslie, Jennifer Saunders and, Russell Brand and Ali Fazal. Kenneth appeared on The FourthWall podcast to talk about the film-
“Agatha Christie really believed in what she wrote, I think it was born out of personal experience being in bruising love relationships. She says in the introduction to the paperback version that she believes it has something of life in it and it really does. I think it’s universality, the recognition for anyone who’s been dangerously in love or as Poirot says in the book, in any relationship, there’s always the one that loves too much and it can hurt terribly.”
The film’s original release was booked in December 2019 with “Star Wars: Rise of the Skywalker” but Fox delayed the release to October 2, 2020, but now again, the date has been extended to October 9, 2020.
“Love, as he says, is not safe and it’s certainly not safe in this version, Michael Green [ the screenwriter] really has deepened the connection with the character [Poirot]. Going off of Agatha Christie’s personal treatment of it, his deepening of what Poirot goes through in relation to the story and then the power and sexiness of lust and love as it runs through the story is very strong. It’s a very dark, very sexy, unsettling kind of film. It certainly delivers on the travel log as it takes you to big and exciting different places, but it’s very uncomfortable in ways people will really understand because it has to do with love, possession, lust, jealousy, big primal emotions that really get in people’s way.” said Branagh about the themes recurrent in the movie.
“Death on the Nile” has been called Christie’s most exotic murder mystery, it was released in 1937. The official summary reads as ” 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… ”
Due to the pandemic, there is less hope of films releasing on big-screens in the near future, Branagh’s “Artemis Fowl” has already met its fate when it had to be released on Disney+ straightaway, we hope that we get to see “Death on the Nile” in the theatres.