Another Kenneth Branagh Poirot Movie Is On The Way
First came "Murder on the Orient Express." Kenneth Branagh's 2017 adaptation of Agatha Christie's 1934 novel of the same name (and the novel's fourth screen adaptation) made a killing at the box office, pulling in $352 million on its $55 million budget. Not two weeks after its release, a sequel was announced in which Branagh would direct "Death on the Nile" and reprise his role as immaculately-mustachioed detective Hercule Poirot. Like the first film, "Nile" is based on an Agatha Christie novel of the same name and offers an impressively star-studded cast and a twisty storyline. That sequel dropped on February 11 of this year, and it's been slow-going, but so far the ticket sales have surpassed $102 million. Critical reactions have been mixed, with /Film's own Josh Spiegel calling the film an "aggressively misguided, strangely dour affair."
Because we don't have enough cinematic universes, Branagh has offered forth a new one: the Christieverse. "She's a brilliant sleuth," the Oscar-nominated filmmaker said of Christie character Miss Marple, in a video tweeted by AMC theaters last month. Though the characters have never shared page space together in an Agatha Christie work (though an anime fictionally connected the two), Branagh seems to think that the amateur detective has the quick-firing synapses to keep up with Poirot.
Meanwhile, a third Poirot film is brewing. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, 20th Century Studios president Steve Asbell confirmed that Agatha Christie franchise screenwriter Michael Green is penning the script for a sequel to "Death on the Nile."
'My name is Hercule Poirot, and I am probably the greatest detective in the world'
Asbell has been busy: since his appointment as president of 20th Century Fox in March of 2020, a pandemic and a subsequent industry shutdown have put pressure on the executive to secure the future of the company the way Fox always has: by making "commercial films for a global audience," through a mixture of original films and remakes of beloved properties.
So Poirot was a no-brainer, he tells THR:
"We have the Poirot franchise, we have other Christie stories. I love these films, I love Ken [Branagh]. We have a third script written, by Michael Green, that is a pretty daring shift in genre and in tone. It's post-war Venice and an adaptation of one of the lesser-known novels. So I think you'll see the mustache again."
Indeed, on top of his work on "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Death on the Nile," Green co-wrote the screenplays for "Logan" and "Blade Runner: 2049," both of which straddle genres and tweak the tones of the respective work that came before them. Nothing else is known about the upcoming sequel yet, but one thing remains sure: the mustache stays.