‘The Thursday Murder Club’ By Chris Columbus.
Chris Columbus is back. The ‘Home Alone’ filmmaker has signed on to direct “The Thursday Murder Club”, starring Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren and Ben Kingsley. an adaptation of Richard Osman’s novel of the same name. Ol Parker, who wrote both of the “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” movies penned the script, while Katy Brand and Columbus wrote the final draft. Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment is producing. The film is set at Netflix.
Columbus and Netflix have signed an amazing set of actors for the film. In May 2024, Celia Imrie joined the cast with Mirren (Fast & The Furious), Brosnan (GoldenEye) and Kingsley (Shutter Island) as part of the main cast. In June 2024, David Tenant (Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire), Jonathan Pryce (Game of Thrones), Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays and Henry Lloyd-Hughes joined the cast. In July 2024, Richard E. Grant (Logan), Ingrid Oliver and Tom Ellis were amongst those who were added to the cast.
Synopsis: The story follows a group of geriatric friends in a retirement home who gather to solve murders for fun, but find themselves caught in a real case. Mirren will play ex-spy Elizabeth, Kingsley will play ex-psychiatrist Ibrahim and Brosnan will play former union activist Ron.
On March 5, 2022, it was announced that Ol Parker would write and direct a film adaptation of Richard Osman’s debut novel “The Thursday Murder Club” for Amblin Entertainment, after Amblin acquired the worldwide rights to the project, with Jennifer Todd serving as producer and Osman as executive producer. In March 2023, Osman said filming was set to begin in September 2023 with Steven Spielberg as producer. In November 2023, it was reported that filming was scheduled to begin in March 2024. However the shoot was delayed because of the Hollywood Strikes, and Osman said he was hopeful to begin filming in August 2024. In April 2024, Chris Columbus was named as director. A few days later, it was announced that the project had been acquired by Netflix.
Principal photography began on 27 June 2024, at Shepperton Studios, and is scheduled to wrap in September. Filming also took place in Beaconsfield in July 2024.
Osman is a British TV host and producer, his first novel as an author has sold more than ten million copies and led to several sequel books. He sold the rights to Spielberg in 2020.
Chris Columbus is the famous director behind ‘Home Alone’ and ‘Home Alone 2’. He also directed the first two ‘Harry Potter’ movies in the series, and also the classic ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’. He was the director critics loved to hate in the ‘90s.
Spielberg had flirted with the idea of directing the film back when Meryl Streep and Viola Davis were circling the two lead roles. he eventually decided not to helm the film, and ended up as a producer. both actress subsequently dropped out.
Spielberg and Columbus go way back, to the ‘80s — when they teamed-up on “Gremlins” as writer and producer. Spielberg has now entrusted his buddy to steer the ship in the right direction with this long-gestating project of his.
Osman has three more books in the series — “The Man who Died Twice”, “The Bullet that Missed” and “The Last Devil to Die”, which will surely get turned into sequels if “The Thursday Murder Club” enjoys the success and numbers of another murder mystery at Netflix — “Knives Out”.
Netflix will most probably release it in late 2025.
sources: Deadline, World of Reel.
