Death on the Nile (2020 film)


Death on the Nile is an upcoming American mystery thriller film directed by Kenneth Branagh, with a screenplay by Michael Green, based on the 1937 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie. The film is a follow-up to 2017's Murder on the Orient Express and stars Branagh returning as Hercule Poirot, as well as Gal Gadot, Letitia Wright, Armie Hammer, Annette Bening, Ali Fazal, Sophie Okonedo, Tom Bateman, Emma Mackey, Dawn French, Rose Leslie, Jennifer Saunders, and Russell Brand. The film is the third screen adaptation of Christie's novel, following the 1978 film and a 2004 episode of the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot. The plot follows Poirot, a world-renowned detective, who becomes involved in a love triangle gone murderously bad while on a vacation in Egypt.
Principal photography began in September 2019, with filming taking place at Longcross Studios in England and on location in Egypt, and wrapped that December.
Death on the Nile is scheduled for release in the United States on October 23, 2020, by 20th Century Studios.

Premise

is tasked with finding a murderer whilst on holiday in Egypt.

Cast

Development

In 2015, Christie's great-grandson James Prichard, Chairman of Agatha Christie Ltd., expressed enthusiasm for sequels, citing the positive collaboration with Branagh and the production team. In May 2017, Branagh expressed interest in further installments if the first film were successful. On November 20, 2017, it was announced that 20th Century Studios was developing Death on the Nile as a sequel to their version of Murder on the Orient Express with Michael Green returning to pen the script and Kenneth Branagh set to return onscreen as Poirot, and behind the screen as director.
In September 2018, Gal Gadot joined the cast. In addition, Paco Delgado was hired to design the costumes. In October 2018, Armie Hammer joined the cast, and Tom Bateman was confirmed to reprise his role as Bouc for the film. In January 2019, Jodie Comer had joined the cast. In April 2019, Letitia Wright joined the cast. Annette Bening was in talks to join in June. Russell Brand joined the cast in August 2019. Ali Fazal, Dawn French, Rose Leslie, Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo and Jennifer Saunders were added in September, with Comer no longer involved.

Filming

began on September 30, 2019, at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England, and then moved to Egypt for location shooting. Filming was set to last until Christmas of the same year. It was previously set to begin in Spring 2019. Filming wrapped on December 18, 2019.

Post-production

will serve as the editor for Death on the Nile. Double Negative will provide the visual effects for the film, with Academy Award-winning special effects artist George Murphy as the overall visual effects supervisor. Additional VFX will be provided by Lola VFX and Raynault VFX.

Music

In January 2019, Patrick Doyle was announced as the composer for Death on the Nile. Doyle recently collaborated with director Kenneth Branagh, scoring the films Murder on the Orient Express, All Is True and Artemis Fowl.

Release

Death on the Nile is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on October 23, 2020 by 20th Century Studios. It was previously set to be released on December 20, 2019 before being rescheduled to October 9, 2020. It was then pushed back two weeks to its current release date.

Future

In an interview with Associated Press in December 2017, Branagh discussed developing the adaptation of Death on the Nile with the possibility of more films to follow, potentially creating a new "cinematic universe" of Poirot films: