It looks like Kenneth Branagh might have found his Cinderella follow-up. According to The Wrap, Branagh is currently in talks to direct a new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. The novel was first published in 1934 and has been adapted four times since - there’s Sidney Lumet’s 1974 feature film starring Albert Finney, a five-part radio series for BBC Radio 4, a made-for-TV version starring Alfred Molina that aired on CBS, and then another rendition for the series Agatha Christie's Poirot.
Michael Green (Green Lantern) is set to pen the new Murder on the Orient Express film for 20th Century Fox. The narrative features a private detective named Hercule Poirot. During a trip aboard the Orient Express, an American man is murdered and Poirot agrees to investigate and try to find out who did it.
Ridley Scott and Simon Kinberg are on board to produce the film alongside Mark Gordon. They've been attached to the project for a couple of years now. There’s no casting news to report just yet, but The Wrap insists that if Branagh takes the gig, “he and his producers are expected to assemble an A-list cast.” Should Branagh’s deal go through, we’ll certainly keep you posted on that potential “a-list” roster, but in the meantime, check out the trailer for the Academy Award winning 1974 film below:
Here's the Murder on the Orient Express book synopsis via Amazon:
Just after midnight, a snowstorm stops the Orient Express dead in its tracks in the middle of Yugoslavia. The luxurious train is surprisingly full for this time of year. But by morning there is one passenger less. A ‘respectable American gentleman’ lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside . . . Hercule Poirot is also aboard, having arrived in the nick of time to claim a second-class compartment—and the most astounding case of his illustrious career.
