Did you like Kenneth Branagh as Hercules Poirot? Sure hope so, because Fox is already getting the sequel for Murder on the Orient Express ready. Despite not making back its budget in domestic sales, the studio is ready to go ahead with a new film.
If you’ve seen the film (or just read the excellent review we published), you know the film ends with Poirot being whisked away to Egypt. Christie fans like myself guessed this was a sly nod to that other famous Poirot story, Death on the Nile, and our hunches were right. Fox has hired Murder on the Orient Express screenwriter Michael Green to pen the sequel. Branagh is not officially on yet, but it is likely he will be back as both the lead and the director.
The story follows our favorite Belgian detective to Egypt where, surprise surprise, a murder occurs and Poirot must use his little grey cells to find the guilty party. As well as being adapted as part of the expansive TV series Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Murder on the Nile was also adapted into a film in 1978. The new version will likely be another star-studded affair, but no stars have signed up just yet. Hopefully, that weird mustache won’t be making a repeat appearance.